6. 5. Statement: Child Poverty Strategy for Wales — Progress Report 2016

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:53 pm on 13 December 2016.

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Photo of Carl Sargeant Carl Sargeant Labour 4:53, 13 December 2016

I thank Julie Morgan for her contribution. I think the childcare pledge that she raises is, as I said earlier, the most ambitious and generous childcare pledge anywhere in the UK, which we aim to start delivering in the autumn of next year. I see the childcare pledge as a bit of a childcare plus agenda, really, because not only will we have an economic driver giving the opportunity for parents to go out to work and earn more good-quality jobs, I hope, but it will also give an opportunity for good-quality childcare. So, we get a double hit for the one policy that we have delivered. But the Member is right that whilst there are, in some places, some large areas of deprivation, which we know are on the Wales index of multiple deprivation, we do have families or streets that are outside of the postcode areas that we have our programmes sorted for, which we don’t reach out to. Sometimes they are equally as in need, and that’s why I’m hoping, with the programmes for the future, that we can look at specific needs of individuals as opposed to a postcode event in terms of some of the areas. Indeed, some of the areas that we do know have issues with deprivation, not all of those people who live in those areas need the additional support either. So, there's no easy fix to this, but I've asked my team to look very carefully at individuals, wherever they live. If a person is in need, if a family is in need, then we should look at a way of integrating an approach in which we can get underneath that family and wrap around them to make sure that we give them support for the future.