The Spartacus Problem: Why Poverty Won’t Be Fixed One Policy at a Time

Why Scotland Needs Public Sector Reform that Puts People — Not Programmes — at the Centre

As the Scottish Government consults on the next phase of its child poverty strategy, we welcome the renewed focus on boosting incomes, reducing costs, delivering holistic family support, and helping young people thrive.

These are the right ambitions — but financial levers alone are not enough.

At the Wise Group, we know from over 40 years of working alongside people in poverty that raising incomes is essential — but it will not tackle the root causes of exclusion on its own. Poverty isn’t just about money — it’s about life chances.

Without tackling the structural barriers that prevent people from thriving — poor mental health, fuel poverty, housing insecurity, digital exclusion, low confidence — we risk managing poverty, not preventing it.

Preventing poverty requires public sector reform — reform that joins up services around people, invests in relationships not just transactions, and focuses relentlessly on what works.

Poverty is crowded at a policy level

Too often, people experience services not as a safety net, but as a maze.

Households living in poverty are crowded with well-intentioned interventions — welfare assessments, housing appointments, health referrals, employability programmes — all designed in isolation. On paper, the support looks comprehensive. In reality, it’s disconnected, duplicative, and exhausting.

At a policy level, this looks like progress — but for the person navigating it, it feels like noise.

This is the Spartacus problem of policy making: “I’ll fix it”… “No, I’ll fix it”… “No, it’s me that’ll fix it.” That’s what single-issue policy making creates — disconnected responses to deeply connected lives.

We’ve spent years trying to define and redefine poverty — when in truth, we know what needs to happen. We need to learn by doing. Act, not talk. Listen and engage with households and communities on what they know needs to change.

And we know — from our own data — that poverty never comes through just one lens. For example, people with an energy need are 25% more likely to have a financial support need, 21% more likely to need help with housing, and 14% more likely to need help with physical health than people without an energy need.

This is the reality of life on a low income. The issues are connected — so our response must be too.

We don’t need to fix one issue — we need to support the whole person.

A smarter approach: Reform how we deliver support

It’s not just about what services we offer — it’s about how we offer them.

To move from managing poverty to preventing it, Scotland must now focus on four things:

• Integration: Breaking down silos between local services — particularly in education, health, employability and justice.
• Sustainability: Prioritising long-term, relationship-based, preventative approaches.
• Impact: Directing investment toward approaches that demonstrably change lives — measured not just in outputs, but in outcomes.
• Invest to Save: Preventing poverty costs less than responding to it. Let’s fund what works and scale it.

Relational Mentoring: Putting Public Sector Reform into practice

Through support from the Scottish Government, our Relational Mentoring model currently supports families across six local authority areas. We work across 15 areas of need, recognising that no single intervention solves poverty.

Our mentors:

• Act as connectors, guiding people through complex systems and linking them to the right support at the right time.
• Are matched with lived or relatable experience, building trust quickly and engaging people meaningfully.
• Work over time — quick fixes don’t work for people who’ve often been let down by the system before.
• Track progress holistically, not just ticking boxes but evidencing the real journeys people take.

And crucially, our mentors don’t replace existing services — they enhance them. They add value, reduce duplication, and create cohesion between disconnected parts of the system.

Our offer to Government: Scale what works

We believe Scotland has a clear opportunity to lead the way on public sector reform.

• Expand Relational Mentoring as a standard offer for families at the sharpest edge of poverty.
• Align investment with outcomes, not outputs, and reward genuine collaboration between services.
• Expand co-location of services in high-need areas — bringing mentoring, health, employability and financial support under one roof.
• Commission for impact, using data to track progress and focus investment on services that improve life chances.

A Call to prioritise the Families who need us most

We know from our own data that the six priority family groups identified by government — lone parents, minority ethnic families, families with disabled members, young mothers, larger families, and families with children under one — respond best to sustained, relational support.

That’s why we’re asking for a stronger focus on:

• Tailored whole-family employment pathways for groups furthest from the labour market, including those with offending histories.
• Culturally competent support for minority ethnic families.
• Wrap-around advocacy for young parents and those living with long-term exclusion.
• Services that are accessible, local, and designed with those who use them.

Let’s move from Crisis to Confidence

Scotland has the ambition, insight, and leadership to make poverty preventable — not inevitable.

But financial levers alone won’t get us there.

Preventing poverty means reforming the system itself — integrating services that work, investing in trusted relationships, and putting people, not processes, at the centre of delivery.

It’s time to reform for prevention.

It’s time to scale what works.

It’s time to shift the dial — together.

Sean Duffy is Chief Executive of the Wise Group