Commenting on debates held today in the Commons, Dr Mary Bousted,
Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“More than 1 in 4 children across the UK are growing up trapped
in poverty, but we are still having the same conversations about
whether MPs will do the right thing to tackle the scourge of
child poverty in 2021.
“The NEU welcomes Labour's decision to focus their debate today
on universal credit, free schools meals and remote access to
learning. If the Government adopts the measures proposed by
Labour this will demonstrate that Ministers are serious about
promoting children and young peoples’ health, wellbeing and
education. Adopting these measures would also help achieve much
better outcomes for our young people in this period of lockdown
than we have seen over the last ten months.
"The last few months have shown that there’s strong public
support for a clear strategy to solve poverty in our country.
Extending Free School Meal (FSM) provision to cover the school
holidays would ensure 1.3 million children will no longer have to
live with the fear and anxiety of holiday hunger looming over
every school break.
"Currently over 1.7 million children growing up in families on
Universal Credit, some surviving on less than £20.50 a day, are
not eligible to receive the support of FSM. Extending provision
to include these low-income families would provide much needed
security for children and remove the barrier hunger creates,
preventing too many from reaching their full potential.
"Teachers, heads and parents are working their hardest to
collaborate around remote education, but a lack of appropriate
equipment continues to limit access to safe learning from home
for at least one million children and young people. Schools
cannot wait any longer for these promised resources. Providing a
new, dedicated technology budget for all schools would enable
schools to support their pupils directly and at speed. With
continued uncertainty around the progress of the R rate in the
coming weeks and months, access to remote learning must be a
priority of Government to protect and support our children’s
learning experience.
“This pandemic has shown that many people may need to rely on the
social security system at some point. The Government did the
right thing last year by uplifting Universal Credit by £20, but
the level of need has not changed so they must make this
permanent and extend to people on legacy benefits. Government has
to act boldly to ensure this lifeline is not cut during this time
of huge pressure on families.
“We urge MPs to use their vote today to ensure that no child is
left behind.”
