Deprivation/Child Poverty

What I do know is that the Government have a tendency not to like any report that is not favourable towards them—they do not seem to like the OECD and EUROSTAT figures, nor a range of other critical figures with which they appear to have difficulties. Furthermore, according to the Department's analysis of its own productivity, between 2002 and 2007, published in February of this year, the 2010 targets"““are unlikely to be fully met””." Both the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Department's own research say that. Surely there is a case for changing direction and for a frank reassessment of Government policy. We all want these shared targets to be met, but given that we have gone backwards and failed to make progress over the past four years, there is an argument for looking at the matter more widely. Paragraph 303 of the Work and Pensions Committee's 2003-04 report, ““Child Poverty in the UK””, stated:"““If child poverty really is to be abolished, the Government's anti-poverty programme must reach beyond raising incomes, and address the human dimension of poverty in a holistic way—increasing good parenting, aiding family stability, raising levels of educational attainment and healthcare and thus boosting children's life chances.””" Of course the Government have acted in most of those areas, although not all of them, but I am not convinced that they believe that those other areas are integral to achieving our objectives. On social mobility, I am sure that I am not alone in being appalled by the fact that a boy born poor in 1970 has a 38 per cent. probability of remaining poor as an adult, when in 1958 the figure was 31 per cent. As a Conservative, that offends me deeply. I think that everyone here would want bright children from the lowliest backgrounds to be able to achieve their undoubted potential. The fact that only a quarter of pupils on free school meals gained five good GCSEs, compared with half for the overall population, is also deeply worrying. That shows how entrenched some of these characteristics are and that we need to intervene early. The hon. Member for Bristol, East challenged me to come out with some of our policies. I think that I can partially reassure her, because we have a number of policies in place—we do not yet have the full suite, not least because at my latest count the Government have taken nine of our principal policies, and we would like to keep one or two in the locker until the general election. The report by my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green, ““Breakthrough Britain””, has been largely acknowledged by independent commentators with no link to the Conservative party as one of the most serious pieces of work on poverty by any political party in recent times. I shall return to school reform and how we can give children the best possible chances of turning their lives around so that they are not condemned to poverty for their entire lives. I am pleased that following our debate on the use of synthetic phonics in teaching children to read, it became a common cause. We have also proposed creating more than 220,000 good new school places through expanding the academies programme innovatively, and we want to ensure that money will be targeted at the poorest pupils, with more money made available for children from the poorest backgrounds through a pupil premium, so that we get rid of the disgraceful statistic that I just raised: that children on free school meals do half as well in their exams. There are also human factors at work, however, for which the Government cannot be directly responsible, through legislation. When some children, from rich or poor families, go home at the end of day, and walk through the door, they will be grabbed by the parent or carer, fed, sat down and told to get on with their homework. In other homes, a parent might not be available, because they are out, and in others the attitude towards school work will be completely different. That is not an indication, per se, of material advantage. I accept that it is more difficult in poorer homes, because the parents might be working antisocial hours, and other difficulties might be at play. But I could take Members to plenty of poor homes in my constituency where education is really valued and parents ensure that homework is done. We cannot demand that the Government deliver on that, but why is the high value placed on education by some of our immigrant communities not prevalent among the population as a whole? That human factor is critical in dealing with some of the very important issues raised by the Select Committee. The Committee's report mentioned soft skills and getting people ready and fit for work. What key disciplines does a person require if an employer is to be hungry for their services? I would put reliability and self-discipline pretty high on that list. An employer wants someone who will turn up, do what they are asked to do and be trustworthy. If children who are in difficult family circumstances are not getting those skills, what is the role of institutions? Schools have a huge role to play in developing those attitudes and qualities in children, but so do organisations such as the scouts and cadets, which the Government—all credit to them—are talking about expanding. If children are not getting those skills and disciplines at home, through their family relationships, such organisations can play a key role in achieving the outcomes that the Select Committee is rightly looking for. The Conservatives are absolutely signed up to the notion of work as the best route for getting children out of poverty. It is not the only route—there is absolutely a role for direct state intervention—but we see work as the primary way of doing that. The Government have stated that that is their intention, but the UK has the highest proportion of workless households in the whole of the European Union, including countries such as Bulgaria and Romania. That statistic is from the 2007 EUROSTAT figures. That is surely an indictment of our country's ability to participate fully in the labour market. The hon. Member for Bristol, East asked me for some policies. We have come out with innovative welfare reform policies, and the Government are moving in the same direction; indeed, only the Liberal Democrats are not. We think that every claimant who may be able to work should be engaged in full-time activity as part of the back-to-work process. In some cases, that will be through mandatory community work for the long-term unemployed. That might seem callous and unkind, but I argue that it is exactly the opposite. We all know that the longer people are out of the labour market, the less work-ready they are. They are less able to get up early enough to get to work every morning and they lose the ability to get on with the people whom they would have to work alongside. We want to enable and give much more freedom to private providers, and pay them by results only when they have got people into sustained work. I assure Labour Members that we would structure contracts in such a way that they would not cherry-pick. There must be help for those who are furthest from the labour market as well as those who are easy to approach.