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The Scottish government will need to work “harder and smarter” to deliver in the face of Westminster “cuts”, First Minister John Swinney is expected to warn.
In his address to the SNP’s party conference in Edinburgh, he will use his closing speech to set out his government’s priorities.
With MSPs returning to Holyrood this week, the first minister will formally set out his legislative plans for the coming year in the programme for government on Wednesday.
Ahead of that, he will use his conference speech to set his focus on delivering what he sees as the “people’s priorities”: ending child poverty; reaching net-zero; delivering strong public services; and boosting the economy.
But with ending child poverty one of his key priorities, he will tell how his government will “tailor support better to families” so they can “get the help they need” in what he will describe as sustainable and smarter policy-making.
He will concede that this will not have the same “immediate impact” as ending the two-child cap on some benefits – something the Labour government at Westminster has said it does not have the money to do.
This will be Mr Swinney’s his first keynote conference address since becoming SNP leader and Scottish First Minister back in May.
The conference comes in the wake of a bruising general election for the SNP, which saw its tally of MPs drop from 48 in 2019 to just nine.
Mr Swinney has already accepted it was a “bad election” for his party.
On Friday, Mr Swinney told delegates his party had spent too long focusing on the “process of independence”.
His comments, which were made during an internal session for party members, were secretly recorded and leaked to The Times newspaper.
The SNP leader will say: “In an era of Westminster cuts, we are going to have to work harder, and smarter, if we are to deliver on our ambitions for Scotland.”
He will promise to, next week, “set out how we can tailor support better to families ensuring they get the help they need, when they need it, to lift those families out of poverty”.
The first minister will concede that “this support – this whole-family support – will not have the immediate impact of ending the two-child cap”.
But he will state: “It is an example of the sustained, smarter policy-making we are delivering in government.”
He will also promise that “even in the toughest of financial circumstances, the SNP will do everything we can to give every single child the best possible start in life”.
Transport minister Fiona Hyslop told BBC Scotland’s the Sunday Show that a “family first approach” would be taken by the government, despite what she called “very limited resources”.
She stated they would aim to save money by cutting back on administration, and added that voters “have been disappointed” with the SNP recently, resulting in their performance at the general election in July.
Ms Hyslop said the party had “perhaps spread ourselves too thin” in recent years, while reiterating Mr Swinney’s message about working “smarter and harder” in government .
The former Health Secretary Jeane Freeman told the same programme that the Scottish government needed to focus “on three or four key areas where they’re going to put a great deal of effort into making a difference.”
Ms Freeman urged ministers to focus on the cost of living and public services.
The party is meeting after 18 months of turmoil that has seen three different leaders at the helm.
In July’s general election, they lost dozens of MPs.
There is also an ongoing police investigation into party finances.
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