Care Not Respite From Poverty: Welsh Child Poverty Strategy Response

NYAS Cymru (National Youth Advocacy Service Wales) has today responded to the Welsh Government’s draft Child Poverty Strategy for Wales consultation, calling for a revised strategy to be produced.

The Child Poverty Strategy for Wales was intended to build on previous commitments made in 2015 but NYAS Cymru has expressed concern that there is a significant lack of ambition within this new strategy. Worryingly, the Welsh Government has not set any tangible plans for how they intend to monitor and report on progress, or included any objectives, targets or a timeline for achieving progress to eradicate child poverty in Wales.

Wales has the highest rate of child poverty amongst all the devolved nations, with 28% of children in Wales living in relative poverty between March 2021 and 2022. Children are increasingly entering the care system due to poverty, yet the strategy fails to provide long-term deliverable targets to prevent this from happening. NYAS Cymru believes that care should not be a respite from poverty, nor should children leave care only to enter back into poverty. 

NYAS Cymru is calling on Welsh Government to revise this strategy, reproduced within a children’s rights framework with a strong vision for eradicating child poverty in Wales. At the point where the Welsh Government decides to create an ambitious child poverty strategy, NYAS Cymru remains committed to offering our support to produce an ambitious draft child poverty strategy, underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

To read NYAS Cymru’s response in full, please visit the link below.