Written Statement - Launch of the Consultation on the Welsh Government’s Revised Child Poverty Strategy

The Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 placed a statutory duty on Welsh Ministers to publish a Child Poverty Strategy for Wales and to set objectives for tackling child poverty and improving the outcomes of low income families. Welsh Ministers fulfilled this duty when they published the 2011 Strategy, which covers the period 2011 to 2014. The Welsh Government is now consulting on a Revised Child Poverty Strategy.

The Revised Strategy sets out the Welsh Government’s approach to tackling child poverty and improving the outcomes of children and young people living in low income households.

Tackling poverty remains one of the key priorities of the Welsh Government. Current levels of poverty in Wales are neither acceptable nor inevitable and this revised Child Poverty Strategy reaffirms our ambition to eradicate child poverty by 2020.  We recognise this ambition is extremely challenging, particularly due to the impact and scale of welfare reform and public expenditure cuts. However, we remain committed to doing all we can with the levers and budgets we have.

The Revised Child Poverty Strategy underlines our commitment to achieve the three strategic objectives / outcomes set out in our 2011 Strategy. These objectives are:

1.  To reduce the number of families living in workless households.
2. To improve the skills of parents/carers and young people living in low-income households so they can secure well-paid employment.
3. To reduce inequalities which exist in health, education and economic outcomes of children and families by improving the outcomes of the poorest.  

These three objectives reflect the policy levers available to the Welsh Government. More importantly, they also reflect what the evidence tells us around where the Welsh Government can have most impact, in terms of improving the outcomes of low income families.

This Revised Strategy highlights and strengthens the links with the Welsh Government’s Tackling Poverty Action Plan with the Action Plan being the key mechanism for delivering the objectives we have set for tackling child poverty.  The Revised Strategy also includes a renewed focus on ensuring our strategies, policies, plans and programmes link together to ensure a consistent and ongoing focus on children and young people.

Please respond to this consultation by completing an on-line form, which can be accessed online.