Child poverty is increasing in the UK. But how does that play out differently in the four UK jurisdictions, in relation to education? How do the different educational policy contexts and different educational structures affect the curriculum and pedagogy, and so what flexibility do they allow teachers, in engaging with children and young people who are growing up in poverty? This BERA Research Commission on Poverty and Policy Advocacy has provided a nuanced picture of variations across the UK in terms of educational responses to child poverty. It has brought together a network of practitioners and researchers to find new ways of thinking about the problem of child poverty and how educators can respond to it.

This research commission builds on the relationships and work of leading academics across the four nations already engaged in work concentrating on policy deliberations on poverty, education and schooling.  The focus of this commission was to build an interconnected transnational network of research-active practitioners across the UK to engage in knowledge building about poverty and cumulative multiple deprivations as these find expression in education and schooling.