Government accused of 'missing an opportunity' with its levelling up plan
Katy Morton
Thursday, February 3, 2022
The Government’s Levelling Up White Paper has attracted further criticism for failing to tackle child poverty and provide ‘sensible solutions’.
Published yesterday, the White Paper outlines measures to tackle regional inequality and close the gap between rich and poor areas by 2030 through improving education, children’s literacy, training and services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The National Education Union (NEU) has however said that the plans do not ‘provide sensible solutions’ to the lack of school and college funding. It also accuses the Department for Education (DfE) of not ‘reading its own reports about the impact of Covid on learning, children’s confidence and areas of young people’s development such as speech and language.’
It comes after the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) highlighted the lack of support for early years in the levelling up plans, which the Early Years Alliance called 'absurd' given that the White Paper acknowledges that ‘children’s early experiences affect lifelong physical and emotional health.'
Charities also expressed disappointment that the White Paper does not include measures to tackle child poverty.
In a joint statement, Save the Children, The Children’s Society, Barnardo’s, Action for Children and the National Children’s Bureau, said, ‘Levelling up cannot succeed while families experience rising poverty, debt, homelessness and hunger.’
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said the Government had missed an opportunity to ‘change the free school meals policy so every child who needs one gets a meal at school.’
Chief executive Alison Garnham explained, ‘How is it levelling up if almost a million children living in England under the poverty line are denied a free school meal? The Government must reform the eligibility criteria so that at a minimum every family receiving universal credit or equivalent benefits qualifies for free school meals. Any credible levelling up plan would ensure children have enough to eat.’
The NFER (National Federation for Educational Research) advised that any investment to raise educational outcomes and tackle future skills gaps through training, would need to be of ‘sufficient scale to tackle the challenges’, while the National Literacy Trust said the ‘challenge to level up literacy must not be underestimated.’
Economic think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies also suggested the Government may have chosen its destination 'with no sense' of how to get there.
