Reaction to child poverty statistics - Save the Children
Gareth Jenkins, Save the Children’s Director of UK Poverty Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns said:
“It’s unacceptable that nearly one in three children in the UK today are growing up in poverty. Today’s figures remain stubbornly high, resulting in a life time of reduced opportunity for millions of children across the UK.
“The situation is even more worrying for children under five who are far less likely to do well at school if they spend this crucial period of their childhoods trapped in poverty; and are most at risk – with half of all children in poverty coming from this young group.
“We need to act now to reduce this worrying trend so poverty no longer acts as a barrier for thousands of children’s life chances.
“We know the early years are the ‘golden years’ for changing these odds. In England we must focus on early investment in children’s futures with good quality early years teaching, which we know reduces the devastating blow poverty delivers to future life chances.”
