Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that the Council, at its meeting on 1st February, had passed the following motion, which had been proposed by the Deputy Lord Mayor (Councillor McCusker) and seconded by Councillor Whyte:

“This Council notes with alarm the Department of Communities Family Resources Survey 2018/2019 which shows that 122,000 children in Northern Ireland live in relative poverty (24% of children) with 109,000 of those living in absolute poverty and expresses deep concern that these figures have increased significantly since the previous year and have not improved at all in the last five years. The rise of the Universal Credit claimant count and expected end of the furlough scheme could see a further increase in these numbers, with the two-child tax credit rule and benefit cap only adding to the pressure on families with children.  

This Council calls on the Minister for Communities to immediately convene a child poverty task force and to identify regional policy with local outcomes, with a clear target, to eradicate child poverty.”

            The City Solicitor reported that a response had been received from Mr. Michael Donnelly, Director for Central Policy, on behalf of the Minister for Communities.

            Mr. Donnelly had explained that the Department for Communities was responsible for taking forward poverty policy on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive. On 24th September 2020, the then Minister for Communities, Carál Ní Chuilín MLA, had announced the commencement of work on the development of a range of Social Inclusion Strategies, including an Anti-Poverty Strategy, as part of the commitments made under the New Decade, New Approach deal.

            The Anti-Poverty Strategy would be developed using a co-design approach, with meaningful involvement from stakeholders at all stages of the process. In October 2020, an Expert Advisory Panel had been appointed and been tasked with producing recommendations on the key themes, priorities and headline actions which the strategy should address. A Co-design Group, with representatives from twenty-seven voluntary and community sector organisations, was helping to shape the development of the strategy and a Cross-departmental Working Group would be responsible for developing the associated action plan.

            Mr. Donnelly had gone on to state that, in September, 2020, the Northern Ireland Executive had agreed to extend the 2016-2019 Child Poverty Strategy until May, 2022. The purpose of that extension was to allow time for key stakeholders to be consulted on whether the Anti-Poverty Strategy, covering all age groups, was sufficient or whether the development of a Child Poverty Strategy was also required.

            He had pointed out that the most recent Child Poverty Annual Report, for 2019/20, which had been published on the Department for Communities website in September 2020, had outlined the measures which Departments were taking to ensure, as far as possible, that children did not suffer socio-economic disadvantage. The areas of focus and actions fell under four high level outcomes, namely, health, education, safe/secure stable living environments and economic well-being.

            In view of the work currently taking place, the Department would not, therefore, propose convening an additional body, such as a Child Poverty Taskforce, at this time.

            Mr. Donnelly had added that, in the course of the development of the Anti-Poverty Strategy, the Department for Communities would continue to engage with and listen to the views and ideas of those impacted by poverty and their representative organisations and would continue to work collaboratively across Departments to address their needs.

            The aforementioned Anti-Poverty Co-design Group would, over the coming months, be assisting the Department for Communities to facilitate a number of feedback sessions to seek the views of stakeholders, in order to inform their decisions on a range of specific areas of the recommendations.

            The Department also planned to host a session to obtain the views of district councils and would in the near future be writing to SOLACE with further details. There would also be a public consultation in the latter half of this year and the Department would welcome comments from the Council when this was published.

            Mr. Donnelly had concluded by stating that, subject to Executive approval, it was planned that the Child Poverty Annual Report for 2020/21 would be published in March, 2021 and that an Anti-Poverty Strategy would be published in December, 2021.

            The Committee noted the information which had been provided.