Frank Field will today be appointed by David Cameron to lead an independent review into poverty in Britain. Field, who will remain as the Labour MP for Birkenhead, has spent weeks negotiating the terms of reference for his review to avoid a repeat of his experience after Labour's 1997 victory. His period as minister for welfare reform ended in recriminations after just one year following a series of battles with his boss, Harriet Harman, and the then chancellor, Gordon Brown.
Flakey Frank waits for a friend ... and waits ...
Field will examine reform in two areas:
• Whether the current definition of poverty (households with less than 60% of the median income) should be changed. Field and Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, have been critical of the arbitrary nature of this definition. Duncan Smith told the Guardian last month: "You get this constant juddering adjustment with poverty figures going up when, for instance, upper incomes rise."
• How to encourage parents and local services to nurture children. Field says it is time to move away from Labour's academic approach and look at how grassroots groups can transform the lives of children. He cites the example of the Prince's Charities, which run a project in Burnley to give pupils breakfast and make sure they arrive at school washed and on time.
Field says Labour was beginning to realise the limitations of its approach, and had acknowledged the possibility of an absolute definition of poverty that would be linked to prices and not relative income.
