In making calls yesterday for a new Child Poverty Delivery Plan, Shadow Minister for Communities Mark Isherwood AM also urged the Welsh Government to engage with local people to reduce child poverty levels in Wales.
Mr Isherwood was one of a number of AMs who last month voted in favour of the Welsh Government bringing forward a new strategy to tackle poverty together with a detailed budget and action plan for implementation.
In the Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood questioned the First Minister over whether and when the strategy will be forthcoming, highlighting that the Children’s Commissioner for Wales called on the Welsh Government for a new Child Poverty Delivery Plan back in March.
Speaking in the Chamber, he said:
“Even before the financial crash, Wales had the highest child poverty levels in the UK: 29 per cent in 2007, 32 per cent in 2008 - even before the crash. In 2012, 'Child Poverty Snapshots' from Save the Children said that Wales had the highest poverty and severe child poverty rates of any nation in the UK. In May, the End Child Poverty Network reported that Wales was the only UK nation to see a rise in child poverty last year (to 29.3%).
“Well, this is actually National Co-production Week. How, therefore, do you respond to the statements in the Children in Wales 'Child and Family Poverty in Wales: Results from the Child and Family Survey 2018'? It asked respondents, people in our communities, what they thought the Welsh Government should be doing to reduce child and family poverty, and the first comment quoted was to ‘Invest in local communities - engage with local people and work with bottom up approaches to regeneration programmes'. Despite the rhetoric, despite the billions spent, this hasn't happened, isn't happening, and must happen within the strategy if we're going to finally tackle this outrage.”
In his reply the First Minister said he is “in favour of child poverty policies being shaped in a dialogue with those people who are on the receiving end of policies”, but went on to lay the blame for child poverty levels in Wales on the UK Government.
Speaking outside the Chamber, Mr Isherwood added: “The buck stops with two decades of Labour Welsh Government. As I said a decade ago, ‘It is a national tragedy that more children are falling into poverty in Wales and that the Welsh Government's policies to tackle it appear to have failed’. After a further decade, it is disgraceful that Mr. Drakeford dodged my question, dismissed matters of fact and denied any responsibility. We now need a genuinely outcomes-based ‘Co-production’ approach in which public services are jointly designed, commissioned and delivered with local communities”.
