Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 28 July (HL954), in what ways, and by which means, (1) ministers, and (2) departments, work together to tackle the root causes of poverty, including through (a) committees, (b) units, (c) taskforces, and (d) forums.

Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published on 4 April, set out a framework for improving outcomes for disadvantaged children, now and in the future. The Department for Work and Pensions continues to work with key stakeholders and with other Departments to take forward the four policies set out in the paper. Further announcements will be made in due course.

This paper also set out national statutory and non-statutory indicators to track progress in tackling worklessness and associated disadvantages that can affect families’ and children’s lives. We made available the latest analysis and an evidence base to enable local authorities, local partners and others to understand, and act on, the complex factors of disadvantage in their local area. This includes local-level data on the factors of disadvantage that are available through a local government data tool (LG Inform).

The Department for Work and Pensions works across government and is represented at a ministerial level at a number of groups and forums which focus on supporting those who are most disadvantaged, including the Social Reform Committee, Inter Ministerial Groups on Homelessness, Gangs and Violence against Women and Girls and the Drugs Strategy Group. In the future DWP will co-chair the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.