Enver Solomon, Director of Evidence and Impact at the National Children's Bureau said:
'The government has made it clear that it wants to give every child the best start in life so the fact that overall child poverty is no longer falling and that the number of children in poverty that have a mum or dad working has continued to rise should be a major concern to the government.
'Financial hardship blights children's lives in so many ways, affecting how well they do at school, their health and their happiness. Tackling it must be a top priority for government which now needs to reconsider its approach to ensure that the legal commitment to end child poverty is met.
'A wide ranging cross government strategy is required which not only focuses on the multiple causes of poverty but also ensures the incomes of the poorest are protected in the same way as they are for pensioners. Ministers must focus less on how to measure poverty and act decisively to introduce robust mechanisms for ensuring that progress in the fight against child poverty is swift and permanent.'