Poverty adviser will get 'tough' with ministers

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and poverty adviser Naomi Eisenstadt visit a surplus food depot in Leith

Scotland's first poverty adviser has warned the government to expect tough questions over its efforts to tackle inequality.

Naomi Eisenstadt, an expert on child poverty, will be an independent adviser to the first minister.

A former UK government adviser and trustee of Save The Children, Ms Eisenstadt said she would hold the Scottish government to account.

Nicola Sturgeon said the appointment would help address poverty in Scotland.

The announcement was made during a visit to Cyrenians Good Food depot in Leith.

Ms Eisenstadt, who has advised Westminster on social exclusion, said she will provide "hard challenge" when necessary and press for innovative ways to tackle poverty.

She said: "This is a critical role and a tremendous opportunity to help make good things happen.

"While I am tremendously supportive of what the Scottish government is trying to do, my role will be to scrutinise the detail and provide hard challenge when necessary.

"I am here to give my honest views about whether the policies in place will help to reduce poverty and inequality in Scotland."

'Equal society'

Ms Sturgeon said it was "completely unacceptable" that almost one in six people in Scotland were living in poverty.

She said: "We are seeing some progress in reducing inequality but not nearly enough.

"And with £12bn of welfare cuts due to be announced in the UK government's emergency budget, making an impact is likely to be even more challenging.

"My main priority is making sure that everyone has the chance to get on in life, regardless of where they are from.

"The scrutiny and input of an independent expert will help to make sure - and provide assurance to the public - that we are doing absolutely all we can to make Scotland are more equal society."

Labour social justice spokesman Ken Macintosh said his party had pushed for this appointment.

He said: "In Scottish Labour we are particularly hopeful that an independent poverty adviser will allow us to shift our focus to what we can do here in Scotland rather than simply protest about the damaging impact on poverty of the Tory welfare reforms and austerity cuts.

"One of Labour's greatest achievements was to halve the poverty rates amongst children and pensioners in this country, but in recent years the nature of poverty has changed.

"We're now seeing more in-work poverty and a big increase amongst young adults of working age living in rented accommodation. Poverty in Scotland is still very real; it can be seen in cold damp housing, in the underachievement of too many children and in too many miserable lives and avoidable premature deaths."

Ms Eisenstadt is currently a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford. Her key interests include children's services, poverty and its impact on children and family policy.