Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2022-26: Evaluation approach to system change

Background

Evidence shows the wide range of interacting factors that influence child poverty and the diversity in experiences of poverty for different households. Interventions which focus on a single factor alone are unlikely to lead to sustainable change. Instead, a number of different forms of support are likely to be needed to help people move out of poverty, in different combinations, for different family circumstances.

Therefore, there are a wide range of services that play a role in addressing child poverty. This is what is known as the child poverty support system. A recent mapping exercise shows the complexity of the current local child poverty support systems.

During the first Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, Every Child, Every Chance, we learned that many families find the system overly complex as it can be hard for individuals to navigate the wide range of support and varying eligibility requirements. There was limited join-up between policies at national and local level

The second Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, Best Start Bright Futures, aimed to improve join-up and simplify the system by introducing a range of policies supporting system change and improved ways of working.

This document summarises the approach to assessing progress towards system change in the context of child poverty.