UK child poverty snakes and ladders

The improvements in child poverty levels made by the UK prior to the global financial crisis could well be reversed under present circumstances, a report from the OECD suggests. In its survey of family wellbeing across OECD countries, the thinktank shows that UK child poverty levels fell more than any other OECD country, from 17.5% in 1995 to 10.5% in 2005, below the OECD average of 12.7% . Between 2003 and 2007, UK government spending on families was higher than most of its peers. However, the OECD warns that cutting back on early years services could threaten this progress, as it limits the ability of parents to get back into work. Childcare costs are one of the biggest barriers, the OECD argues, but not the only factor. Interviewed in the Guardian, one of the report's authors also suggested that how the government spends is as important as how much, comparing the UK with Nordic countries' child poverty interventions and outcomes, where "in kind" support (such as childcare) rather than direct financial support tends to be the preferred option.