Co-hosted by: All-Party Parliamentary Group for Schools, Learning and Assessment & All-Party Parliamentary Group for Parent
Chair: Peter Swallow MP
Date: 23 March 2025
Today I attended an APPG event that launched of the ParentKind/NEU The Missing Chapter Report in Parliament, which will soon be released. The “missing chapter” refers to parent poverty, which is overlooked when looking at child poverty. With a focus on parent poverty, this report aims to influence the government’s Child Poverty Strategy, which the ParentKind/NEU claims will have “very little impact” unless it reduces the cost of school. The report states that…
“…school is not free. The cost of school represents, on average, between a fifth and quarter of the disposable income for parents in poverty.…The cost of school can’t become a ‘missing chapter’ in the Government’s poverty strategy.”
Here is the scale of child poverty and its historical and political context.
Key headlines on child poverty:
- The Child Poverty Act 2010 set a target to end child poverty by 2020, the Child Poverty Unit was established achieve this target.
- In 2011, the government published A New Approach to Child Poverty: Tackling the Causes of Disadvantage and Transforming Families’ Lives.
Since 2010:
- Child poverty has increased by 700,000.
- There are now 4 million children living in poverty in the UK.
- 800,000 children rely on foodbanks.
- 23% of children in poverty are ineligible for FSM.
- 55% of children living in families of three or more are in poverty.
These statistics are staggering. Two headlines summarise the situation:
- Child poverty is at its highest point since records began.
- Household income at the age of five is now the main predictor of a child’s future educational attainment.
The Child Poverty Unit, established in 2010 to deliver the original goal of ending child poverty by 2020, was shut down in 2024.
The Labour government has committed to addressing this issue by establishing a Child Poverty Taskforce to oversee the development and implementation of a cross-government strategy to reduce and alleviate child poverty. The ParentKind/NEU report aims to inform this effort by highlighting:
- the impact of poverty on the everyday lives of parents and families.
- the financial burden of sending children to school.
- the unique challenges faced by parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.
- the effects of poverty on parents’ mental health and well-being.
The link between poverty and poorer educational outcomes is clear. In a Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology (POST) horizon scan article, I note that gaps in educational attainment are also linked to broader life outcomes, including employment, income, health, and criminality.
Recommendations for the government in this ParentKind/NEU report:
- Commit to reducing the cost of school for parents living in poverty.
- Set a long-term ambition and a clear target on the cost of school.
- Set up a new independent advisory board to help reduce the cost of school.
- Make school meals free.
- Make every school a poverty fighting school.
This APPG meeting was well attended by MPs and Peers, and crucially officials from the new incarnation of the child poverty taskforce, so the call to action has been heard by those who have impact.
However, more research is needed to support the issue, especially with the spring budget that will announce welfare cuts. If you have research in any of these areas and would like to disseminate it to policy makers, or you are interested in pursuing research about parent poverty, get in contact with me (alpesh.maisuria@uwe.ac.uk).
