Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, has urged the government to invest billions in supporting vulnerable children and families, saying the pandemic had pushed child poverty into the spotlight in an unprecedented way.
She told MPs that the crisis had brought into focus the inequalities of poorer children’s lives, covering housing, nutrition, outdoor space, community support and digital learning. “Children fared disproportionately badly during the pandemic if they were living in poverty before,” she said.
The Social Market Foundation thinktank estimated that 14% of British children – 1.7 million in total – have faced such persistent hunger during the months of the pandemic that they could be classed as suffering “very low food security”.
Longfield told MPs that during lockdown, support services for vulnerable families had at best gone online but may have disappeared entirely. At one point referrals to social services in England had halved. “Children were just not in the line of sight to get help.”
Too many children were poor but their working parents did not qualify for free school meals, food vouchers or council assistance, she said. “They are not in crisis enough to get help from the council in terms of social services, but they still need help.”
Her comments were echoed by the headteachers of three schools in deprived areas of England, who gave evidence about problems with child development, holiday food provision, and access to laptops and digital learning during the pandemic.
Existing child poverty sharply exposed by pandemic, MPs told | Poverty | The Guardian
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