A DECADE of austerity has had a harrowing impact on vulnerable families in Scotland, children’s charities said today.

Barnardo’s and the NSPCC released their joint research, Challenges from the Frontline — Revisited, which outlines how Scottish families’ ability to access support services had changed last year compared with 2013, when a similar survey was carried out.

The new analysis found people struggling to obtain food, decent housing and basic necessities and expressed concerns that the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the situation since then.

After the introduction of universal credit in 2019, the report says that support services were increasingly approached by families experiencing destitution.

Those seeking support now have more complex difficulties and greater needs, but too many families are coming to services that are already at crisis point, the report warns. 

In the report’s foreword, NSPCC Scotland’s national head of service Matt Forde and Barnardo’s Scotland director Martin Crewe said: “A decade of austerity had hit children’s services before the pandemic, affecting children’s access to social work and social care services.

“The coronavirus pandemic has raised awareness of social inequality in Scotland and its impact on children. 

“But, of course, what it has revealed is not new: this report describes the destitution, isolation and mental-health struggles which existed in Scotland in 2019, before the pandemic hit. 

“This crisis has simply laid bare the extreme inequality in children’s life circumstances. 

“By tracking services over time, it has found escalating need for help from families struggling with more complex problems, being met by fewer resources than before.”