Children in Scotland, Children in Wales, Children in Northern Ireland and Children England have, since 2013, led the UK Alliance for Investing in Children, urging both the UK government and the devolved governments to implement the 2013 European Commission recommendation ‘Investing in Children – Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage’.
The recommendation encourages member states to protect funding for services that support children and their families, even in the context of implementing policies of austerity. The new UK government is committed to pursuing policies and introducing legislation that will result in severe and profound reductions in welfare expenditure and in the public services that support children and their families.
The UK Alliance urges all newly elected representatives at Westminster, and devolved governments, to take every opportunity to protect children and to implement fully the EC Recommendation. The organisations ask them, in particular, to “give a voice to disadvantaged children, young people and families, to hold the UK Government to account on the objectives of the recommendation, and to demand that the new government engages with the reality of the UK’s child poverty crisis.”
Read UK Alliance’s briefing paper here.