We ask the question: When are we going to see action on child poverty? Because it increasingly and urgently needs an answer.
We’ve had a raft of poverty related conversations in the Stormont chamber, even in the last few days, but no sign of action.
The one in four of our children for whom poverty is now normal life deserve so much better - and in recent months a series of distress flares have gone up which prove child poverty is a growing problem.
Last month the NI Audit Office sounded a warning through a report which exposed that children living in poverty are being failed badly by government here.
Its key recommendation was the urgent creation of an integrated, cross departmental, anti-poverty strategy.
It found the previous Child Poverty Strategy (2016-22) “set no clear targets for poverty reduction” and didn’t even have a proper budget.
Then just weeks later another distress flare went up, this time in the form of statistics which showed there has been a significant 6 % rise in the number of children living in poverty over the last few years.
Surely this should have been a wake-up call, a shock to the system? But there was surprisingly little public focus on the mammoth task of tackling this.
The update on our poverty problem didn’t seem to send shockwaves reverberating through the political system in the way we believe it should have.
Of course we welcome the debates there have been in the Assembly since Stormont returned - on the sibling tax, childcare, school uniform prices and holiday hunger payments.
All of these are crucial jigsaw pieces in the poverty picture here but where are the signs of action?
Departments urgently need to come together collectively to tackle child poverty with real intent and a ring-fenced budget.
That process should include experts and organisations working to end child poverty, but it’s vital that those making the decisions include children in the design and delivery of strategy.
We simply can’t address the causes and consequences of poverty without the inclusion of children affected by it. There is a crying need for a new anti-poverty strategy which places children’s voices at its heart. Other jurisdictions on these islands have child poverty strategies, why don’t we?
One young mum recently told us about her struggles to feed her family after a delay in receiving child payment left her family short of money and food.
“You basically go hungry,” she said. “You have one meal and my coping mechanism was for myself and my husband to eat oats or got to food banks.”
Many families out there face these heart-rending realities.
The creation of a Programme for Government is a real opportunity for the Executive to put into action the words spoken during recent political debates linked to poverty.
But words won’t stop children going hungry, living in cold homes and missing out on all of the possibilities they deserve; only ambitious leadership and action can do that. We need political leaders to take responsibility for tackling child poverty; children’s futures depend on it.
And the big question is how long must they be left to wait on the change they so desperately need?
:: Jude Hill-Mitchell is Senior Media Manager at Save the Children NI