Reacting to today’s Liberal Democrat Manifesto launch, a spokesperson for the Children’s Charities Coalition* said:

We are pleased to see the commitments on children’s mental health and on child poverty.

But for a manifesto that rightly highlights the importance of putting care at the heart of our national priorities, it’s disappointing there’s barely any mention of children’s social care, in stark contrast to the commitments on adult social care.

Support for kinship carers is important, but we also need to see commitments to support children and families more broadly. We wanted to hear more about how the Lib Dems would fund services that prevent children from being taken into care in the first place – or how they would tackle the £6.4billion funding gap facing local councils¹ – of which a third is spent on children’s social care.

We welcome the Liberal Democrats giving children a seat at the cabinet table with a cabinet minister for children, but in order to see real sustainable change for children, we’re calling for all political parties to put in place a Cabinet Committee chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by ministers from across Government to ensure children are safer, happier and healthier and have more equal access to opportunities.

Ed Davey has spoken up powerfully on the importance of championing carers and we would welcome him making a commitment to being a champion for children. We also want to see all political parties committing to a Bill to end child poverty.

* The Children’s Charities Coalition comprises Action for Children, Barnardo’s, NSPCC, National Children’s Bureau and The Children’s Society.