Wednesday 10 September,
09.30am, Committee Room 4a
MPs on the Education and Work and Pensions Committees will join
forces to question the Children's Commissioners of Scotland,
Wales, and Northern Ireland on the experience of children in
poverty in each nation, and how an imminent UK-wide strategy
could be effectively delivered.
With the exception of Scotland, child poverty across the UK is on
the rise, with it now at its highest level since comparative
records began in 2002. 3.9 million children are now in absolute
low income after housing costs in the UK. As a result, in July
the Children's Commissioners of all the UK nations jointly called
on the Government to ‘tackle the root causes of child poverty'.
Publication of a UK-wide child poverty strategy is expected this
autumn.
The Children's Commissioners represent independent bodies that
are responsible for the safeguarding and advocacy of children's
rights.
Many of the policy levers to tackle child poverty are devolved to
the Governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This
includes health, education and housing, and dependent on the
devolution settlement for each respective nation, some taxes and
benefits.
MPs are expected to ask the Commissioners on the first panel
about how each nation has formulated and implemented effective
policies to tackle child poverty, including how to overcome the
challenges of bringing together reserved and devolved policy
areas.
The session will also feature a second panel with independent
experts from each nation, whom Members of the committees are
likely to ask about how to forge effective partnerships with the
charity sector to maximise the impact of actions to reduce child
poverty.
Confirmed witnesses,
Panel 1 from 09.30:
- Nicola Killean, Children and Young People's Commissioner for
Scotland;
- Rocio Cifuentes, Children's Commissioner for Wales; and
- Chris Quinn, Northern Ireland's Commissioner for Children and
Young People.
Panel 2 from 10.15:
Professor Stephen Sinclair, Chair, Poverty & Inequality
Commission (Scotland);
Steffan Evans, CEO, Bevan Foundation;
Trása Canavan, Senior Policy & Public Affairs Lead (Northern
Ireland), Barnardo's; Chair, Anti-Poverty Strategy Group
