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An overview of the project
The Fraser of Allander recently started a new project, funded by the Standard Life Foundation, in which we will work with parents with lived experience of poverty to design and simulate polices aimed at reducing child poverty.
The project builds on our previous work (which we wrote about here) modelling child poverty-reducing policies with Manchester Metropolitan University. For this project, however, we will be drawing on the experience of the Poverty Alliance – an organisation with almost 30 years of experience working with and understanding the lived experience of individuals experiencing poverty.
How will we work with partners with lived experience?
The project will draw on the extensive network of the Poverty Alliance in two ways. First, we have launched a survey aimed at gathering the thoughts of parents who have experienced poverty. The aim of the survey is to learn what individuals who have direct experience of poverty understand to be the constraints faced by groups of parents and caregivers in poverty. This will allow us to consider whether and how the available policy levers are positioned to alleviate these constraints.
Second, and informed by the survey, we will bring together smaller groups of parents and caregivers in order to engage in more detailed discussions of the ways in which policy might prevent families being pulled into poverty.
Our research also involves modelling the impact of policies on households and the economy. Both of these phases of our research will directly inform the policies we simulate, and how they might be tailored to meet the needs of specific groups of parents.
When will the results be available?
The work is ongoing. The survey has been launched, and if you, or anyone you know, would be interested in taking part, please contact: fiona.mchardy@povertyalliance.org
The results from our research will be available in October. We will be following up with articles and online events around that time, so check back if you are interested in hearing what we find. You can also follow the Fraser of Allander and the Poverty Alliance on social media for more regular updates. The Fraser of Allander also have a newsletter which you can sign up for on our homepage.
Authors
The Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) is a leading economy research institute based in the Department of Economics at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.