Poverty targets irritate councils

By Ross Watson Thursday, 25 June 2009

The Local Government Association has criticised the addition of targets for councils to tackle child poverty.

Credit: Christopher Jones

The Child Poverty Bill contains plans to introduce a local indicator to ensure councils meet their duties as set out in the bill.

Les Lawrence, chair of the association's children and young people board, told CYP Now: "We do not need any extra targets in the form of local and national indicators - we have a couple of hundred of those already."

Instead councils would prefer existing targets to be changed, he said.

Lawrence also revealed that councils in England are divided over whether the legislation is necessary, with some believing councils should only be required to "have regard" to the bill.

It comes as MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee said a clause in the Child Poverty Bill could allow the government to sidestep its duty because of economic circumstances. Clause 15 allows the government to take account of "economic and fiscal circumstances" when preparing its child poverty strategy.

Hilary Fisher, director of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, said: "It will be really important for government to be clear about what this clause means so that progress on child poverty is not put to one side because the purse strings are tight."

Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: "We'd prefer to see the clause removed altogether."

Kayte Lawton, researcher at think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, described clause 15 as "slightly strange". She said it may be a way to allow the government to make cutbacks in one year, as long as longer-term targets are met.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families denied that clause 15 was a get-out clause. "Many measures to tackle child poverty are about improving the standard of public services and making sure that, even while we are going through global economic difficulties, everybody has access to the best possible local services and support," she said.

The Child Poverty Bill will require ministers to publish a UK child poverty strategy within 12 months of the act receiving Royal Assent. They will also have to make an annual progress report to Parliament.

All councils will have to conduct a needs assessment on local child poverty levels to inform a local strategy.