Committee chair to make keynote speech at child poverty conference

23 June 2010

The Chair of the National Assembly’s Children and Young People Committee will today (23 June) give a keynote speech at conference aiming to end child poverty.

Helen Mary Jones AM will address delegates at ‘Making it Happen: Ending Child Poverty by 2020’ - an EU-funded event organised by Save the Children Northern Ireland in Belfast.

“It is an honour for me to address this conference and it is a wonderful opportunity to promote the work my colleagues and I on the Children and Young People Committee have been doing,” said Helen Mary Jones AM.

“More than that though, it is a chance talk directly to people who can make a real difference in ending child poverty.

“Only by including everyone including officials from local and national government, elected representatives and people from the voluntary and community sector can we hope to make a real difference.

“Most importantly we need to do more to listen to what children and young people are saying abouty their lives and what they want out of them, and that is one of the main themes I will be talking about in my speech.”

Helen Mary will also be talking about the Committee’s report on children’s budgeting.

Released in October last year the report called for closer examination of how much and how well money is spent on issues affecting children and young people in Wales.

The inquiry found a detailed break down of where money is spent in different areas and a demonstration of how that money directly benefits children and young people could leead to better decision making in the future.

As part of her visit to Northern Ireland Helen Mary Jones will also meet members of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont on Thursday.

More information on the Children and Young People Committee including current and previous inquiries

The report on children’s budgeting in Wales

More information on Save the Children