What’s the Cost? Exploring invisible barriers for families living on low incomes when accessing universal services
11th December 2020
Growing up in poverty is really challenging and has a long term impact on families’ overall health and wellbeing. We are fortunate to live in a country with access to free healthcare and where education is seen as a right for every child. That said, universal services, despite being free at the point of access for everyone regardless of income, can have hidden costs which present invisible barriers for families on low incomes.
Glasgow has often been at the forefront of trying to understand hidden costs for families when accessing universal services. The Cost of the School Day, now a UK wide project, started in Glasgow schools. The project aims to unpick the true cost of attending school and how educative settings can adapt to reduce cost-related barriers for children and young people. The learning from this project has been far-reaching and has influenced similar work to understand invisible barriers for families at different stages of life.
Building on Cost of the School Day
In partnership with Everyone’s Children (GCVS), we hosted an event exploring the learning from three, key pieces of work undertaken in 2019/20. Each report uses learning and approaches from Cost of the School Day to better understand the true cost for families when accessing education and healthcare:
- Cost of Learning in Lockdown
- Cost of the Nursery Day
- Exploring the Cost of the Pregnancy Pathway
The aim of the event was clear: to share the recommendations and tap into third sector and wider agencies’ expertise on how to support their implementation.
Read the full report – What’s the Cost Event report
Book for the next event on 11th February 2021 Challenging Child Poverty Next Steps