Kilmarnock: Councillor visits campus to celebrate initiative

During Challenge Poverty Week, councillor Elaine Cowan, council spokesperson for Education, and Children and Young People, met with staff and young people.

A decision was taken by East Ayrshire Council's cabinet in 2022 to allocate additional funding to the Financial Inclusion Team to allow the expansion of a project that was piloted at Loudoun Academy.

This successful pilot saw a Financial Inclusion Officer based within the school providing support and guidance to children and young people, their families and to the local cluster primary schools and Early Childhood Centres.

Eight Financial Inclusion Team members have now been recruited and are based within every secondary school in East Ayrshire.

They are working to ensure that families can access all the benefits and grants they are entitled to, maximising the family income.

They also help to manage emergency situations as they arise and have access to a £50,000 cost-of-living fund that allows them to provide discretionary free school meals to children and young people for up to eight weeks.

Councillor Cowan met with Kilmarnock Academy head teacher David Rose, depute head teacher Hayley Fitzpatrick, Debbie Nicoll, financial inclusion co-ordinator and Callum McMichael, the financial inclusion officer based with the school.

She also met with young people who attended cost of the school day workshops, led by the Child Poverty Action Group, and representatives of the Pupil Participatory Budgeting group from each school house and year group.

The Participatory Budgeting group of 40 young people  have been given £5,000 by their head teacher to improve wellbeing and equity within the school.

Each house had a team that put forward an idea or concept to improve the school community and those ideas have been shared with the whole school.

Their peers will vote for their favourite project, which includes yoga classes, improving the school garden and introducing wellbeing boxes in every class.