Children’s commissioners discuss devolved nations’ approaches to tackling child poverty
MPs on the Education and Work and Pensions Committees will join forces to question the Children’s Commissioners of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland on the experience of children in poverty in each nation, and how an imminent UK-wide strategy could be effectively delivered.
Meeting details
With the exception of Scotland, child poverty across the UK is on the rise, with it now at its highest level since comparative records began in 2002. 3.9 million children are now in absolute low income after housing costs in the UK. As a result, in July the Children’s Commissioners of all the UK nations jointly called on the Government to ‘tackle the root causes of child poverty’. Publication of a UK-wide child poverty strategy is expected this autumn.
The Children’s Commissioners represent independent bodies that are responsible for the safeguarding and advocacy of children’s rights.
Many of the policy levers to tackle child poverty are devolved to the Governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This includes health, education and housing, and dependent on the devolution settlement for each respective nation, some taxes and benefits.
MPs are expected to ask the Commissioners on the first panel about how each nation has formulated and implemented effective policies to tackle child poverty, including how to overcome the challenges of bringing together reserved and devolved policy areas.
The session will also feature a second panel with independent experts from each nation, whom Members of the committees are likely to ask about how to forge effective partnerships with the charity sector to maximise the impact of actions to reduce child poverty.