Memorandum submitted by the Local Government
Association (CP 26)
SUMMARY
1. The Central and Local Partnership in
2002 agreed shared priorities for public services, one of which
concerns improving the quality of life for children and one strand
of this covers the pledge to eradicate child poverty.
2. The LGA endorses the four main themes
of the Government's strategy to tackle child poverty as set out
in Opportunity for All:
— Providing financial security and
inclusion.
— Breaking the cycles of deprivation.
— Improving public services for all.
3. As community leaders, employers and service
providers, local government is central to the delivery of these
four elements, and the LGA position paper gives a range of examples
of the parts played local authorities. While DWP and the Treasury
accept this to be the case in theory, the key role of local government
is not necessarily always reflected in practice when designing
and reviewing policy centrally. Alongside this recognition, there
needs to be a strategy to ensure the role of local government
is adequately resourced and supported in its work to tackle child
poverty.
4. Collaboration between central government
and the LGA on the issue of child poverty has improved over the
last couple of years, and we are pleased to be currently negotiating
an Accord and corresponding partnership forum for future joint
work on child poverty.
5. Some of the issues which the LGA has
been discussing with central government are:
— Better and more timely data (knowing
who is poor and where they are clearly affects the design of solutions).
— Better and wider dissemination of
good practice and what works.
— More co-ordination between national,
regional and local strategies.
— Further progress on consolidating
funding streams, while ensuring sustainability of the work carried
out by area-based initiatives.
— A continued expansion of funding,
for example for SureStart and Children's Centres.
6. The LGA suggests that the approach taken
in the Government's programme for action for "Tackling Health
Inequalities" of developing the evidence base and building
capacity could be usefully applied to the child poverty pledge.
We suggest that as well as an annual report on poverty, the Government
should also develop a co-ordinated forward looking plan, bringing
together the elements covered in Opportunity for All.
7. At this stage we are unable to assess
fully the "effectiveness of the Government's strategies to
reduce child poverty" as it is extremely difficult to evaluate
many of today's initiatives. Many will only produce measurable
outcomes for children in years to come. Furthermore it may never
be completely clear which improvements were the result of which
initiatives. This provides a challenge to decision makers at local
and central government level charged with working out where limited
resources should be most effectively targeted in order to achieve
the 2010 and 2020 child poverty targets.
Emma Knights,
Senior Project Officer
September 2003
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