Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how they will assess whether investment in early intervention children’s services is contributing to reducing and alleviating child poverty, in line with the child poverty contextual outcome in the Local Outcomes Framework.

We are taking significant action to rebalance children’s services, investing in effective early intervention to reduce the need for costly crisis support and improve outcomes for children and families. This includes investing £2.4 billion in the Families First Partnership programme, which gives families and children access to better local family help services to and supports more children and families to stay safely together.

Addressing child poverty is a key priority of this government. We will assess the contribution of this investment in early intervention services through the child poverty contextual outcome in the Local Outcomes Framework and through the monitoring and evaluation of the Child Poverty Strategy. We will continue to monitor progress against outcomes framework metrics, including the Keeping Children Safe priority outcome.

We also continue to have a dedicated child poverty team monitoring progress across government, bringing together departmental reporting and evidence on delivery and outcomes, with ministers providing oversight through the Interministerial Group on Child Poverty.