In a joint response to the Welsh Government’s child poverty strategy, published on 23 January, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales said, along with:
- Children in Wales
- Action for Children
- The Trussel Trust
- Citizens Advice
- Barnardo’s Cymru
- Home Start Cymru
- Save the Children
- Oxfam Cymru
- The Children’s Society
- NSPCC Wales
- NYAS Cymru
- University of Wales Trinity Saint David
- Child Poverty action group
“Almost a third of Welsh children live in poverty. Our organisations see first-hand the devastating effect living in poverty has on childhoods in Wales.
“As children’s rights organisations, many of whom were also members of the Government’s External Reference group for the strategy, we are deeply disappointed that Ministers have not listened to our calls for a robust action plan with measurable targets.
“Whilst we welcome the government’s explicit reference to children’s rights and a children’s rights approach within this revised strategy, there is a fundamental aspect missing: accountability. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child was clear: Government needs to “…develop or strengthen existing policies, with clear targets, measurable indicators and robust monitoring and accountability mechanisms, to end child poverty and ensure that all children have an adequate standard of living.”
“We’ve been promised a monitoring framework, but we’ve not been given any indication of when this will be in operation or what it will include. Until then, we will not be able to determine whether public money being spent in Wales is reaching those children, whose lives are being so severely affected.”