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Labour Conference: Reducing poverty should be priority

Early Years Social Care
Children's minister Beverly Hughes has said that reducing child poverty "has to be the number one priority for the government".

Speaking at a fringe meeting organised by The Childcare Coalition, Hughes urged local authorities to "bear down harder" on the problem by connecting early years provision to economic development.

She said authorities should "make children's centres central to their regeneration", adding that too many councils consist of "male-dominated corporate centres" that neglect the importance of children's centres.

She also called for a "step-change in the flexibility of children's centres" to enable lone parents in particular to go out and work. Hughes said: "For children's centres to reduce poverty, they have to have a rigorous outreach to the most disadvantaged communities."

On the subject of pay, she said children's centre workers would have to wait for the new qualifications frameworks to become established before salaries could increase.

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