What recent progress the child poverty taskforce has made on publishing a child poverty strategy.

What recent progress the child poverty taskforce has made on publishing a child poverty strategy.

Tackling child poverty is a moral mission for the Labour party, because we believe that someone’s background should not determine what they go on to achieve in life. Scrapping the two-child limit will mean that we can deliver the largest reduction in child poverty in a single Parliament, and we will publish the child poverty strategy in the coming weeks.

The Government’s very welcome decision to end the two-child cap on benefits will, alongside free school meals and breakfast clubs, transform the lives of 2,500 children living in my Dartford Constituency, and contribute to our manifesto goal of tackling child poverty. Will the Secretary of State tell the House when more schools in Dartford will be eligible to join the roll-out of free breakfast clubs to primary schools across the country?

Labour’s free breakfast clubs have already served 5 million meals, including in Knockhall primary school and Sedley’s primary school in Dartford. Applications are now open to join the next wave from April, with 2,000 more schools set to join in the next financial year, making the clubs available to half a million more children. I encourage eligible schools to get their applications in by the end of the week, so that we can give children in Dartford, and across our country, the best start to their day.

I welcome the announcement that the two-child benefit cap will be scrapped, lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. However, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research and Praxis, there are an estimated 382,000 children in poverty whose families are subject to no recourse to public funds and who will not be helped by that measure. Will the Secretary of State promise me that the child poverty strategy will include extra assistance for migrant households?

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising her concern. We are working with the Home Office and with colleagues across Government in developing the child poverty strategy. We will focus on ensuring that vulnerable children are protected and their welfare is safeguarded, and that vulnerable migrant children receive the support they require.

Rural areas have deep pockets of deprivation, and nearly 18% of children in Glastonbury and Somerton live in poverty. How will the Minister ensure that the child poverty strategy sufficiently focuses on child poverty in rural areas?

I recognise the particular challenges faced by many rural communities, and I am grateful to the hon. Lady for raising them. We have been considering such matters through the development of the strategy. The taskforce has been working across Government, including with colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to understand some of the challenges. We are expanding childcare and new free breakfast clubs, and the lifting of the two-child limit will make a big difference to children and their life chances in every corner of our country.

Teachers across Leicester South, where, in some areas, child poverty is unfortunately near 70%, tell me that student anxiety and poor health are rising, partly driven by insecure, damp and cold housing. Schools are unfortunately being forced to act as frontline welfare services, absorbing pressures that should never fall on teachers alone, such as helping people to fill in forms. Will the Minister reassure them that the child poverty strategy, which is to be published this week, will address the link between child poverty and poor health?

Yes, we are looking at that question and at the issue of temporary accommodation that the hon. Member raises. This is a cross-Government strategy and not for the Department for Education to solve alone, although the lifting of the two-child limit is an investment not just in our children and their life chances but in our schools and education. I have heard too many stories of teachers and staff across the country having to pick up the pieces because of wider societal failure. Ending the two-child limit rights that wrong, and invests in our young people.