In its report, the cross-party committee claims that some of the Government’s policy developments have worked against the best interests of children, leaving them experiencing the ‘hard-edge of austerity’, with mounting threats to their basic human rights.
It says that the cumulative impact of cuts to services, the cost of living crisis, and changes to the welfare system, means some children in England are not having their basic needs for shelter and food met, and can’t access the services which are supposed to support families.
This is despite the Government’s commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which states that ‘the best interests of children must be a primary concern in making decisions that affect them’.
As a result, the committee says that the Government’s statutory duty to eliminate child poverty by 2020 must be regarded as a human rights issue.
It also states that the Government needs to work harder to minimise the effect on children of cuts to funding as much as possible.
Dr Hywel Francis MP, chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, said, ‘The 2010 commitment by the Government to have due regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child when making policy and law was a bold and welcome step. In many areas things have improved for children over this Parliament as a result, although the momentum set in train in 2010 has slowed considerably in some areas. We hope the new Government will renew that commitment and that our successor committee will monitor how children’s rights are fully take into account in new law and policy.’