AS we head towards 2017 one of the biggest problems facing Scotland and the UK is child poverty.

In one of the most advanced and wealthiest countries in the world the number of children being born into and raised in poverty is shamefully high.

At Christmas we see the  commendable efforts of charities and the generosity of the public donating to toy appeals and food banks to try and make Christmas a happy time for those in need.

But the truth is this county is letting those children down. The latest government report, out this this week, shows 220,000 children in Scotland living in poverty.

That is enough to fill every seat at Hampden, Celtic Park, Ibrox, Pittodrie, Tynecastle and Firhill and still there would be thousands locked out.

And locked out is exactly what they are. Locked out from the benefits others enjoy form advances in health and locked out of the benefits of education and employment, perpetuating the cycle of deprivation in far too many cases.

Which is why is so unbelievable and disgraceful that the UK Government has scrapped its child Poverty Unit.

It did so quietly with the team of dedicated civil servants measuring and working on strategies to reduce poverty cut in half and those remaining now taken into the Department of Work and Pensions.

The same DWP which is pushing the austerity agenda and imposing sanctions plunging more people into poverty.

The same DWP that is planning to axe half of the Jobcentres in Glasgow and take away local support in some the most deprived communities in the country.

The UK government has changed the measurement of poverty and wants to focus not on “income transfers” like tax credits to “making work pay”.

IT said the last government did not to reach its target of halving child poverty so it failed.

It did fail to hit the target and didn’t reduce child poverty by enough but it did reduce it by more than one million.

Now what we have is instead of falling further, child poverty is increasing and as a direct result of government policy hundreds of thousands more expected to be living in poverty.

The Child Poverty Unit should be scrapped. But only because we have reached a point where we no longer need it and that point is sadly and shamefully light years away.

Instead a dedicated unit is needed more than ever, just like food banks and homeless shelters have become as much a part of Christmas as a cliff Richard single.

Next year the Scottish Government publishes its Child Poverty Bill.

With the focus of the First Minister has placed on reducing inequality, tackling poverty and closing the attainment gap, it must be the boldest and most ambitious, but achievable, piece of legislation her government produces.

A nation and 200,000 children deserves no less.