Hit or miss?

Giving evidence before the Commons Education Select Committee, Alan Milburn, the government's preferred candidate for chair of the soon-to-be Child Poverty and Social Mobility Commission, suggested that there was not "snowball's chance in hell" of meeting the 2020 target for eradicating child poverty in the UK.  The conversation also included some interesting discussion about how far reducing child poverty and enhancing social mobility were competing claims.  Childhood socio-economic disadvantage has regularly been linked with obesity but does social mobility have any significant health effects in this regard.  A study from the USA looks at family income trajectories and their association with obesity in adolescence. Elsewhere, a survey of current policy and practice considers the role of maternal employment in tackling poverty and promoting social mobility.