Ministers have been urged to show more “urgency” on tackling child poverty amid fears schools will be expected to further “plug the gap”, following reports the government’s flagship strategy is delayed.
The Guardian reported last week that Labour has pushed back publishing the strategy until at least the autumn, following Treasury concerns over the cost implications of scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
But union leaders have warned schools “do not have time to make up the education lost to fatigue and hunger”, with “every day of inaction” dragging scores more children into poverty.
Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said: “The government should show a sense of urgency over this critical issue rather than kicking the can down the road.
Schools ‘plugging the gap’
“Child poverty has a devastating impact on both welfare and education and the longer that action is delayed the worse these problems will become.”
National Education Union leader Daniel Kebede noted “schools and individual teachers are routinely having to step in with extra food, uniform supply, period products and toiletries”. He demanded “this should not become normalised”.
The child poverty strategy is being led on by education secretary Bridget Phillipson and work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall.
A Cabinet Office child poverty unit was also launched with a brief to help create an “ambitious strategy” and report to the ministers.
It has been charged with considering how ministers can use policy levers in areas such as education, household income, housing, children’s health and childcare to tackle child poverty.
Speaking at an event last week, Kate Anstey, of Child Poverty Action Group UK, labelled the benefits cap a “poverty-producing” policy.
She believes it is one measure that as a “bare minimum” should be scrapped in the strategy for it to “be worth the paper it’s written on”.
This comes as the Department for Work and Pensions estimates 3.2 million families across Britain will be affected under plans to tighten personal independence payments.
Attainment gap ‘unlikely to close’
It says another 250,000 will fall below the poverty line in 2030, including 50,000 children.
Di’Iasio said the issue “places schools in the position of trying to provide as much support as they can within constrained budgets, both in terms of the child’s welfare and their educational attainment”.
He thinks attainment gaps are “very unlikely” to be closed “while we continue to have very high rates of child poverty”.
Kebede added: “It is a stain on one of the richest countries in the world that we continue to expect schools and their staff to plug the gap.
“Every day of inaction drags an additional 109 children into poverty. Schools do not have time to make up the education lost to fatigue and hunger.”
A government spokesperson said it will “publish an ambitious child poverty strategy later this year”. It will “ensure we deliver fully funded measures that tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty across the country”.
Your thoughts