9. Will the Minister outline the Welsh Government’s priorities on tackling child poverty in south Wales? OAQ(5)0081(CC)

I thank the Member for her question. Our priorities for tackling child poverty include building a strong economy, increasing employability and supporting parents into work, and improving outcomes in the early years.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Wales continues to have some of the highest levels of child poverty in the UK. Within my region, South Wales West, we have over 36,000 children living in poverty, and that’s 28.4 per cent of the region’s children. The UK Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission annual state of the nation report was critical of the Welsh Government’s policies, stating that they’re not having the right level of impact. You announced yesterday that it was unlikely that we would achieve the target of eradicating child poverty by 2020. The children’s commissioner has said that instead of an arbitrary target, we would now need to deliver an ambitious plan with specific and measurable actions that will improve outcomes for children and families in poverty. Cabinet Secretary, could you tell me please what changes you are proposing to make to your child poverty strategy for my region over the next three years, because poverty is blighting the opportunities of these children, who are more likely to suffer poor health, do less well at school and have poor employment prospects in the future?

The Member is right to raise this very important issue, and we made a statement yesterday and I’ve had, I think, three questions today on child poverty. So, it is on everybody’s agenda, and rightly so. What I did say in the statement yesterday is that we don’t hold all the levers and drivers to achieve the ambitious target by 2020, and I will be very open about that, but there are things that we can do. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows households in Wales will lose 1.6 per cent of their net income on average, or around £459 a year, as a result planned tax and benefit reforms to be introduced by 2020. So, this is another aspect where we have no involvement but which actually has a major impact on our communities. So, why are we changing our direction of travel in tackling jobs and well-being? This is because we know that the current situation is finding it very hard to deal with the issues that tackle poverty.

I’m grateful for the Member’s support for the way that we’re going to be tackling issues around adverse childhood experiences, and I hope that she can support us on the budget when it’s laid in the early new year.