North Wales MS and Shadow Social Justice Minister Mark Isherwood has spoken of his concern that 28 per cent of children in Wales are living in poverty and called on the Welsh Government to take a series of actions, including to “tackle the economic underperformance which is driving child poverty in Wales”.
Taking part in Wednesday afternoon’s Debate on ‘Child Poverty and Educational Attainment’, Mr Isherwood noted that the child poverty level in Wales is higher than Scotland, Northern Ireland and several English Regions, and that Welsh schools suffer a wider disadvantage gap than English schools.
He said:
“Times Educational Supplement research several Senedd Terms ago showed that the best performing Schools in the most deprived areas of England massively outperformed the best performing Schools in the most deprived areas in Wales.
“It is therefore a sad indictment of Labour Welsh Government that little has changed in the intervening years, where, for example, research from the Education Policy Institute into the impact of educational inequalities across England and Wales, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and published two years ago, revealed that Welsh schools suffer a wider disadvantage gap than English schools.
“This widening attainment gap threatens to leave learners from less-well off backgrounds even further behind.”
After noting that 28 per cent of children in Wales are living in poverty, he added:
“But, of course, this is a longstanding issue.
“As stated in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Wales’ Report in 2009: ‘even before the recession, the problem of low income was already rising sharply, to the extent that half of the previous improvement in child poverty had already been lost’.
“In other words, this was before the ‘Credit Crunch’ in 2008, when it reached the highest level of any UK nation, at 32%.”
In the Debate, Welsh Conservatives put forward a number of amendments:
- Calls on the Welsh Government to “Promote the provision of free school meals to years 7 to 11 for those households in receipt of Universal Credit”.
Mr Isherwood said this “recognises the need to ensure that the majority of people in receipt of Universal Credit who are already eligible for this know that they are”.
- Calls on the Welsh Government to “tackle the economic underperformance which is driving child poverty in Wales”.
Mr Isherwood said: “Despite receiving Billions in temporary funding intended to close the prosperity gap both within Wales and between Wales and the rest of the UK, Wales has the lowest GDP output per head, lowest pay packets and lowest gross disposable income amongst the UK Nations, with employment below, and both unemployment and economic activity above, the UK level.
- Calls on the Welsh Government to act on the recommendation in the November 2022 Auditor General for Wales Report, “Time for Change – Poverty in Wales” to “improve the efficiency and effectiveness of grant-funded programmes”.
- Calls on the Welsh Government to “Recognise that for the vast majority of children living in poverty, simple solutions focused on enabling them to get the best of mainstream education is paramount”.
Mr Isherwood said:
“This quote is taken directly from the Royal College of General Practitioners Cymru’s Response to the Welsh Government's Draft Child Poverty Strategy 2023, which also called for an approach “which appropriately stretches children according to their own talents”, and stated: “those from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are often judged by academic professionals to produce inferior quality work. Welsh Government must factor this stigma into the strategy and end the belief that background directly affects aptitude”.