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The prime minister has said the government will enshrine in law the target of abolishing child poverty by 2020.
In his speech to Labour Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday, the prime minister set out a range of measures to reduce inequalities and improve social mobility.
"The economic times are tough," he acknowledged, "of course that makes things harder".
"But we are in this for the long haul - the complete elimination of child poverty by 2020.
"And so today I announce my intention to introduce ground-breaking legislation to enshrine in law Labour's pledge to end child poverty."
As well as reaffirming his commitment to the child poverty target, he promised to take tougher action against failing schools, with parents to be given new rights to intervene.
And Brown also confirmed plans to provide every schoolchild with broadband internet access at home and extend free part-time childcare to two-year-olds.
Internet access
The prime minister announced that parents are to be offered vouchers worth up to £700 to connect the 1.4 million children growing up in homes without a computer.
"To ensure that we are prepared for the times to come, the government will fund one million more households to get online, enabling parents to link with the teachers at their children's school and helping young people with their homework and coursework," he said.
The measure is intended to boost the performance of students and allow parents to receive regular updates about their children through emails from schools.
About one million households will be entitled to the Education Technology Allowance voucher when the three-year programme - paid for from savings from the Department for Children, Schools and Families budget - is rolled out from 2010/11.
The means-tested programme, which aims to provide broadband connections, software and computers for school-age children, will cost £300m.
Stakeholder response: Wise Group
The Wise Group welcomes this announcement from the government. Ending child poverty now is an urgent task – not just for those children currently experiencing poverty, but also for future generations: children born into poverty are more likely to become poor adults, and their children are more likely to be poor. Backing such an important commitment with legislation will bring the impetus to deliver an improvement to the lives of the one in three children that, according to the End Child Poverty campaign, live in poverty in the UK today.
The strength of legislation is particularly important in light of recent comments by Donald Hirsch, poverty adviser to Joseph Rowntree Foundation that "after a six year period of falling, child poverty rose in the two years to April 2007, wiping out some of the previous gains…to meet the [child poverty] target, a total of 1.2 million will need to benefit."
We call on the government to follow enactment of legislation with policies to address the root causes of poverty, without reducing support given to those currently living in poverty to deal with the results and symptoms of it. The capacity of those living in poverty is often greatly restricted by structural barriers, inequalities and a lack of resources. For example, 42 per cent of children in poverty are living in lone parent families, and one in three children in poverty has a parent with a self-reported disability or long-term health condition. Such challenges faced by parents need to be addressed to reach and sustain a context where no child in the UK lives in poverty.
Employment, whilst not a panacea for all of the problems associated with poverty, has a fundamental role in tackling poverty. Paid work can, if of a suitable quality, be important in tackling poverty, not just through the obvious effect of increased income, but through the positive impact that work can have on health, self esteem, and social capital.
As an organisation that has helped over 25 000 people move into work over the last 25 years, the Wise Group urges the government to do more to open up opportunities for unemployed people both through public sector employment and through private sector partners, using the power of procurement.
The focus, however, must simultaneously be on high quality work, with opportunities for training and further development. Nearly half of all children in poverty are in families where someone is in employment: work alone is insufficient to end child poverty. Low pay thus makes a significant contribution to poverty and the government should support the concept of a Living Wage.
Post employment support is a critical factor in helping those in vulnerable positions in the labour market to stay and progress in work, and greater investment should be put into this kind of intervention. This is of particular importance since transitions into and out of work are one of the key risk factors of severe poverty. Particular difficulties are experienced by families who move in and out of employment, enduring a 'low pay no pay' cycle.
The role of legislation to underpin commitment to end child poverty is an important development amongst a range of actions that are required to achieve this commendable aspiration.
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