, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Okay. Dr Croke, did you want to add anything to the questions that Ken Skates has just asked?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Okay. Thank you for that. Ken Skates.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Okay. I understand that, but here we are now, and we're in 2023.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Before I hand over to Ken Skates, I just wanted to ask you specifically about your predecessor's recommendation that the auto-enrolment of eligible families to both free school meals and the school essentials is an example of how we don't wait for people to…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
We haven't got time for that. We've got the five principles already. Back to Jayne, please.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Go ahead, Rhian. You don't need to unmute yourself, the clerk will do that remotely.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Okay. Thank you for that really clear statement. I think, if you don't mind, I'm going to cut you off there because we have read your paper, and I'm sure that it would be best if we move on to specific questions where, obviously, you've got the opportunity to…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Thank you for that. Dr Croke, you focus very much on the importance of children’s rights and the UN convention. Is that something that needs to be a priority at the moment, when there are all these other issues that the children’s commissioner has just…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
Okay. But the strategy's also got to be realistic. In a time of really constrained public sector budgets, particularly the Welsh Government's budgets, there's no point in setting targets that it hasn't got the resources to deliver. So, what are the things…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 3
We're now going to have our third panel session on the Welsh Government's draft child poverty strategy. I'm very pleased to welcome Rocio Cifuentes, Children's Commissioner for Wales, and Dr Rhian Croke, Children's Legal Centre at Swansea University. Rocio…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you very much indeed for your contributions. You will obviously get a transcript of what you've said and, if there's anything further you feel you want to add in terms of a report that's about to come out, please, do let us…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay. In particular areas of the Valleys, given that you're based in Merthyr?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
From the poorest communities. Okay. That is obviously a very worrying trend, if that were the case. So, you think that—.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay. Ken, have you got any further questions? I just wanted to add one thing that I'd forgotten to ask you about in terms of realistic things that the Government can do. So, in the first panel, our colleague from Norway was talking about the importance of…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Yes. You follow up on the comment by Sean, because I think Ken—.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Sean wants to come in.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Not entirely. But anyway, I think that we are in danger of not covering an important area of questions. So, Ken Skates, if you'd like to come in at this point.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay. Well, we probably can't go on much further than that at the moment. I would like to bring in Ken Skates. Sorry, I beg your pardon, Sioned Williams just wanted to come in.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay. Some of the local authorities in England who introduced universal free school meals at an earlier stage used it as a mechanism for driving up the uptake of benefits. Have any of you any evidence as to how well schools are using the invitation to have a…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay, thank you very much on that. Just turning to something else, another contributor, Chris Birt, who's an expert on Scotland, mentioned that there are two pilots going on for the Government to work with the Department for Work and Pensions and the relevant…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay. I think we need to move on. I just want to pick up a few points around the draft strategy and the practicalities involved in making it a reality. No Government is going to put into a strategy something that they genuinely don't think they're going to be…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Okay. Lots of issues there, which we may wish to come back to. Altaf Hussain wants to come in at this point.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Very good. Moving on to Sioned Williams.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Jayne.
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Inquiry into the Welsh Government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy: evidence session 2
Indeed. Rod Hick, did you want to add to—?
