For 24 months now families across Northern Ireland have been dealing with one of the deepest cost-of-living crises in living memory without a functioning local government.  Almost 2 years on, a properly functioning Executive is critical to the mammoth task of tackling child poverty.   At Save the Children NI we urge all political parties to centre a new Programme for Government around children and begin to make-up for the years that have been lost.

We know that the need in our communities is great. Parents wait in desperation for an urgent fix to a broken childcare system, cash-strapped schools make cuts while getting on with the job, children languish on waiting lists for mental health support and families get into debt while trying to meet hefty school uniform bills.  We need a government that is willing to bring practical change for children, turn its attention to the rising level of poverty and centre policy making around the needs of the most vulnerable.

Head of Save the Children NI, Peter Bryson said:

“We’ve waited too long, our children deserve to be placed front and centre of policy making; their future depends on it and they need to be listened to!

“We have been seeing new levels of desperation from many families that our community partners work with. On top of that the Community & Voluntary sector has been shouldering the burden of Stormont not sitting & it is feeling the pressure like never before. 

“There is now no time to waste, we need to see tackling poverty prioritised by our political leaders.  They need to deal with realities and make alleviating the real strain families and children are experiencing their top motivator.”

For further information contact - j.hill@savethechildren.org.uk