The government should appoint a poverty tsar, have a children’s minister attend cabinet and extend free meals to all children in settings with the greatest need, a former children’s commissioner has said.
A new report from Anne Longfield’s Centre for Young Lives think tank and Child of the North project also called for a government plan to support schools to reduce the impact of poverty and a child poverty unit in Downing Street.
The report includes new data from more than 60,000 pupils collected by the Connected Bradford project – set up to link education data with that of health, social care and other parts of local government.
It found 57 per cent of those identified as persistently absent in the district were eligible for free school meals. Eligible children were also three times more likely to become persistently absent at some point.
