There are around 4.5 million children across the country currently living in poverty. That’s one in three children facing hunger and hardship.
In fact, according to the latest government figures, 18% of the UK’s children live in households experiencing food poverty. It’s clear, therefore, that eradicating child poverty has never been more urgent or important.
On a visit to a nursery, I witnessed first-hand a young child taking food from other children’s rucksacks and putting it in his pockets. Not their sweets or chocolate, but sandwiches. When staff at the setting spoke to this little boy, it turned out he had not yet eaten that day.
On another occasion, I saw a parent in tears because they had spent their entire food allowance for that day on a travel card to try and get a job. They were not sure how they were going to feed their family that evening.
And these are just some of the many stories I am privy to. I’ve no doubt that those of you working on the front line have many – too many – of your own about families who are struggling.
We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world. And yet we have countless examples of families struggling to meet their children’s basic needs.
Raising families just above the threshold of poverty is not enough. We must take serious action to allow families to thrive.
The economic argument for investment is beyond dispute. The return on human capital investment is beyond dispute. The moral obligation is beyond dispute.
Of course, I recognise that the government has taken steps to tackle this issue. At the end of last year, the Cabinet published a new Childhood Poverty Strategy, shortly after plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap were announced.
Both were incredibly welcome – as were plans to make it easier for new parents on Universal Credit to return to work by extending eligibility for upfront childcare costs for those returning from parental leave.
But while we at the Alliance support these measures, and welcome recognition from the government of the huge impact lifting children out of poverty can have in ensuring they get the best start in life, we’re clear that there is a lot more work to do.
We know that if you want to improve a child’s long-term life chances, there’s no better place to start than in the early years.
And yet, as positive as the thinking behind the Childhood Poverty Strategy is, there is very little in the document on how to tackle the fundamental inequalities embedded in the foundations of early years policy.
We still have a system where what a child’s parent or carer earns determines how much care and early education they can access.
One where that parent or carer losing their job could result in that access being halved. Where single parents with disabilities or caring responsibilities are excluded from additional funded hours entirely.
Support through the tax-free childcare system is still completely regressive. The more you can afford to save, the more support you get from the government.
Children attending PVI early years settings still cannot access “free school meals”. And despite recent increases to the Early Years Pupil Premium, the support for eligible children is still nowhere near their primary counterparts.
The truth is that unless the government is willing to go further, and look at wholesale reforms of early years policy, we will simply be left tinkering at the edges of what is a broken system.
In the foreword to the Child Poverty Strategy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer expresses his belief that “it is a fundamental British value that our children should go as far as their talent takes them”.
I agree – but without fair access to high-quality early education, this simply isn’t possible.
And so, when it comes to doing what’s needed to ensure that all children get the best start in life, I urge ministers to be brave, bold and unashamedly ambitious. Our children deserve nothing less.
Neil Leitch is CEO of the Early Years Alliance.
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