The Northern Ireland Assembly will debate a report this week that calls on the Executive to place local councils at the centre of its Anti-Poverty Strategy.

The Committee for Communities examined evidence from all 11 councils and concluded that the current draft overlooks existing council work on hardship funds, social supermarkets and labour market partnerships.

More than 110,000 children live in poverty in Northern Ireland, with rates reaching 33 per cent in parts of West Belfast. Six in ten of those children live in households where at least one adult works.

In Fermanagh and Omagh, 22 per cent of people in the final year of life die in poverty, unable to heat homes or buy adequate food.

A fuel support scheme run by Derry City and Strabane District Council received 5,500 applications for 2,400 places and closed on its first day.

The report recommends six steps, including formal recognition of councils as delivery partners, multi-year ring-fenced funding, mandatory anti-poverty impact assessments, improved data sharing, and measurable targets on housing, childcare and transport.

Committee chair Colm Gildernew told the Assembly that the strategy will succeed only if it addresses structural causes rather than short-term mitigation and if people with lived experience of poverty are included in monitoring.