The primary responsibility of any government is the welfare of its citizens, particularly the most vulnerable in its care.
For the devolved administration at Stormont, that should mean a laser-like focus on historically high levels of deprivation which deny too many the ability to reach their full potential.
It is well known that family income is a major determinant in a child’s future health, educational attainment and social and emotional wellbeing.
And while we have sadly become accustomed to Stormont’s failure to act across a range of policy areas, another report this week on child poverty makes for shocking reading.
A child poverty strategy was in place between 2016-22. Among its key aims was to reduce numbers living in relative poverty – at that time around one in five.
Research suggests children in deprived areas are likely to live 11 to 15 fewer years in good health, and those receiving free school meals are twice as likely to leave school with no GCSEs. The costs associated with child poverty are estimated at up to £1 billion annually.
Despite this, the Audit Office found earlier this year that the Executive’s strategy set no clear targets for poverty reduction, nor was there any ring-fenced budget. Sound familiar?
The findings were the subject of a further report released this week by the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee – effectively MLAs marking the Executive’s homework.
It was even more scathing, pointing out that the rate of child poverty actually grew from a stubborn level of 20 per cent to 24 per cent in 2022-23.
Chairman Daniel McCrossan said delivery of the strategy was “characterised by a catalogue of failures”.
These included a failure to “turn the curve and reduce child poverty, failure to monitor outcomes effectively, failure of collective working and accountability, failure to engage with children and the community and voluntary sectors, and a failure to produce a new anti-poverty strategy”.
On the last point, the committee called for a new strategy with clearly defined targets to be developed urgently, with the department asked to report back in January to confirm a plan will be presented to the Executive by the end of March.
Save the Children, too, has described the lack of a strategy at a time when child poverty has soared in a cost of living crisis as a dereliction of duty.
Ministers may say a power-sharing government was only restored this year, but there was no excuse not to hit the ground running on this and many other priorities.
If the Executive is unable to clearly demonstrate its intent to improve the lives of citizens in such a fundamental way, then many will rightly question its purpose.
