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Speaker 1: Our Children's Commissioner has produced three new reports looking at

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Speaker 1: the well being of our kids. We've got some good news.

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Speaker 1: School attendance is up, we've got more people into preschool,

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Speaker 1: youth offending us down, and generally we're seeing less smoking

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Speaker 1: and drinking among our kids, all of which I would

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Speaker 1: have thought is positive. Chief of our Children's Commissioner, Clear

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Speaker 1: outmates back with us? Clear, good morning, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Mike.

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Speaker 1: Are you broadly happy with us?

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Speaker 2: Look like you said, there are some positive things in

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Speaker 2: this new report which has been released by the government

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Speaker 2: about how children are doing in this country, the things

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Speaker 2: that you need to ingest there. I am pleased to

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Speaker 2: see that we are making some improvements. However, what this

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Speaker 2: report also shows is that on some of the absolute basics,

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Speaker 2: we are still completely dropping the ball for children. And

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Speaker 2: I'm really concerned about this, and I do want to

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Speaker 2: see the government stepping up with urgency to put a

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Speaker 2: more central focus on children and how they're doing in

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Speaker 2: this country.

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Speaker 1: The main benefit thing that you talk about, in other words,

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Speaker 1: are more kids who are reliant on A main benefit

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Speaker 1: from their parents is that the recent job layoffs thing

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Speaker 1: that will flush through presumably the economy grows.

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Speaker 2: Just to be clear again, Mike, this is an annual

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Speaker 2: report of official data that the government has published. I

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Speaker 2: haven't published it. But what I look at is the

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Speaker 2: Children's Commissioner is I take an independent look at that,

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Speaker 2: and I see across these indicators that there are some

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Speaker 2: consuming things. I am consumed to see that more children

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Speaker 2: are living in benefit dependent households. Why that consumes me

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Speaker 2: is because we also know, if we look at the

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Speaker 2: child poverty data, the round half of children live in

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Speaker 2: benefit dependent households, and we know that the incomes from

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Speaker 2: our wealthare payments. It doesn't provide enough for children to thrive,

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Speaker 2: and so that is concerning to me. Also the fact

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Speaker 2: that there's a lagamous data. So this report with the

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Speaker 2: to the period ending in June twenty twenty four last year,

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Speaker 2: and what I've been hearing in the community. I've just

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Speaker 2: been in to Typotany the Wist coast this week, for example,

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Speaker 2: meeting with children, young people and families there, and they've

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Speaker 2: been telling me, like other children and families around the country,

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Speaker 2: about the really harsh realities of poverty in this country.

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Speaker 2: The fact is it's really hard to thrive as a

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Speaker 2: child if you're going without some of the basics and

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Speaker 2: that's what this report shows.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate your time, clear, doctor clear. I'm going to who

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Speaker 1: is the Chief Children's Commissioner for more from the mic

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Speaker 1: Asking Breakfast Listen live to news talks. It'd be from

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