How would you tackle child poverty and improve outcomes?

[Cindyyyy]

I would back:

• free basic school meals for all from 3 (extras can be paid for) of healthy, veg-based, minimally-processed meals
• investment into school-based pre-school, to be free for all from age 3
• increase school funding massively, pay rises for teachers and nursery staff, investment and subsidies into training
• increase number of SEN schools and in-school SEN provision, as well as PRUs
• subsidised holiday clubs for all parents working full time
• extend SureStart, increase reviews by health visitors. If a child isn’t meeting milestones, earlier intervention and increased checks
• expand apprenticeships

You?

Fund schools and social services properly.

Education is the best way out of poverty.
School was my saviour. My parents were violent alcoholic drug addicts. My school at the time was a warm, safe environment.

My teachers were not at breaking point so noticed what was going on. Had the time to understand what was going on and to help me while the balls were rolling with social services for me to be removed. They made sure I was fed on the days I wasn't fed, they made sure I could wash my hands and face on the days I wasn't allowed to use the bathroom, they recorded everyone to help the case to have me away and they made sure I learned so I could escape repeating the cycle by getting a good job.

Schools now spend so much time firefighting, and have had staff cut to the bone, that children like I was don't get the same level support. And that is in no way a criticism of the school staff - my teacher had a class helper she could call on when needed, our school nurture teacher was around, the school librarian was lovely, and the HT and DHT were in and out of classes often. Teachers now just don't have that level of support - and classes are often bigger on top.

Social services are vastly underfunded and therefore cannot help the children they should be helping, only able to be involved in the very worst of cases.

The other big change that would help child poverty, and child outcomes generally, would be to change societal attitudes over dodging maintenance and/or walking away from your children altogether. It's socially acceptable to not pay your ex for your child, all you have to do is claim she'll spend it on her hair or her night out. And it's so common that people don't pay anything when someone who pays £100 should pay £400 it's seen as greedy by the RP to push for more because "I don't get anything". The whole attitude to it needs to change.

It will take a huge shift in mindset of this country. All too often people forget that everything 'free' is being paid for by someone else. The word 'free' should be eradicated.

You muppet.

Far from a muppet. Welfare is ruining this country.

Agree. Most of us are sick of it, hence the overcorrection in voting for parties like Reform who will decimate welfare completely. I don’t want that but the alternative is worse.

I disagree. I put my child into excellent childcare at 8 months and went back to work. We have a secure income and a secure roof over our heads because of this. I am a happy, productive worker and my husband and I are both top rate taxpayers. 7 years on we have a very happy, intelligent, sociable child who is thriving. My career hasn’t stalled due to taking excessive time out of the workplace and job security fears are therefore much less.

How many happy, productive, intelligent women would just choose not to have kids at all if it meant they had to stay at home with them for 18 months? Working parents are a good thing.

Education is the only way out of the poverty cycle. Invest in education, starting with a decent early years education which develops children’s language and social skills.
And stop men being abusive, that would help as well.

Probably an unpopular opinion but I would:-

1. increase child benefit to £45 for each qualifying child in the household. This helps both working and non working families equally.
2. I would keep the two child cap on universal credit but increase the child allowance from £280-£380 each month. Again this helps low paid working families and non working families but does not encourage breeding for benefits.
3. Give all children that live in a household that receives universal credit free school meals, again helps low paid working families. (I know this will be introduced from September 2026)

Council houses should not be sold, they should remain council owned, making more stock available to those that need it

Yes and many social workers urge ‘at risk’ children’s parents to use their free nursery hours, because they desperately need the routine and engagement that nursery offers. For a diligent mother, being a SAHM means freshly prepared meals, toddler groups, time in the garden, reading books, a tidy home. For some it means endless Cocomelon and fruit pouches while mum blows vape smoke all over them. There are children who barely see the light of day, who are sent back to bed with pouches and a tablet to shut them up. Inevitably they are ‘SEN’ when they start school.

I completely and utterly agree with this. Selling off social housing was frankly a crime.

She didn’t need an advisor to tell her.. Come on now, you can’t afford to smoke and go out drinking all weekend, your children are living shitty life’s and there’s nothing for dinner. She already knew, she just didn’t care. It’s not rocket science.

Absolutely. It’s so incredibly hard persuading these posters not everyone has a benevolent, responsible interior which just needs to be tapped into. So many people really just are selfish, uncaring, irresponsible, and there’s nothing we can do to change them.

I’d probably start by defining what is meant by child poverty.

@MellowPinkDeer I agree with you , paying benefits in vouchers would help the DCs directly. They would somehow have to be made non-transferable or they would just get sold so the adult could buy what they want.
Any DCs with allergies ( NOT dislikes ) should be able to get the right food without paying a fortune for it.

I don't think private landlords should be banned, but I do think they should be much more heavy regulated regarding the charges

They should not be able to charge ??% ( not sure ) more than the local council /HA/ house value.

Benefits for the first two dcs only . ( unless it's multiple births )

School uniforms should either be free or reasonably priced and better still easy to buy at supermarkets rather than 'uniform ' shops .

Any school equipment should be provided by the school, esp primary ages .

Of all the families I've worked with there are very very few who really don't care. I'm sorry that yours was one.

The vast majority are doing their best with the tools/ability/education/MH/addictions that they have.

Early support might have helped your mother and you, but if it hadn't, if she really couldn't be helped, it would also have identified that.

Parents of kids in poverty used to get free childcare hours from 2 whereas working parents (who actually needed the childcare) used to have to wait until the child was 3. Not sure if that is still the case, but it was an interesting illustration of quite how bad some parents are.

If they refuse to work or to provide for their children, they’re not fit to be parents.

Didn't take long for the mask to slip OP.

If private landlord aren’t allowed to set their own rents they will leave the market. 22,000 properties were withdrawn from the private rental market in Scotland in the year following the introduction of the rent cap legislation. Rent increases in Scotland that year were the highest in all of the UK due to the excessive demand. It’s virtually impossible to get a rental in Scotland now. There is nowhere to rent. It’s a terrible idea.

That's true, dire circumstances lead people to work incredibly hard to get out. But with that come other social problems I feel aren't being taken into consideration.

This person did make an incendiary statement but do you think people who utterly refuse to work are fit to be parents?

Universal Basic Income firstly

Funding to increase child to adult ratios at schools

More funding for child mental health and disability support

Fret or very affordable after school sports clubs open to all

Make non payment of child maintenance socially unacceptable. Tell men that they need to work full time to support their children. None of this cash in hand self employment shit unless they are paying a reasonable rate of child maintenance (hint: more than £7 a week). If the women who have the majority care of children have to work full time then why shouldn’t the men?

As for making it 50/50 as suggested - men who don’t want to pay maintenance don’t want sole care of their kids half of the time. They’re also unlikely to truly pay costs of 50/50 - that means they’d have to pay half of childcare costs, school meals, uniform, clothing, etc etc. most men will find it cheaper to pay maintenance!

Parenting classes strongly encouraged for all parents, starting from the first midwife appointment.

More onus on employers to accept flexible working requests.

I think you need to educate kids out of poverty, assuming they are in poverty because their parents equally weren’t educated out of poverty - and so the cycle continues. Ideally fewer poor people would have children, thus breaking the cycle. What drives some of the poorest to have large families is highly questionable. Once again - education is the cornerstone - not mopping up with UC credits, breakfast clubs and other patronising short-term strategies.

I know many men who don’t pay CMS as they’re on benefits themselves. People never consider this - handing out benefits is keeping children in poverty in so many ways and this is one of them. It makes not working a choice (if you’re happy to live a no frills life), hence no CMS