Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure that the requirements of children with special educational needs and disabilities are included in the child poverty strategy.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving the life chances for every child. For too many children, living in poverty robs them of the opportunity to achieve and thrive.

On 23 October 2024 the government published ‘Tackling Child Poverty: Developing Our Strategy’. This report sets out how the government will develop the strategy, including an engagement plan, which will harness all available levers to deliver a reduction in child poverty this Parliament as part of an ambitious ten-year Strategy. The report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-poverty-developing-our-strategy.

As part of the Taskforce’s engagement plan, a new forum of parents and carers living across the UK will be set up to ensure the experiences of children in poverty, including disabled children and those with special educational needs, are included. They will feed directly into the Strategy.