28 April 2008

Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP

Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform

Barnardo/4Children Conference, QEII Conference Centre

Monday, 28th April 2008

[Check against delivery]

Opportunities, Futures

I am delighted to be here today, and I warmly welcome the strength of the impressive coalition which has now come together to campaign on child poverty, to raise questions, to interrogate the trends, share good practice and learn how we can best build opportunities for children.

Your presence shows your commitment. You are saying that we have been willing for too long merely to live with child poverty. You have come together to say – loudly and clearly – that child poverty must now end.

And that is why I am pleased to represent a Government which agrees – the first ever UK Government not only to acknowledge child poverty – but making the commitment to abolish it. Ending child poverty is an ambition we share.

Morally right – and economically right

Ending child poverty in a generation was a historic pledge – and a bold one. It won’t be easy, and there will be those who argue against it. It will be a tough and difficult challenge, and one we will need – together – to recommit to time and time again. Because it is key to a strong economy as well as to a fair society.

Children suffering inequality and disadvantage risk having their life chances blighted. Education chances are missed, health and happiness restricted, aspirations curtailed. Today’s poor children are likely to be tomorrow’s poor adults and poor parents – repeating the cycle.

And that means the talents of some will remain locked away, unrealised, limiting the strength of our economy as well as the fairness of our society. The scale of the economic challenge from globalisation means we just can’t afford to miss out on any potential economic contribution. So abolishing child poverty is not only a social goal. It is an economic goal. It is not only morally right – but economically too.

Everybody’s business

But child poverty is not a priority for Government alone. It needs to be Everybody’s Business – as we said in the document published at the Budget. Everyone has a part to play. Ending child poverty will require action from everyone – employers, local authorities, public services, and families themselves – as well as, in Government, my department and others working together; devolved administrations working with national, regional and local government, charities and businesses.

So we have asked others to commit to child poverty targets too. It is encouraging that 44 local authorities have a child poverty target in their Local Area Agreements. Because local activity is critical to meeting the needs of children and their families.

And I am pleased we are working with groups like Barnardos, 4Children & Working Links, and many others here today, on a collective effort to end child poverty.

Interrogating the trends

Sometimes, as at last month’s Budget, you will be cheering us on. At other times – in the past and no doubt in the future too – you will press us to go further. Sometimes, there will be rapid progress – at other times, progress will seem slow. You will always press for more, but I welcome as well your acknowledgment of the direction of travel: your assessment of the trends in child poverty; in spending; in policy. Trends which show whether we are going in the right direction.

We are proud of the trends. In 1997, one in three children were living in poverty, and the number going up. Child poverty had doubled. If we had simply uprated the system, the number of children below the poverty line would by now be 50% greater again. Instead, we have halted that trend, put it into reverse, reducing the number of children in poverty by 600,000. We want to maintain that trend.

Work the best route out of poverty

So we have done much more to help people get a job and progress. Getting a job is one of the most transforming experiences anyone can have, and a key step out of poverty. And the number of people in work in Britain passed 29½ million for the first time ever in this month’s employment figures, with fewer people claiming unemployment benefit than since June 1975. The number claiming incapacity benefit is coming down too.

Financial security and independence are only some of the rewards of a job. Self-esteem, social networks and health benefit too – and the self-esteem and health of their children.

I recently visited the Children’s Centre at St Stephen’s School in Lambeth, hosting a great programme, organised by JobCentre Plus and delivered by Tomorrow’s People, helping lone parents get jobs. Parents value the help their children receive at the centre, and it’s a great opportunity to point them towards work too. A couple of parents who had got into work came back to enthuse the others. One spoke of how proud her twelve year old son was that his mum was now in work; another said she was so elated by the sense of independence when she paid her first pay cheque into a bank account that the bank clerk asked if she was alright.

That’s the kind of initiative we want a lot more of. Lone parent employment has rocketed – from 45% in 1997, to approaching 60% now, and a target of 70% by 2010.

We need to help parents overcome barriers that make work difficult. Improvements in childcare have helped thousands of parents get back to work – £21 billion invested since 1997 in early years and childcare – another trend worth noting – helping parents work in the knowledge that their children are safe, and being supported to learn and play.

And we’ve changed the tax and benefit system, both so that work pays, and also to improve the help where work is simply impossible.

The every child matters reforms are driving integration across Government and across children’s services - improving opportunities and outcomes for children from low-income families. In the past year we have gone further, with the new Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Children’s Plan and the joint Child Poverty Unit.

More to Do

But there is a great deal more to do. In 1997, 3.4 million children lived below the poverty line – in households whose income was below 60% of the median. 2.8 million still do. In particular, children from large families, children with disabled parents, and far too many children from black and ethnic minority backgrounds. We still have more to do to hit our target that the number of children below the line will be down to 1.7 million by 2010-11 – a further reduction of just over a million, of which around half a million should be achieved by announcements last year and this year so far.

Poverty still has too great an impact on life chances. Exam results among poorer children are now rising faster than the rest, but it is still the case that 35% of children getting free school meals achieve five good GCSEs – compared to 62% of other children. Scandinavian experience has shown that this link between income and educational attainment is not inevitable.

So this year’s Budget earmarked almost a billion pounds to tackle child poverty. Even in this tight fiscal climate, child poverty is our priority.

Alongside the budget, we also committed to new initiatives, to try out new ways to support families better. They will be well designed, and robustly evaluated, new ideas to channel help through children’s centres, new support for getting into work, and encouragement for local authorities to try out new approaches of their own.

More effort still is needed in London. Child poverty rates are higher than elsewhere, and progress has stalled. London is one of the richest cities in the world, arguably today the most successful of all the world’s cities. And yet 35% of children are living in relative poverty, and the employment rate – at 70% – is the lowest of all the UK regions.

There is fantastic work being done, but it clearly isn’t yet enough. So Beverley Hughes and I are leading an initiative in London, with delivery agencies, local and regional partners, and employers – aiming for a bigger impact in the future.

Child poverty is everybody’s business. Not just for those likely to turn up to a conference like this – but for all those concerned with employment, with training, with housing. Their work also has an impact on child poverty, and all of us need to commit to work together to tackle it.

In Conclusion

It was this Government which had the vision to set targets to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. Today, almost a decade on, we are as determined as ever to meet those goals, and we applaud the movement which has come together to hold us to account.

We need your commitment, and your rigorous interrogation of the trends. We need your campaigning for a focus on poverty cutting, rather than on tax cutting. We need your partnership in delivering services too.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on the Impact of Benefit & Tax Uprating on Incomes & Poverty said this about a tax-cutting option: “this policy would worsen relative poverty….: it translates into almost a doubling of child poverty and an 8 percentage point increase in the overall relative poverty rate.” There will be those who want to go down that road, and political parties tempted to follow them. It would be the wrong road – morally wrong, and economically wrong too.

Ending child poverty isn’t easy, but it is right. It’s not just about fulfilling a historic mission. Its about building a future in which every child can fulfil their full potential – benefiting all of us – and where no child grows up blighted by poverty.

It will be tough. It will require consistent focus and hard work by us all. But given the commitment of Government, and the commitment of the people and organisations I see here today – I believe we can now – and we must – end child poverty for good.

Thank you.