Tackling child poverty: money will talk

This year the Government is legally obliged to publish its first strategy  to show how it will eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020.

And tomorrow (Tuesday15 February 2011) is the final day for all those wishing to comment on the Government’s  consultation on the strategy.

The Government is already behind schedule with its statutory duties under  the Child Poverty Act 2010.

Recruitment to the Child Poverty Commission, which should be in place to advise the Government on the first strategy, has not even begun.

In the meantime, some rewriting of history seems to be going on.

The consultation document  asserts that Frank Field MP has argued the case for “a fundamentally different approach to measuring and preventing poverty that goes beyond a narrow focus on income."

And that "Tackling child poverty is not about primarily moving people above an arbitrary income line; it is about ensuring that people have the support, incentives and skills they need to create a better life for themselves.”

Let’s be clear. The Child Poverty Act 2010 was never solely about more economic equality, although as members of the End Child Poverty Campaign we think that’s important.

The Act has always been both about income measures and properly providing for the early intervention services that address poverty’s root causes - and providing people with the support and skills that the Government itself believes are key.

This support is what is meant by the “building blocks” in the Act. It’s why local authorities as service commissioners have a duty to instigate local child poverty strategies.

So there is no either/or between early intervention and income measures as the consultation document would lead us to believe

But now that many local authorities  are cutting services it’s hard to see how the support that is required by the Act  and espoused by the Government is going to be in place.  And the losers will be children.