Rugby MP Mark Pawsey reiterated his support for disadvantaged children during a debate on poverty and life chances held in the House of Commons on Thursday.
The debate focused on Frank Field MP’s government-commissioned report ‘The Foundation Years: preventing poor children becoming poor adults’. The report, together with MP Graham Allen’s work on early intervention measures, will form part of the government’s strategy on child poverty to be announced this March.
Mark, a former pupil of Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby, was congratulated on his speech by his former classmate David Mowatt, now MP for Warrington South who spoke immediately afterwards. Reminiscing of their childhood days, David fondly recalled
“He and I started 43 years ago in the same class..... and I am delighted that his life chances have not been overly impacted by that experience”.
In his speech Mark said:
“Many children born into the very poorest families will typically spend their entire lives in poverty. And many of the costly and damaging social problems in society arise because we are not giving children the right type of support in their earliest years”.
Mark added:
“I am fully supportive of the Field Report’s proposals for a tripartite educational system, divided into ‘the foundation years’, ‘the school years’ and ‘the further, higher and continuing education stage’. A child’s development should be counted from the day it is born, not its first day of school. I am therefore pleased that the Report has proposed several recommendations for change”.
Mark concluded:
“The government has already introduced several additional measures such as a refocusing of Sure Start and the introduction of the pupil premium. This, together with the handing back of power to local communities, is a step in the right direction in the fight against child poverty. I hope that the government’s longer term strategy on child poverty will take into account the conclusions of the Field and Allen Reports, both incredibly valuable contributions to the debate”.