Child Poverty Bill
12:00 pm
Dr. Ridge: Okay. May I start by saying that I very much welcome the Bill? I think that it is a very important mechanism for keeping children’s needs and concerns central in the policy process. They very easily drift out to the margins—that has certainly happened in the past—which is to their disadvantage. I agree with you completely, John, that poverty—and family poverty—is an exceedingly multifaceted issue, and tackling it needs many different approaches. The Bill in itself is an important part of that, in the sense that it has a strategy of focus, annual reports and a framework to keep children’s needs central in policy as we go through time, so I think that that is very important. There are aspects of the Bill that I would like to see strengthened, and it cannot exist on its own, of course. There have to be very important, very well thought-through strategies right across the board to get some real developments in the area.