Public Accounts Committee: urgent call to combat rise in child poverty across Northern Ireland

Urgent action is needed to tackle a worrying rise in child poverty across Northern Ireland, a hard-hitting report today (Thursday) concluded.

The report by the Public Accounts Committee said the Stormont Executive's Child Poverty strategy had been "characterised by failure".

The strategy was initially developed by the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister before being passed to the Department for Communities for monitoring and reporting.

Its main aims included a decrease in the number of children in poverty and reducing the impact of poverty on children.

The strategy ran from 2016-2020 and was extended to May 2022, at which point it concluded.

Since then, no strategies for child poverty or anti-poverty strategy have been in place.

A review of the strategy by the Public Accounts Committee said it had no impact on child poverty levels, was not sufficiently targeted nor funded, did not focus on prevention, was not centred around the needs of children, and had "unacceptably poor" arrangements for accountability.

The committee said a new anti-poverty strategy needs to be developed urgently, adding that delays in putting the programme in place is "unacceptable".

The report said there was little improvement in poverty levels throughout the lifetime of the strategy, with relative poverty rates hovering around 20%.

The report states that it is "unacceptable" that almost 25% of children now live in relative poverty and that around 9% live in low-income households that cannot afford basic goods and essential activities.

The committee added that it was "hugely disappointed" that families and children were not at the heart of the Child Poverty Strategy and that the Department appeared "to be too far removed" from those experiencing poverty.

It said that the strategy failed in many key areas and said: "We consider that delivery of the Child Poverty Strategy has been characterised by failure - failure to turn the curve and reduce child poverty, failure to monitor outcomes effectively, failure of collective working and accountability, failure to engage with children and the community and voluntary sectors, and now a failure to produce a new anti-poverty strategy."

Save The Children criticised what it described as a "dereliction of duty" around child poverty.

Jerome Finnegan, the organisation's senior advocacy, policy and strategy lead, said: "We strongly echo the deep concerns within this scathing report into government failures on child poverty. The lack of any strategy around this in recent years when child poverty has soared, has been a dereliction of duty.

"For one in four children here, poverty is their lived and limiting reality. Energy must now be brought to urgently produce an ambitious anti-poverty strategy with a properly costed action plan.

"The committee has expressed real concern in this report that such a strategy is simply not a priority for the Department for Communities. This, if the case, is deeply troubling."

The committee said the Department should report back by the end of January to confirm a new strategy will be ready to present to the Executive by March 31, 2025.

The Committee said it heard compelling evidence that growing up in poverty has a significant impact on a range of outcomes.

Studies have shown that children in deprived areas are likely to live between 11 and 15 years less in good health than their more affluent peers, and children living in poverty are four times more likely to experience mental health problems by the age of 11.

Childhood poverty can also lead to long-term disadvantage. Children growing up in poverty are more likely to experience poverty in adulthood, mainly due to lower levels of educational attainment meaning that finding well paid work is more difficult.

The cost to the public purse of dealing with child poverty is estimated at up to £1 billion per year.