Source · Select Committees · Education Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Accepted
Require Government to implement bold Child Poverty Strategy to significantly reduce children's financial hardship.
Recommendation
We urge the Government to be bold in its upcoming Child Poverty Strategy and take wide-ranging action to reverse this trend and significantly reduce the number of children growing up in financial hardship. (Recommendation, Paragraph 29)
Government Response Summary
The government will publish a Child Poverty Strategy in autumn and is already undertaking several specific actions, including expanding Free School Meals, investing in social care and housing, and extending the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, to address child poverty.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Secretary of State for Education. This strategy, to be published in the autumn, will address the structural and root causes of child poverty. In the meantime, we are already taking substantive action across the key drivers of child poverty, including: • Expanding Free School Meals to lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament; • Investing £555 million through the Transformation Fund to reform children’s social care, with a further £560 million from 2026 to expand children’s homes and foster placements; • Launching a £1 billion crisis support package which includes funding to ensure children don’t go hungry outside term time; • Delivering £39 billion for social and affordable housing–the largest investment in a generation; • Providing £13.2 billion for the Warm Homes Plan, including Barnett consequential; • Rolling out Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority by April 2026; • Launching the £500 million Better Futures Fund to support vulnerable children and young people; and • Investing £600 million to extend the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme to support children from lower-income families by providing free meals and enriching activities during school holidays. The Taskforce continues to explore all available levers to drive both immediate and long-term action to reduce child poverty and ensure every child has the best start in life. Tackling the disadvantage gap is also central to ensuring every child gets the Best Start in Life. While the plans set out in the Best Start in Life Strategy will deliver stronger outcomes for all children and families, we have focused efforts in areas where there are higher proportions of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. This includes where we are basing the Best Start Family Hubs, where we are focused on attracting and retaining early years teachers, and record increases to the Early Years Pupil Premium.