Tackling child poverty must be top of the new First Minister’s agenda

In this guest article, Sioned Williams MS sets out the steps that need to be taken to address child poverty in Wales

It’s been a tumultuous period of change in politics over the last months, but the constant has been the failure of Governments in both Cardiff Bay and Westminster to address record high levels of child poverty and the cost, both human and economic, that they are causing Wales.

Wales has another new First Minister. I have already called on Eluned Morgan to put tackling child poverty at the top of her agenda.

Her first action should be to reinstate a target to end child poverty. Currently the Welsh Government’s Child Poverty Strategy contains no targets, and as such has been roundly criticised by the Children’s Commissioner, the Equality and Social Justice Committee and numerous children’s organisations and anti-poverty groups in Wales, including the Bevan Foundation. When the target was dropped by the Welsh Government in 2016, the then Communities Secretary Carl Sargeant stated that this was because UK Government policies had made the target unachievable. One of the policies cited was the welfare reform programme, and the fact that the Welsh Government did not have the power needed to make the changes needed to reach its stated goal.  

I have therefore written to Eluned Morgan’s newly appointed Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, to ask what policy changes the Welsh Government will be asking of the new UK Government which will help the Welsh Government fulfil the aims of its child poverty strategy, and would targets to end child poverty be reinstated by Welsh Government now that a Labour UK Government is in power? We need to see how this much vaunted partnership will shift the dial on child poverty in Wales. 

What else can be done?

But even if the Labour Westminster Government is refusing to pull one of the most powerful levers to help Eluned Morgan improve the unacceptable levels of child poverty in Wales by reforming welfare, there are no cost and affordable measures that are fully within Welsh Government’s power which anti-poverty campaigners say could make a big difference.

Plaid Cymru have been backing calls made by Children in Wales and the Child Poverty Action Group to cut the cost of the school day, some of which are no-cost changes. For example, although the Welsh Government has issued statutory guidance for school governing bodies on uniform, that covers issues of affordability, the only requirement is for them to have regard for the needs of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. According to Children in Wales, 79% of those who responded to their latest survey said they still have to wear a school badge or logo, despite the guidance, and they say that banning logos would put £75 on average back in the pockets of families. In its report on Welsh Benefits, the Bevan Foundation also highlighted that the effectiveness of the School Essentials Grant is being undermined by choices made by schools on uniforms.  Banning non-uniform days is another example of a no-cost policy that would also address poverty-related bullying and absences.  

It’s also clear that some low income families are not eligible for many of the types of support provided by Welsh Government, or that the support is often difficult to access, and that the value of these grants also erodes over time. While this September will be the start of the first full school year where we will see free school meals provided to all pupils in primary schools, thanks to the Co-operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, my party will continue to press for the extension of free school meals to all secondary aged children whose families are in receipt of Universal Credit, with no cap on earnings, as campaigned for by the Bevan Foundation. We would also want to see the restoration of free school meal support to low income families in the school holidays. As even though the High Court ruled earlier this year that the Welsh Government acted in breach of the law when it decide at the last minute to stop free school meals during the 2023 summer holidays, no support to families in lieu of Free School Meals has been reintroduced. This is especially detrimental to children’s health during the winter months, according to the Royal College of Paediatric and Child Health.  

Beyond measures such as these, introducing a child payment system modelled on the Scottish Child Payment would have transformational effect on child poverty, and could be achieved within current powers, or with the devolution of new responsibilities over welfare. The cost of such a measure, already proven to be effective in Scotland, is still comparatively small compared to the cost of endemic child poverty. In one of the richest nation states on Earth, we cannot let the damaging effects of child poverty, the scar that disfigures and threatens the future of too many of our children and the well-being of our nation, become normalised.  

Sioned Williams is Member of the Senedd for South Wales West