Ahead of that, the pressure is mounting for the Scottish Government to take urgent action on child poverty and the root causes such as excessive household debt.

SallyAnn Kelly, chief executive of the Aberlour children's charity, delivered a scathing assessment of the challenges facing the Scottish Government ahead of meeting legally binding targets to cut relative child poverty to 10% by 2030.

In an interview with The Herald, she also said there must a UK-wide approach that puts "tribal politics" aside.

Aberlour is one of 23 charities backing The Herald's campaign which urges Mr Swinney to increase the Scottish Child Payment to £40 per week, while also urging Sir Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child limit.

"We need to tackle some of the shame that families feel because there is still quite a lot of shame in being poor in this society," she said.

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"If the state actually believes that poverty can have a negative impact on children and families wellbeing, but they take decisions that they know will push more children into poverty, then that is a deliberate act of harm."

She said the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which was incorporated into law in Scotland last year, must be used to challenge "evidently harmful decisions".

Children living in poverty in Scotland are "having their opportunities squashed from an early age", she said, leading to a "direct impact on what too many children are able to achieve".

"We need to stop that behaviour and that, what I would call, state harm," she said.

Ms Kelly also said she believed Mr Swinney was "personally committed" to reducing child poverty, but said there was a "disconnect" between ambition and action.

The charity boss, who is retiring at the end of the year after 11 years in charge, also condemned claims by the First Minister that increasing the Scottish Child Payment would encourage parents out of work.

John Swinney spoke exclusively to The Herald on child poverty last week. (Image: Duncan Glynn) Mr Swinney has repeatedly told The Herald he £27.15 weekly payment is at its "limit", despite pledging to go "further" on tackling child poverty in a response to the campaign.

Ms Kelly told The Herald: "I think that is a really bold statement that the First Minister has made and my question to the First Minister is: show me the evidence, John.

"I think that will be a challenge for the First Minister because I don't think the evidence is there but I think the fact that the statement was made probably plays into one of my concerns and that is that there is still this notion of deserving and undeserving poor and some people are feckless and will choose not to work and I think that is absolutely not true."

She warned the "reverse" was likely to be true, whereby removing the financial hardship and additional family stresses of poverty could allow families to escape "toxic environments" and thrive in work.

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Ms Kelly said the Programme for Government on Tuesday must include a commitment to helping children escape poverty.

The Scottish Government recently missed its interim targets to reduce relative poverty to 18% and absolute child poverty to 14%, leading to fears the country is on track to miss ambitious 2030 targets.

The charity has also worked tirelessly over the last few years to tackle the burden of public debt.

Ms Kelly said the legislative agenda from the Scottish Government must also include commitments to address the way public debt - such as council tax and rent arrears - is collected in Scotland.

In England, the statute of limitations for collecting arrears is just six years, while in Scotland families are being pursued for up to 20 years.

The charity estimates that around £1 billion will be removed from the pockets of the poorest families in Scotland in the course of the next Scottish parliamentary term through public debt collection.

She said: “We want to see something in the programme for government that gives a commitment to reducing the amount of debt that families repay and fundamentally looking at the statute of limitation in Scotland and bringing that in line with what happens elsewhere in the UK.”

Ms Kelly called more widely for urgent action to tackle poverty across the UK.

"It dismays me that we are still - as one of the richest countries in the world - sitting with one in four children living in poverty," she said.

"That is shameful - absolutely shameful."

Calling for a UK-wide approach, she said: “This is the time when people need to come together at a UK and Scottish level to actually address child poverty.

“The Scottish Government can’t address child poverty on its own and the UK Government needs to do key things around not just raising people’s income but also looking at the employment market and how we open up jobs and get support to the right people.

“We need a UK nation mission to address child poverty but that seems unlikely because of how tribal our politics is – so we will continue to fail children and that is unforgivable.”

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Eradicating child poverty is the Scottish Government’s top priority. On average, households with children in the poorest 10% of households are estimated to be £2,600 a year better off in 2025-26 as result of Scottish Government policies, with this value projected to grow to an average of £3,700 a year by 2029-30.

“Our Council Tax Reduction scheme helps ensure nobody has to pay a council tax bill they cannot afford, and over 460,000 households receive some level of support. In 2025-26 we will also invest over £15 million in free income maximisation and debt advice services - including £2.2 million to support tailored advice on council tax debt.”

“However, decisions taken by successive UK Governments are holding us back. The Department for Work and Pensions’ own figures show that proposed welfare cuts will drive 50,000 more children into poverty.

“The UK Government has failed to scrap the two-child cap despite it being a key driver of child poverty. In the face of such inaction the Scottish Government is determined to end the impact in Scotland and we are already working hard to put the systems in place to deliver mitigation of the two-child cap.”

A UK Government spokesperson said: “No one should be living in poverty, and we know that the best route out of poverty for struggling families is well paid, secure work."