HELEN GODWIN

Working together to lift children out of poverty

- 

CHILD poverty is not an abstract problem: it’s hungry children unable to learn or play, families bouncing between temporary accommodation, parents blocked from work by constrained childcare, and people cut off from family, services, and social life by unaffordable travel.

2025 marks 60 years of the Child Poverty Action Group, a pioneering, campaigning charity. Yesterday, Gordon Brown spoke powerfully about the need for a coalition of compassion for children, with leaders around the country playing their part. About 4.5 million children in the UK live in poverty. After years of Tory austerity, this is another reminder that action must combine compassion with system change.

Since May, I have been looking at what the West can do. We need a proudly interventionist approach to make life better for people, so next month we will publish a regional action plan to complement the work of government and help lift as many children as possible out of poverty.