Social Justice Minister, Dr Brian Gibbons, has promised that the Welsh Assembly Government will not let-up in tackling child poverty in Wales.
His comments came as he outlined the latest developments in the Assembly Government’s ongoing child poverty programme.
Dr Gibbons said:
We cannot let-up on reducing child poverty. We have made good progress but we still need to do more, especially as recent figures show a stalling in this progress. It is vital that we renew our efforts to improve the life chances of all our young people. We must continue to target the causes and deal with the effects of poverty, working together across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
The Minister said that new powers would be used to encourage public bodies to put child poverty at the heart of their work:
In the autumn we will have the legal power to legislate on child poverty. We are already consulting on a child poverty Measure to place a duty on all public agencies to make and demonstrate their contribution to ending child poverty.
We are also consulting on a joint agreement on child poverty to be signed by all public bodies and some voluntary organisations in Wales to demonstrate their commitment to tackle child poverty.
Dr Gibbons said that developments over the last six months and a range of initiatives would maintain momentum on child poverty. He said:
The Child Poverty Expert Group, made up of eminent experts in child poverty, has begun work and will focus initially on education for four to fourteen year olds. I expect to receive the first set of policy recommendations from the Group in October.
Good progress is being made at a local level in Wales. We are supporting Save the Children to work on a joint project with the WLGA to help local authorities prioritise action on child poverty. The Communities First programme will also have an increasing focus on tackling child poverty.
Families living in poverty who have multiple other problems will benefit from proposals to set up Integrated Family Support Services made up of multi-disciplinary teams building on existing successful projects. A consultation on the proposals will begin shortly.
Employment remains the best route out of poverty. Successor projects to Want2Work and Genesis will support the unemployed back to work and remove barriers to employment such as a lack of transport and affordable childcare.
Education is crucially important in combating disadvantage. The recently launched school effectiveness framework will help reduce inequalities and create an ethos where all children and young people are expected to achieve a personal standard of excellence.
The solutions do not just lie in Wales, the UK Government also has a key role to play. They have announced a significant package of measures investing an extra £950million by 2010/11 to lift another 500,000 children out of poverty across the UK including increases to child benefit payments, increases to Child Tax Credits, removing child benefit from housing and council tax benefit calculations.
All of these measures when taken together with existing policies add up to a comprehensive and joined up child poverty programme.
