Wednesday 3 June 2026,
09.30, Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House
The Education and Work and Pensions Committees will take evidence
from local government and charities working on the frontlines of
the battle against child poverty about their experiences
delivering the government's child poverty strategy.
Representatives from Trussell, the English Football League, and
Barnardo's will be among the witnesses as MPs on both committees
continue their joint inquiry, Realising
potential, on the strategy's delivery.
The government projects that the strategy will lift 550,000
children out of poverty over 10 years and aims to give local
authorities more autonomy over how they tackle the issue. But
currently, over one in four children (26%) live in households
with low incomes after housing costs, rising to nearly one in
three in the West Midlands, and more than half in hardest-hit
local authorities, Tower Hamlets and Hackney.
Witnesses are likely to be asked about the challenges they face
in tackling child poverty as demand increases in the context of
tight local authority budgets and the rising cost of living. This
may include issues around funding and data sharing.
The strategy points to a 9% reduction in core funding for
councils between 2010 and 2025, which has hit preventative
services and had a disproportionate impact in deprived areas. As
part of it, the government is proposing to reform how it
distributes funding, and establishing new pots like the Better
Futures Fund and the Crisis and Resilience Fund.
Although scrapping the two-child limit is expected to lift
450,000 children above the poverty line, witnesses to an earlier
session of the inquiry told the committees that while this would
stop further rises in the proportion of poverty-afflicted
children, it would not be enough to significantly reduce child
poverty beyond this.
MPs on the committees are also likely to ask whether the ambition
of the strategy will meet the needs of children from all
backgrounds, including those with no recourse to public funds,
children in lone parent families, and those who have been in the
care system.
Witnesses
From 09.30
- Tom Drake, Business Head of Community Programmes, EFL in the
Community;
- Geroge Looker, CEO, Babyzone;
- Beatrice Orchard, Head of Programme (social security and
work), Trussell;
- Annabel , Director of Strategic Partnerships
and Stakeholders, West of England Combined Authority.
From 10.30 (approx.)
- Charis Chittick, Head of Policy, Strategic and
Communications, One Parent Families Scotland;
- Azmina Siddique, Policy and Public Affairs Manager –
Child Poverty and Inequality, The Children's Society;
- Lynn Perry, CEO, Barnardo's.
