Ms Karen Kiernan:

We had mentioned the national child poverty action plan in our submission. There is an opportunity, as was mentioned, with the EU child guarantee. We can politically focus on that and develop a plan. It is unclear how much funding will be available for it, but it is not very significant. There is a need and opportunity to have a broader, whole-of-government child poverty action plan. That is where we are saying there is a possibility, when a national plan is in place, to look at local implementation structures. The ones used for children at present are children and young people's services committees. They could be very useful.

As part of the recommendations we made in our submission, we were saying most poor children live in one-parent families and to focus on them. The EU child guarantee also talks about very marginalised families such as Roma, Traveller and ethnic minorities and those living in direct provision, whose children are very marginalised. There is an opportunity to do something for some of those children by focusing on specific target groups.

Structural national policy barriers also need to be removed, including making work pay for lone parents; letting them get into education and keep child maintenance or making sure there is a system for that to be paid. Many of the problems are at a national policy level and need to be resolved at that point. We say get that bit right and then look at how things can be improved at a local level. People need something to work with and they do not necessarily have it yet.