Tackling Poverty Action Plan

Family interventions. By mid-2014, we will develop a set of nationalstandards based on the evaluation evidence.The actions identified in Sustainable Social Services will removeunhelpful boundaries between adult and children’s social services. Thiswill deliver a programme of transformation in the delivery of socialservices, to meet the needs of our most vulnerable and disadvantagedpeople.Educational attainmentThe School Standards and Organisation Bill will ensure that primaryschool free breakfasts are available in all maintained schools unlessthe Local Authority cannot reasonably achieve this.There is strong evidence that particular groups are under-achievingand this includes disabled children, boys and certain ethnic minoritygroups including Pakistani, Bangladeshi, African Caribbean and GypsyTraveller children and young people. Within the Strategic Equality Planthere are detailed actions to address this:We will improve the outcomes for disabled children and youngpeople and those with Special Educational Needs through thereform of the Additional Learning Needs statutory framework.We will analyse information and identify issues whereinterventions are needed to drive up attainment amongst thoseethnic minority groups who are underachieving includingpatterns of school exclusions.ChildcareAccess to affordable childcare that is of a quality that ensures that thedevelopmental outcomes for the child are improved is also central tosupporting parents back to work. Successive reports have highlighted that thisis still one the biggest barriers to people in poverty who are looking to enterthe workplace. Access to high quality affordable childcare has therefore beenidentified by Ministers as a key priority for tackling poverty.We will examine ways of increasing the availability of affordable, qualitychildcare, building on statutory local authority assessments of need andengaging with the private sector, social enterprises, professional bodies andothers. A cross - Welsh Government group has already begun looking at howwe can integrate childcare provision across Early Years from pre-birth to 7years, including Flying Start and Foundation Phase. This work will beextended to further cooperation to develop an integrated approach to servicesand 'wrap-around' care outside of core school hours for children from 8-16,including Out of School Childcare Grant and free school breakfasts. We will:11