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A lot of my casework and the problems of constituents who come to see me at my advice surgeries stems from a background of poverty. As a result, child poverty is something very close to my heart, so when I found out that Child Poverty Action Group were holding an event in Parliament, I jumped at the chance to attend and to sign their pledge to become, what they call, a 'Child Poverty Champion.'

Now, 'champion,' in my opinion, is an overused word within politics and the media these days, but, in this case, I know exactly what the charity is implying by it. They want MPs to go beyond their national role in Parliament and what their parties are doing on child poverty and the 2020 targets, and to work independently in their constituencies to bring about an end to child poverty from the bottom up.

This seems like an almighty task, but by bringing partners, like local councils, schools, service providers and the voluntary sector, together, we can take real action locally to improve the services and opportunities that will help bring children, and their families, out of poverty. In some ways, this local task seems easier than the national challenge, although I know from the work I've already done in this area that ending child poverty is no mean feat.


It may surprise you to know that Britain has one of the highest child poverty rates in Europe. This has obvious appalling impacts on the life chances of many children. Just by raising the understanding of what child poverty means we can make people aware of the challenges low income families face, and then they may feel more able to help.

If you want to find out more, you can go to Child Poverty Action Group's website. Some things do take a community's backing to change.