Reducing essential costs, increasing incomes and enhancing early years support for struggling families in Sheffield Heeley are key targets for the Government’s Child Poverty Taskforce, ministers have said, as they publish a plan to create an ambitious 10-year strategy for lasting change.

A framework for the Taskforce, published today, outlines how it will build a strategy to reduce the number of children living in poverty across the UK, including in Sheffield Heeley, within this Parliament and beyond, looking at all available levers across government to give all children the best start in life – from improving public services to building financial resilience.

The Ministerial Taskforce will continue to confront the drivers of poverty through ways such as helping parents into more secure work and alleviating the direct impacts of deprivation ahead of the publication of its strategy in Spring 2025.

A new panel of parents and carers living across all four nations will be set up to ensure the experiences of children in poverty, including those with special educational needs and disabilities are included in the strategy. They will report in regularly to the Taskforce.

Leading organisations such as Citizens Advice, the National Children’s Bureau and End Child Poverty Coalition will share their knowledge with ministers, and a new board of leading academics and experts on tackling poverty will inform, test and scrutinise the work being done on the Strategy.

Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley, said: 

“It is unacceptable that in 2024, we still have children in this country going hungry. The fact that 34% of children in the community where I’ve lived my whole life are now living in poverty is nothing short of heartbreaking. These statistics are not just numbers, they represent the very real and devastating consequences of neglect by the previous Government, who, for 14 years, turned a blind eye to this growing crisis.

“Poverty doesn’t just affect children’s futures; it stifles their potential from the moment they are born. It impacts their health, their education, and, crucially, their sense of self-worth and wellbeing. We cannot allow this to continue.

“Today’s announcement of a Labour-led taskforce to tackle child poverty signals a clear departure from the failures of the past. This is more than just words , this is real, meaningful change. We promised action, and with this taskforce, we are delivering on that promise.”