Welfare Reform Bill (Instruction)

Jenny Willott Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Jenny Willott (Cardiff Central) (LD)]

I am not as cynical as the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green)—I am sure that she does not mind my saying that—although I appreciate that the motion before us is limited and should not be broadened into a big debate about child poverty. There is a great deal of cross-party agreement that tackling child poverty and social mobility is extremely important. There is also cross-party agreement that child poverty levels in the UK are still worrying and that much work remains to be done to improve the situation. Those are areas about which I am sure we will have much more extended arguments in the Welfare Reform Bill Committee. I look forward to having those debates in the next few weeks.

We have learned that if we are really to tackle child poverty, we need to tackle social mobility at the same time. The two are so completely interrelated that working in silos will not be effective in the long term. It is not enough just to tackle the income coming into families; we also need to look much more broadly, including at the education and work opportunities available to the parents. The hon. Lady made the point about income levels in families, but we know that if children and their families really are to be lifted out of poverty, we need to talk about a lot more than that. I therefore welcome the fact that the Government plan to look at the issues in the round, combining the two areas together.

[Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con)]

I agree entirely that bringing child poverty and social issues together is important. However, the Child Poverty Act 2010 does not apply in Wales, so we also need certainty that the social mobility elements will be looked at carefully in the Welsh context.

[Jenny Willott]

There are issues with child poverty in Wales. The hon. Gentleman and I represent Welsh constituencies. Child poverty levels in Wales are, I believe, higher than in other parts of the UK, just as incomes are much lower. If we are going to tackle the issue in Wales, just as in England and in Scotland, we need to look not just at welfare packages but more broadly at the opportunities available to children and young people, as well as their parents, so that they get the best opportunities. I hope that the Minister will say what she is doing with the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Parliament. We need a lot of co-ordination with the devolved Administrations, because many issues affecting social mobility are devolved matters such as education. If we are to take the issue seriously, we need to ensure good communication and liaison between the devolved Administrations and Departments in Whitehall.

I look forward to debating the issue further in Committee, but I would be grateful if the Minister responded to a couple of issues this evening. First, can she let us know more about why she feels that combining the expansion of the commission with the proposed change in its remit will increase accountability or ensure that the Government achieve their objectives? For many years Governments have talked the talk, but they have not necessarily walked the walk. I would like the Minister to say more about why she thinks the change will make a difference by delivering good progress on tackling child poverty. I would also be grateful if she gave more detail about the timing of the child poverty and social mobility strategies, how they will interact with the establishment of the new commission and how the process will work.

I welcome today’s proposal and look forward to debating it in Committee in the coming weeks, in what I am sure will be significantly more depth.

[Mr Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Lab)]

Let me add two brief comments to our debate today. The first is directed towards the Liberal Democrats, as I read in the papers that social mobility is an issue that the Deputy Prime Minister is going to take under his wing. I feel in a good mood, so may I offer them some advice? We in this House might know what social mobility means, but if my constituents are anything to go by, nobody out there knows what the hell the Government or the Liberal Democrats are going on about when they talk about social mobility. My constituents all understand the phrase “life chances” and whether the Government have a strategy in place to ensure that every child in this country has a chance to get a better job than their parents, but if we continue to talk about social mobility, they turn the volume down or switch off. Although I do not mind facing the electorate in such circumstances, the policy is too important to allow the Government or the Liberal Democrats to continue to go over the top, shouting language that neither supporters nor enemies can understand.

[Jenny Willott]

I completely understand what the right hon. Gentleman is saying. We would all agree that the phrase does not mean very much to most people, but given that it is the jargon that has been used for many years by Governments of all colours, can he suggest a phrase that would be more helpful and productive and that people would understand?

[Mr Field]

Quite honestly, when we resume debate on the Bill, I would favour the phrase “life chances and poverty” or calling the commission the poverty and life chances commission, because poverty is the aspect that we are trying to break.

That brings me to the second, perhaps slightly more substantial point that I would like to contribute to today’s debate. When the Prime Minister asked me to conduct and submit a report to him about the foundation years, there was concern on the Opposition Benches that the huge intellectual and political efforts and the resources that the Labour Government had put into trying to tackle and finally abolish child poverty might somehow be dissipated, as though that report would be used as some terrible smokescreen. What is so good about today’s debate is that the discussion has moved on from there. I cannot emphasise enough how much I welcome that. However, I want to suggest that building up the foundation years should become a goal, so that a first building block in any strategy would be for many more children to start their first day of education better able to benefit from that education, rather than have primary schools spending most of their efforts doing rescue work. That has not occurred before. If the Government are concerned with that objective, and also with Labour’s commitment to abolishing child poverty by 2020, initially, in the short run, there is no conflict.

I draw the House’s attention to a report commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that was published a couple of years ago. It looked at what ways are open to the Government if they are serious about reducing the number of children in child poverty as Labour defined that in the 2010 Act. There is a medley of ways, but the one that held the greatest prospect for the quickest advances was building up high-quality child care. As my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) said, if that were in place, many more parents would make the effort to take themselves out of poverty.

In a not-so-recent letter to the Chancellor, I asked him whether he will make a decision soon on the recommendation in my report. I asked him not to increase automatically benefit rates for children, but to see whether some of that money, in some years, could be better spent on building up the foundation years, as we call them in my report. Clearly, if some of that money were transferred from future years into building up high-quality child care, and if we avoided cutting such provision, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston said, more children might be ready to benefit from their full-time education from their first day of school onwards. That is the best move the Government can make to reduce the number of children in poverty, year by year.

I rose to welcome the measure, which takes the debate forward. Hon. Members can get excited about it, but if the Government are serious about talking to our voters, they need to drop the term “social mobility” and come up with a phrase that we can all understand.