Analysis: Liberal Democrat Conference - Lib Dems confront child poverty

At their first conference since signing up to the target to end child poverty by 2020, reducing poverty and tackling inequality were key themes for the Liberal Democrats in Brighton last week.

Central to this focus was a policy paper - approved unanimously by conference delegates - advocating taking higher earners out of the tax credit system, reforming the Child Support Agency and abolishing child trust funds.

Further school funding

The savings from these measures would instead be ploughed into increasing child benefit by around £5 per family per week - a move party officials say would lift 150,000 children out of poverty overnight - and establishing a "pupil premium". This premium would give schools extra funding for every child it enrols from a deprived background.

"We have shown the country that only the Liberal Democrats have the policies and the values to tackle inequality," says the party's work and pensions spokesman Danny Alexander. "Only the Liberal Democrats can tackle the complex dependency culture. In combination with our tax proposals, we are able to both tackle poverty and ensure the vast majority of families will keep more of their income, as they move on to better paid work."

But the party's spokeswoman for children, young people and families Annette Brooke says they could go even further. "Increasing child benefit by £5 is a start, but we want to look at increasing benefit for the second and third child," she says.

Brooke also believes extra spending on childcare is vital. As well as allocating additional funds to spend on the training of early years teachers and staff, another proposal is to provide free childcare to the children of workless families.

"A good early years experience is a way of breaking the poverty cycle. We are looking at making sure there is good early years provision in workless families as this can help break the vicious circle of poverty," says Brooke.

The party's schools spokesman David Laws, who made his first speech to the conference since taking charge of the education portfolio, says education is the key to increasing the life chances of the most deprived children. "Compared with other countries we have got a large minority that is left out, who are not progressing in schools. In Britain your life chances are framed more by your parents' income than your own ability," he says. "That makes me feel ashamed of the country we are living in. If there is going to be new thinking, it is going to have to come from this party."

His pupil premium idea would be tagged to the poorest and most deprived pupils - children in care, Travellers, those from low-income families and so on - and would follow these young people throughout their education. Crucially, the premium would provide an incentive for state schools to take on these children. And head teachers would be given the freedom to decide how they spent the money, whether it was for smaller class sizes, one-to-one tuition or Saturday schools.

"We must allow more innovation," says Laws. "It is absurd that only the government's pet schools should have the freedom to innovate - this must be available to every school in the country."

More needs to be done

Tim Nicholls, press and parliamentary officer at the Child Poverty Action Group, welcomes the idea of the pupil premium but thinks it doesn't go far enough. "The pupil premium is a valuable idea. We are pleased they want to give a fair bit of freedom to schools themselves and money to follow the child," he says. "But we don't think it's enough on its own to address the problems of unequal educational outcomes."

And Alison Linsey, parliamentary adviser for Barnardo's, is disappointed that the Lib Dems have failed to sign up for the target to halve child poverty by 2010. "They have gone quite a way and they have signed up to the 2020 target, but our major call is for £4bn to be spent to halve child poverty by 2010 and they haven't committed to this," she says.

Despite polls suggesting Labour and the Conservatives are squeezing the party's support, the Liberal Democrats remain confident they can change the political landscape, pointing to strong showings in recent parliamentary by-elections.

"There never was a time in Great Britain when our principles and values were more needed than they are now," says party leader Menzies Campbell. "People are seeking a political alternative that is radical and progressive - and we are that alternative."

OTHER POLICIES

- Every school should have a "bullying mentor", a trained member of staff to counsel children who are the victims of bullying, and schools should be required to keep a record of bullying incidents to create a reliable database

- A fully independent education and standards authority should be established to replace the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to restore confidence in the exam system and enable assessment of performance over time

- The party's poverty paper also included clauses extending the adult rate minimum wage to all those aged 16 and above

- Guns and gangs should be tackled by putting more police on the streets and giving power to councils to close down houses where gangs are based

- Environmental policies, like adopting a roadmap to a carbon neutral Britain by 2050, aim to help protect the young both now and in future.

- Lib Dems voted to cut the basic tax rate by four pence to 16p - the lowest level since 1916.