THIS month, Volunteer Centre East Lothian hosted their poverty conference at East Lothian Co-operative Bowling Club in Tranent. A member of my constituency team attended the conference as organisations from across East Lothian came together to discuss how to tackle and eradicate poverty.

Thanks to these regular poverty conferences, many organisations in East Lothian implement a joined-up approach and their services work together, utilising their strengths to aid their service users through difficult times. This has been made possible due to conferences facilitating networking between organisations, resulting in partnerships and friendships between volunteers.

Throughout the afternoon, speakers from the Scottish Women’s Budget Group, Financial Inclusion Network, East Lothian Foodbank, Citizens Advice Scotland, the Food Friendly Network and East Lothian Council all explained the harrowing details of the impact poverty is having on the county, and the efforts the organisations are making to combat this. For example, East Lothian Foodbank has seen a 200 per cent increase in the number of parcels delivered in the past year.

However, there were positives to be found throughout the discussions. Overall child poverty in Scotland has reduced, a big part due to the Scottish Child Payment, introduced by the SNP Scottish Government. However, there is undoubtedly more work to be done and I will continue to work with my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament to eradicate child poverty.

I am proud of the Scottish Government’s record on child poverty; I only wish we could do more with the full powers of independence. Labour and the Conservatives are committed to maintaining the abhorrent two-child benefit cap, affecting almost 81,000 children across Scotland.

The Network for Change group is continuing to grow, and I would encourage all East Lothian third-sector organisations to join and attend their next conference.