ChurchWorks Commission to “extend the hand of friendship and partnership” to new government; call for urgent action on child poverty

Church leaders from all major denominations met with government ministers on Thursday to chart a path for stronger partnerships and tackling child poverty together.

In the first meeting of the ChurchWorks Commission since the General Election and the formation of a new Government, church leaders welcomed the opportunity to work with ministers responsible for tackling child poverty and building strong relationships between the government and faith communities.

Lord Khan, the newly appointed Minister for Faith, Communities and Resettlement told the group that he wanted to be a “strong ambassador for the ChurchWorks Commission” across all parts of government. Acknowledging that there was a need for Ministers, civil servants and church leaders to “spend more time together” to build relationships, the former MEP and Mayor of Burnley hailed the role of faith leaders as “real community champions” and committed to meeting regularly with ChurchWorks representatives to support the Commission’s efforts.

The Commission, chaired by the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen and made up of senior leaders from 16 major denominations and umbrella bodies, brings together mainline church denominations, umbrella organisations and Christian charities to collaborate with government and equip local congregations to transform the lives of the most vulnerable in our country and communities.

Recognising the urgent need for collaboration to address the rising rates of child poverty in the UK, the Commissioners also met with Sir Stephen Timms MP, a Minister in the Department for Work and Pensions and a well-known advocate for greater partnership between government and faith communities. Paying tribute to the long-standing efforts of churches to advocate for children living in poverty, Sir Stephen provided Commissioners with an update on the work of the new Child Poverty Ministerial Taskforce, and encouraged them that there is a “shared agenda on child poverty”. Whilst Commissioners welcomed the openness to collaboration on tackling poverty, and thanked Sir Stephen for the government’s recent decision to extend the Household Support Fund, they also encouraged the government to remove the two-child limit on state benefits as a priority, and raised concerns about how the means-testing of the Winter Fuel Payment will impact vulnerable people. 

The meeting took place against the backdrop of the Labour manifesto at the 2024 General Election, which recognised that government works best when working with faith communities and other parts of society, and Keir Starmer’s interview with Premier Christianity during the election campaign, where he argued that “there will be no decade of national renewal without the active participation of the church.”

Speaking during the meeting, ChurchWorks Commission Chair, Bishop Philip Mounstephen, said that the Commissioners would “extend the hand of friendship and partnership” to the new government, building on relationships with the previous government that led to new partnerships, including on the development and roll-out of Family Hubs.