By Tom Pottrill, Policy Officer at Resolve Poverty, co-authored with Professor John Hudson, Dr Jed Meers, Professor Neil Lunt and Dr Kit Colliver, all of University of York
Labour’s “mission-driven government” promises a new approach to policymaking, eliminating silos between Whitehall departments while devolving decision-making to communities, in order to harness the energy of all in pursuit of five missions for national renewal. These commitments will be put to the test as the ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce looks to deliver on Labour’s promise to “develop an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty” as a central plank of its mission to ”break down the barriers to opportunity.”
We recently conducted focus groups with key local and regional stakeholders in England as part of a programme of research on sub-national welfare systems. Participants told us that the government’s new Child Poverty Strategy, and its plans for further devolution of power in England, present a real opportunity for mayors to play a stronger role in the fight against poverty. Indeed, there is a real appetite for regions to strengthen their role, building on their existing activities and further complementing the role of local and national government.
Some great examples emerged during our research of the role already being played by England’s regional government in tackling poverty. In the North East, Kim McGuinness is blazing the trail for regional government, having made child poverty reduction her number one priority with the establishment of a North East Child Poverty Reduction Unit. We heard from other representatives, from various authorities, who emphasised their role in building capacity to support local authorities and other public bodies, and convening regional stakeholders with partners drawn from local government and the VCSE and private sectors.
While there is more that central government could do to set the tone and direction for regions in tackling poverty – and to ensure regional powers are aligned with an expanded mission – our research also suggests combined authorities and their local government partners could improve their effectiveness by building on existing examples of best practice around England. This could include ensuring there is strong coordination on anti-poverty work across constituent local authorities, and building compelling local and regional-level leadership of these agendas. Such changes, though relatively small in scale, would leave many regions better placed to play a leading role in helping to deliver the Child Poverty Strategy.
Of course, in practice, improving coordination will entail addressing a multitude of knotty issues. Many of the barriers to effective working described by our focus group participants were around the challenges of collaboration across multiple layers of government. National government sets the “terms of reference” for sub-national government, so it should provide greater guidance on how to overcome these challenges and to ensure more effective cooperation across the layers of government.
Early work on the Child Poverty Strategy has underlined the real opportunity for mayors to lead in the fight against poverty. Indeed, there has not been a more opportune time since the advent of English devolution to renew focus. Empowering regional authorities, by devolving powers and boosting funding downstream, can and should contribute to a more effective, strategic response to poverty across England. The government urgently needs to clarify their role in this mission and empower them to execute it.
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This article is featured in our 11 December newsletter.
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