Children's Plan: Poverty measures come under attack
Nancy Rowntree
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
The children's plan is "a mouse of a plan to deal with what is a mountain of a problem" and has not done enough to tackle the issue of child poverty, the Liberal Democrat shadow children's spokesman has said.
Speaking in the House of Commons after the plan was presented to parliament, David Laws said it was astonishing that Children’s Secretary Ed Balls’ statement gave no new measures to deal with child poverty.
“Why has he not mentioned anything forward looking about what used to be a great ambition for this government,” Laws asked.
But Kate Green, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, welcomed the plan which she said recognised many of the unmet needs of children living in poverty.
"We welcome the focus on disadvantage and early years support, with new funding for disabled children and for pre-school childcare," she said.