CYP Now - Early Years Commission: Ending child poverty central to improving support by 2030

A commission of MPs and children’s campaigners has identified ending child poverty as a core priority for improving early years support and learning in the next decade.

Children eligible for free school meals are likely to be behind their peers in terms of development, the report states. Picture: Adobe Stock

The Early Years Commission, which is co-chaired by former children’s minister and Conservative MP for Eddisbury Edward Timpson, warns that two million families with a child under the age of five live in poverty.

At the age of three a child living in poverty is nearly one and a half years behind their more affluent peers in language development.

In addition, children eligible for free school meals are one and a half times more likely to be behind their peers in early learning and development, states the commission’s report and manifesto.

“The experience of adversity in our earliest years relates closely to poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and poor mental, emotional and physical health later in life,” it warns.

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