The report stated: “Northern Ireland does not currently have a childcare strategy “

A new Audit Office Report has found that 1 in 5 children in Northern Ireland are living in relative poverty before housing costs. The ‘Child Poverty in Northern Ireland’ report found that over the last 8 years, there has been a lack of significant progress in reducing levels of child poverty.

The report assessed the effectiveness of Stormont’s 2016-22 child poverty strategy, which aimed to tackle the ’causes and consequences’ of child poverty in the region. The findings were grim. The new report outlines a significant lack of progress in tackling child poverty since 2016 as 20% of children in the North live in relative poverty. A further 7-9% live in low income households that are unable to afford basic household essentials.

The impacts of child poverty are not just restricted to the early years of a person’s life, but extend well into adulthood, due to health inequalities. The report demonstrated that children who have lived in poverty are expected to have 11-15 fewer years of good health than children their age from wealthier backgrounds. Educational inequality becomes a huge risk with child poverty, as children on the free-school-meal scheme are twice as likely to leave school with zero GCSEs.

Support and strategies to tackle child poverty in Northern Ireland are much worse than the rest on the UK. The report stated that: “Northern Ireland does not currently have a childcare strategy and provides considerably less government support for childcare costs than in England, Scotland and Wales.” The report puts this failure down, in part, due to a lack of communication between departments, causing a lack of accountability. “Siloed working can lead to siloed interventions and, ultimately, to poorer outcomes.”

The Northern Ireland Executive has committed to a new anti-poverty strategy. However, Comptroller and Auditor General Dorinnia Carville has pointed out that these promises need to be “supported with clear accountability arrangements and a move away from silo working towards a truly collaborative cross-departmental approach to tackling this challenging but vitally important issue.”

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