For more information on the End Child Poverty Network Cymru, please contact:

Anita Myfanwy

Doc Fictoria, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1TH

Tel: 01286 677570

E-mail: Anita.Myfanwy@childreninwales.org.uk

The UK is the fourth largest economy in the world but conversely has one of the highest levels of child poverty of all industrialised countries. Recent figures show that 32 per cent of children in Wales are living in poverty, higher than the British average.

The End Child Poverty Network Cymru is a coalition of concern focused on the eradication of child poverty in Wales, co-ordinated and managed on a day-to-day basis by Children in Wales. Its steering group include representation from across the voluntary and statutory sectors and the Network has an increasing supporting membership from a broad cross-section of agencies.

Steering Group members include

Barnardo’s Cymru, Children in Wales, Save the Children Wales, NEA Wales, Action for Children, NSPCC Cymru, Citizens Advice, Public Health Wales, Oxfam Cymru, Shelter Cymru, the Frank Buttle Trust, Fairbridge Cymru, Consumer Focus Wales. The WLGA, the Partnership Support Unit, the Wales TUC and the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for Wales act as observers.

The End Child Poverty Network Cymru, operational since 2001, is supporting the Government's vision that no child in Wales should be living in poverty by 2020, and is working to achieve this by

• Increased public and professional understanding of child poverty in Wales
• Public and professional support for measures to tackle child poverty
• Ensure that policies are in place at all levels of Government (local, Assembly and Westminster), which contribute to eradicating child poverty in Wales. The Steering Group meet with the Deputy Minister for Children, Huw Lewis twice a year and with the Assembly Government's Child Poverty Unit regularly to discuss policies to tackle child poverty.

By joining the network you will receive a free monthly e-bulletin.

Our achievements:

• Successfully lobbied the Welsh Assembly Government for a child poverty strategy in Wales
• Lobbied for and participated in the Child Poverty Task Group
• Gave evidence to Welsh Affairs Select Committee inquiry on child poverty
• Responses to Welsh Assembly and UK Government consultations