Bridget Phillipson will jointly lead a taskforce focused on how education can improve the life chances of children in poverty.
Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has appointed the education secretary and the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, to head up a new ministerial taskforce to begin work on the goverment’s child poverty strategy.
Ms Phillipson has said that living in poverty leaves children “not ready to learn”, stressing that the issue “reaches far beyond the school gates”.
The new government included a Children’s Wellbeing Bill as part of legislation announced in the King’s Speech today, which it claims will “put children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and children’s social care systems”.
A new child poverty unit in the Cabinet Office will report into the taskforce, bringing together expert officials from across government, as well as external experts.
Labour set out its plans to introduce a cross-government taskforce to reduce child poverty in its mission paper last year.
Child poverty and education
Downing Street said today: “In the immediate term, the taskforce is expected to consider how we can use levers related to household income as well as employment, housing, children’s health, childcare and education to improve children’s experiences and chances at life.”
Downing Street has said that the taskforce’s first meeting is set to take place in the coming weeks.
Kate Anstey, head of education policy at the Child Poverty Action Group, recently said that schools are seen “as the vehicle to tackle child poverty”, adding that “it’s a dangerous position we’re in where we see schools as the answer”.
And in a poll published this summer, primary school staff estimated that nearly half of all pupils had experienced hardship at some point in the school year.
Experts have previously warned that primary schools “are staggering under the weight of hardship”.
Ms Phillipson said that tackling child poverty “is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child”.
“For too many children, living in poverty leaves them not ready to learn and robbed of opportunity. But child poverty reaches far beyond the school gates, and, alongside the work and pensions secretary, I am determined to drive the work forward to support families and communities.
“This is a shared mission across government, and our taskforce will work closely with parents, charities and civil organisations as part our ambitious strategy to remove the stain of child poverty from our country.”
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