{"id":347420,"date":"2025-08-15T20:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347420\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T20:38:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T20:38:12","slug":"rutherglen-msp-highlights-support-to-help-families-with-cost-of-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347420\/","title":{"rendered":"Rutherglen MSP highlights support to help families with cost of learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clare Haughey spoke as children went back to school.MSP Clare Haughey at Trinity High School, Rutherglen.(Image: Rutherglen Reformer)<\/p>\n

As children across South Lanarkshire head back to school this week, Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey has highlighted the wide range of support available to help families with the cost of learning.<\/p>\n

This includes over 7400 Best Start Grant, School Age Payments worth a total of \u00a32,057,810 paid out to local families in the last year.<\/p>\n

The Best Start Grant, School Age Payment is a one-off payment of \u00a3314.45 to eligible families when their child starts primary school, to help with essentials such as school uniforms, shoes and bags. This is in addition to the Best Start Foods payment card, which supports families with the cost of healthy food throughout the year.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Government has also expanded free school meals to all pupils in primary one to five, with plans to extend this to all primary pupils in the lifetime of this parliament. Free school meals save families hundreds of pounds each year while ensuring every child has access to a healthy, nutritious lunch.<\/p>\n

\"\"Download the Lanarkshire Live app today<\/p>\n

The Lanarkshire Live app is available to download now.<\/p>\n

Get all the news from your area \u2013 as well as features, entertainment, sport and the latest on Lanarkshire\u2019s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic \u2013 straight to your fingertips, 24\/7.<\/p>\n

The free download features the latest breaking news and exclusive stories, and allows you to customise your page to the sections that matter most to you.<\/p>\n

Head to the App Store and never miss a beat in Lanarkshire – iOS <\/a>– Android<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms Haughey said: \u201cThe start of the school year is an exciting time for children, but it can also be a financially challenging time for families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m proud that in the last year alone, over \u00a32million has gone to families in South Lanarkshire through the Best Start Grant, School Age Payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the Best Start Grant and School Clothing Grants, to free school meals and the Scottish Child Payment, the Scottish Government is taking real, practical action to support families and tackle child poverty – using the powers we have to put money in the pockets of families, and ensuring every child has the best possible start in life.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Don’t miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

And did you know Lanarkshire Live<\/a> had its own app? Download yours for free here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Scots boy who suffers ten seizures a day due to drug-resistant epilepsy set to start high school<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clare Haughey spoke as children went back to school.MSP Clare Haughey at Trinity High School, Rutherglen.(Image: Rutherglen Reformer)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,2266,918,4884,14683,26703,919,857,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-347420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-glasgow","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-lanarkshire","13":"tag-lanarkshire-news","14":"tag-rutherglen","15":"tag-schools","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115034712002632742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}