Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in light of statistics on statistics on child poverty published by UNICEF showing that over half of children in poverty in the UK live in families with a child under five, why babies and young children are not identified as a specific vulnerable group in the Tackling Child Poverty – Monitoring and Evaluation Baseline Report, published on 9 July.

The Government's monitoring and evaluation framework, and baseline report, commit to assessing how child poverty trends and experiences vary across different family types and demographic groups. Children aged under five are an important group of interest, as set out in the Strategy’s evidence pack, and will continue to be considered within the Government's ongoing monitoring and analysis of child poverty outcomes.

The Government recognises the importance of the early years in shaping children's outcomes and life chances. This is why supporting children to have the best start in life is central to the Government's approach to tackling child poverty.

Our wider support for families with young children includes investing over £900 million in Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies, bringing together health, parenting support and early years services in a more connected, place-based model of support for families. Best Start Family Hubs focus on pregnancy and the early years, including the critical 1,001 days from conception to age two, helping ensure that babies, young children and their parents can access support at the earliest opportunity.