Latest figures suggest that over one in four children in Wales live in households with less than 60% of the average income. Save the Children thinks that much can be achieved to tackle the causes and effects of child poverty at a local level. Poverty is not just about income. Children, young people and families living in poor households often experience difficulties accessing and benefiting from services such as decent housing, education, transport, healthcare.

Both Local Authorities and Communities First Partnership Boards have much to contribute. We think it’s important that people have a clear understanding of what child poverty is, how it’s measured, what it’s causes are and how it can be tackled at a local level. Every service delivered (or not delivered) at a local level has an impact on children, including poor children. In order to develop a better understanding we have developed a child poverty training module which can be delivered over a half day session.

• Lobby the Welsh Assembly Government to fund and implement it's child poverty strategy. This should include a clear action plan for delivery with key identified milestones and mechanisms to monitor progress over time
• Secure high quality services and opportunities for children and young people marginalised by poverty and social disadvantage and continuing to lobby WAG on key areas such as access to health, transport, leisure, family support and also seeks to address negative effects poverty such as low self-esteem and bullying
• Ensure that both the UK Government and the Welsh Assembly Government develop systematic and comprehensive indicators to monitor child poverty and specifically those in severe and persistent poverty
• Develop a shared understanding and increasing awareness of the impact of Income, Service and Participation poverty on children's lives
• Promote children and young people's involvement in local solutions to poverty issues, specifically to increase their involvement within the Welsh Assembly Governments Communities First initiative.

Underpinned by a commitment to securing children's rights, enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Save the Children is committed to working to ensure that government uses ‘the maximum extent of available resources’ (UNCRC) to tackle child poverty, to ensure that all children have a standard of living adequate for their proper development (Article 27, UNCRC). Non-devolved issues such as taxation and the benefits system are crucial to addressing income poverty, however there are many elements contributing to the causes and effects of child poverty which can be addressed at a local and national level here in Wales.