• Child Poverty Taskforce commits to bring about lasting change as part of 10-year strategy.
• Ministers to visit Portsmouth as part of taskforce to hear from families and the charities supporting them about the main problems faced.
• This comes as child poverty stands at 33% in Portsmouth North.
• To reduce this the government is looking at ways to reduce living costs, increase incomes and improve early years support for struggling families.
Reducing essential costs, increasing incomes and enhancing early years support for struggling families in Portsmouth are key targets for the Government’s Child Poverty Taskforce, ministers have said, as they publish a plan to create an ambitious 10-year- strategy for lasting change.
A framework for the Taskforce, published today, outlines how it will build a strategy to reduce the number of children living in poverty across the UK, including in Portsmouth, within this Parliament and beyond, looking at all available levers across government to give all children the best start in life – from improving public services to building financial resilience.
The Ministerial Taskforce will continue to confront the drivers of poverty through ways such as helping parents into more secure work and alleviating the direct impacts of deprivation ahead of the publication of its strategy in Spring 2025.
Ministers will take part in engagement events across all nations and regions of the United Kingdom, bringing together a diverse range of voices and expertise to address the systemic drivers of poverty ranging from employment to housing.
A new panel of parents and carers living across all four nations will be set up to ensure the experiences of children in poverty, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, are included in the strategy. They will report in regularly to the Taskforce.
Leading organisations such as Citizens Advice, the National Children’s Bureau and End Child Poverty Coalition will share their knowledge with ministers, and a new board of leading academics and experts on tackling poverty will inform, test and scrutinise the work being done on the Strategy.
Local MP Amanda Martin said:
“I meet families in our city every week who tell me how much they struggling to make ends meet right now. The development of this ambitious strategy will help thise in Portsmouth North who need support the most.
“It will follow wider work support families as the Government delivers quality work and better pay through the Employment Rights Bill, creates 3,000 new nurseries, and lowers energy bills through Great British Energy.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall MP said:
“Children can’t fulfil their potential without food in their bellies or a roof over their head. And Britain cannot fulfil its potential when the talents of so many children are being denied.
“It is unacceptable that more than 4m children are now growing up in poverty. Under our new government, this will change.
“We will work with campaigners and experts – and struggling families across the country to deliver a bold and ambitious strategy that drives down poverty and drives up opportunity in every corner of the land.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson MP said:
“For too long, the stain of poverty of child poverty in this country has jeopardised the life chances of too many children.
“Ending child poverty is a complex and difficult task, but our defining mission is to break down the unfair link between background and success – so every child believes that opportunity can belong to them.
“Today’s framework sets the clear direction on this mission, ensuring we are united across government and with stakeholders to drive down household costs.”
Ministers on Wednesday visited a Barnardo’s Family Centre and met with the likes of Ofgem, The Food Foundation, Water UK and other leading organisations on the theme of reducing household costs.
