Scrap poor priorities and prioritise poor children

10.01.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 25th Jun 2009

Eleanor Burnham, Assembly Member for North Wales has called on the Government to re-think its priorities as new child poverty statistics were revealed today.

Commenting on today's report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Eleanor, Welsh Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Children and Young People said: "The figures from the Rowntree Foundation make sobering reading:

"Although the first half of the last decade (1999-2005) saw the proportion of children in poverty in Wales fall more quickly than in any English region, the numbers have now increased with 32% of children in Wales still living in poverty. Of the 192,000 children living in poverty, around 60% live in a household where their parents do not work and 42% live in a lone-parent household."

"It's not only the Rowntree Foundation that is highlighting the horrors of child poverty - every Children's Commissioner's Annual Review since 2002 has made child poverty a key issue in Wales. In the latest report the Commissioner said that "to lose ground would be inexcusable". Yet here we are in 2009 with practically a third of Wales' children living in poverty. It's indefensible.

"I am today participating in a cross-party panel event in Cardiff where the survey will be launched and discussed. It is abundantly clear from these latest figures that the Government's actions on child poverty need a serious re-think.

"I sincerely hope that the Government's representatives at today's panel will heed the recommendations of the latest Rowntree Foundation Report and start making a serious difference to the lives and the futures of the children of Wales".