For many in our sector, the answer will have something to do with eradicating child poverty. Poverty blights both children's lives and their life chances, putting them at increased risk of low income and benefit dependency as adults, and perpetuating a cycle of inequality.
From a political perspective, reducing inequality is not just a matter of altruism. An unequal society is likely to be a divided society, with all the dangers that entails.
Arguably, though, while we may have made inroads into child poverty we are growing no closer to tackling the problem of persistent and systematic inequalities. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening.
Education, for example, once seen as holding the greatest potential for lessening the divide, no longer seems to serve that purpose.
In fact, relative to their peers from more affluent backgrounds, young people from lower income groups stand no greater chance of going on to university and/or higher occupations today than in the 1950s. Hardly an inspiring state of affairs for hard-pressed young people or their parents.
Of course, recent initiatives such as Sure Start have played a part in supporting families at risk of poverty, but these measures alone are not enough. As End Child Poverty - of which NCB is a founder member - has made clear, we also need fiscal policies to reduce the poverty gap, from raising child benefit to increasing the national minimum wage. If the Government we elect on 5 May genuinely wants to create a fair and cohesive society, they ought to take these proposals seriously.
