Northern Ireland Child Poverty Strategy Update

24 Mar 2011     Last updated: 20 Jun 2014

As the Child Poverty Strategy is laid before the Northern Ireland Assembly, we take a look at some of the issues related to child poverty and the struggle to eradicate it in Northern Ireland.

Child Poverty Strategy is laid before the Assembly

As one of the last pieces of work at the Assembly on 24 March, Junior Minister Kelly and Junior Minister Newton laid the Child Poverty Strategy as agreed by the Executive, entitled “Improving Children’s Life Chances”, before the Assembly.

The strategy sets out the actions proposed by the Executive to address the issue of child poverty in Northern Ireland. Junior Minister Gerry Kelly said:

“We want all children here to enjoy their childhood and be supported to achieve their full potential. We appreciate that this is not always an easy task and it will require joined up working across government and in partnership with the public, private and voluntary sectors."

"Despite the difficulties, including the challenging economic climate, this is an important issue and if we can make progress in tackling it now, we will be creating a better life for today’s children. After all, the children of today are the parents of the future, and we truly believe that by continuing to tackle the causes and consequences of child poverty we are creating a much brighter future for all.”

Junior Minister Robin Newton went on to say:

“A key factor in addressing child poverty now is assisting parents to access training, increase their skills and ultimately gain employment with a reasonable wage. We must, therefore, focus on growing the local economy and providing the opportunities and support needed such as education, skills, inward investment, job creation, and accessible childcare to empower parents to access work."

“We remain fully committed to the challenge ahead and to taking the necessary steps to help all children have better life chances.”

What is the Child Poverty Act?

The Child Poverty Act 2010 (The Act), which was enacted on 25 March 2010 at Westminster, places a statutory obligation on the Northern Ireland Executive to develop a child poverty strategy and lay it before the Assembly by 25 March 2011.

The Child Poverty Act 2010 provides a statutory basis that devolved administrations have to:

  • Work towards the eradication of child poverty by 2020.
  • Develop strategies that will contribute to this goal and report on their progress.

In effect, the Northern Ireland Executive must produce a three year child poverty strategy by March 2011 which places a statutory obligation on ALL departments to contribute to the strategy and also:

  • Describe measures that departments propose to take to meet the child poverty targets.
  • Consult widely with children and young people, families and organisations which represent them.
  • Report annually - the first report to the Assembly is due in March 2012.

The draft Northern Ireland Child Poverty Strategy was published at the beginning of December 2010 with an 8 week consultation period, closing on 6 February 2011. The Office of the First Minister and the deputy First Minister (OFMdFM) received 49 responses to the draft strategy.

Child Poverty Alliance

The Child Poverty Alliance came into being in 2008 as a loose alliance of 45 organisations interested in ending child poverty.

The Alliance believes:

  • That poverty is fundamentally about a lack of money. 
  • Financial support for families experiencing poverty has to be at the heart of any strategy that aims to address poverty. 
  • Measures to support the incomes of families with children in poverty as well as policies that enable parents to access work that really pays are at the centre of its agenda and need to be introduced.

Main Concerns

The Child Poverty Alliance has highlighted some main concerns with the strategy as it stands:

  • It is too high level and lacks detail.
  • There are no stated overarching action plans, targets, milestones, strategic outcomes and/or timescales or budget to follow the strategy. 
  • The Priority Action Areas within the document are too vague and aspirational to allow for monitoring or any judgement on whether they are being met.

Recommendations

The Child Poverty Alliance argues that to tackle poverty consideration has to be given to:

  • Impact of reduction in spend within the Comprehensive Spending Review budget and subsequent Programme for Government in implementing the strategy.
  • Invest to save - to tackle persistent poverty and end intergenerational deprivation, the Alliance encourages a move from remedial action to early intervention. The evidence of need is clear and the actions should be about making the earliest possible interventions (best outcome – cost effectiveness).
  • Poverty and educational attainment - education is identified within the Child Poverty Act as one of the key building blocks leading to a route out of poverty.
  • Childcare and accessing work - another main thrust of getting families out of poverty centres around mothers’ access to education, training and meaningful employment. 
  • Health and disability - children from the poorest 20% of households are at a threefold greater risk of mental health problems than children from the richest 20% of households. Policies need to be put in place to address the social and economic inequalities that directly contribute to poorer mental health and well being.
  • Housing and neighbourhoods - the UK Government has acknowledged that one of the building blocks necessary for eradicating child poverty relates to access to quality housing and safe neighbourhoods.
  • Welfare reform - how welfare reform will be compatible with the goal of ending child poverty by 2020 requires considerable attention by both the Executive and OFMdFM as the outworking and impact of the welfare reform and comprehensive spending review are still uncertain.

For further information on the Child Poverty Strategy or any of the issues raised in this article please contact Lorraine Boyd, Vital Links Coordinator on 028 9087 7777 or email [email protected]

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