Speeches by Bailey.

“This is a really critical question. We were really determined that people with lived experience of poverty should be at the heart of the creation of the strategy. The fact that we were able to have a foreword to the report written by members of the Changing Realities group was a real sign of the level of trust and enga…”

“Thank you for that—it is really important. My understanding is that where there is an impact on “no recourse to public funds”, it will come from the earned settlement proposals, which are still in consultation and in discussion. We will continue as an interministerial group to be engaged in those conversations.”

“I totally understand the argument that you have heard from witnesses about targets, but our analysis is that our holistic picture of the lives of children in poverty, which we will get through our metrics and all the baseline measures, and the accountability measures that we have built around that, will achieve the sam…”

“That is a really important question; thank you, Damien. First of all, we have been so thrilled to be able to work so collaboratively with grassroots organisations, charities and, most importantly of all, people with lived experience of poverty. In the creation of this strategy and in its continued life, we will continu…”

“Perhaps Elaine can come in on this in a moment. The Scottish Government have chosen to have priority groups; we have chosen to take a different approach. You will see in the strategy itself, in the baseline report, the extent to which discussion of this is embedded in everything that we are doing. We know where there a…”

“That is a really important question and exactly the kind of conversation that the interministerial group has had and will have. With the Home Office policies that you are referring to, there is obviously a really important balance to be struck, which the Home Office is trying to strike, between trying to reduce the ill…”

“As Diana said, this is the largest single reduction in child poverty in any Parliament, and we have a 10-year strategy because that is just the start of our ambitions. The infrastructure we have created will ensure that we achieve that. We have the interministerial group that is driving progress, and we have annual rep…”

“Absolutely. There are 13 Government Departments; if I try to list all 13 now, it will go terribly wrong, but we will of course send the details to you following this meeting, for your information. We set out in the baseline strategy we published last week the three levels on which we want to look at progress on the str…”

“It is also possible to argue, counter to what you have said, that despite the presence of targets, if you do not have the will to act, you can still see many more children falling into poverty. There were targets present for a period of time and children fell into poverty as a consequence of decisions that the Governme…”

“That is a really important question. Absolutely: the publication of the strategy is deliberately the start of a process, not the conclusion. With the baseline report, we have committed to continuing to demonstrate, through the interministerial group, how we are driving progress towards those headline metrics and how Go…”

“Yes. Perhaps Elaine can come in on this, but there is both qualitative and quantitative information, which will enable us to have a holistic look at the different impacts of poverty on different groups. Elaine, perhaps you could explain the surveys we have and how we can disaggregate those.”

“Yes, I think is the answer to that question, and that is one of the things that the interministerial group is there to ensure. We have that constructive challenge, and we have that eye on the impact of poverty, not just in general, but on specific groups. I am confident that that process will be really important to mak…”

“Thank you—that is a really important question. The Government do a range of things to support children with no recourse to public funds, including access to the pupil premium, free school meals and some of the early years childcare entitlements—the early years two-year-old and the three and four-year-old universal enti…”

“Yes.”

“Hello. I am really pleased to be here today; it is nice to see you all. I am Liv Bailey, the Minister for Early Education in the Department for Education, and I co-chair the interministerial group on child poverty with Diana.”

“No, it’s okay. We will take it in turns on different topics.”

“Diana and I are thrilled to have this responsibility—it is a huge honour—but I do not think it should be read as a lack of enthusiasm from the Secretaries of State, who have absolutely been leading the way and are extremely engaged in the work we are doing. Let me talk through some of the ways we are going to drive tha…”

“No, in short, because I have seen the huge commitment and energy with which the team in DWP have been approaching this issue. Diana and I have seen the huge energy that sits behind the interministerial group. That group was established by the Prime Minister. As I have outlined—I don’t want to repeat myself—we have real…”

“There are lots of ways that we are acting to do that. We are boosting Healthy Start vouchers and taking action on health inequalities across the country. On looked-after children and reducing the number of children going into care, we have a £2.4 billion Families First programme that is going to do that. I understand a…”

“It is critical to what we are doing; it is really important to what we are doing. Again, there is the new longitudinal qualitative study; continued engagement with charities and organisations like the Children’s Commissioner, who can ensure that we are speaking directly to children; and working with Changing Realities …”