Jane Hutt MS, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip
I am pleased to announce that as part of our work to enable stronger collaboration between partners to address child poverty we have awarded 22 grants across Wales under our Child Poverty Innovation and Supporting Communities Grant Scheme .
Our Child Poverty Strategy for Wales, published in January, was co-constructed with children, young people and families and the organisations that support them.
We heard clearly that many of the policies and plans we have in place are the right ones, but to make the biggest difference we need to be smarter about working together both across government and with other partners to deliver positive change for children, young people and families.
The pieces of work being funded will strengthen the capacity of organisations to form collaborative working arrangements to address child poverty, linked to one or more of the 5 objectives of the Child Poverty Strategy for Wales, improve communication and knowledge transfer in addressing child poverty at the regional, local or community level.
Child poverty is a cross-cutting policy issue, and this is reflected in the diversity of projects which have been successful in securing funding in the highly competitive grant award process.
Welsh Ministers are committed to using all the levers we have available to their full extent, and we will take a leadership role in co-ordinating wider action to work towards eradicating child poverty and its impacts here in Wales.
Evidence from the delivery of funded projects will be captured and shared at the local, regional and national level, helping partners across Wales to learn from one another as we work together to deliver on our shared ambitions to address child poverty.