Hello to you all,
Many of you will be aware that the government last week launched a consultation on a new child poverty strategy. At the same time, the government also published a 130 page 'review of the evidence' surrounding child poverty. The review identifies a number of 'key' 'individual and family characteristics' which 'make it harder' for some families to move out of poverty. These characteristics were identified following a 'preliminary informal evidence review'
On page 12 of the evidence review the following paragraph can be found:
This evidence review only considers individual and family characteristics and events associated with current and future poverty. It does not take account of the macroeconomic context, in terms of the number and quality of available jobs or the returns to qualifications. This review also does not examine the impact of the institutional framework (e.g. the current educational system) or culture of society. Nor does it consider the interaction between the benefits system and incentives to work, although this will obviously have a role in ensuring work pays. These factors are important as they may limit the extent to which individuals are able to improve their situations through their own agency and changes in these factors could affect the future stability of the associations reported.
I hope that, in bringing this to people's attention, some of you may be (even more) encouraged to respond to the government's 'consultation' and fill in some of the gaps left by the evidence review. Some institutions might also be interested in taking up the various omissions from the review.
The consultation document and the evidence review can be found in the link below
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/child-poverty-a-draft-strategy
Kind regards,
Steve
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