Wallsend Jubilee Primary is passionate about creating a school experience that makes everyone feel valued. The school has a strong track record of supporting its diverse community of children, 39% of whom are eligible for free school meals, with Ofsted recently praising the leaders and staff for their understanding of its disadvantaged pupils.

What could this school, already engaged with the unique challenges of their pupils living in poverty, gain from the Poverty Proofing® process?

Catching up with Joanne Tappenden, Pupil Premium Leader, and Rebecca Hawkins, Deputy Headteacher, this message shines through from the start.

Joanne explains, “We don’t want any of our pupils to miss out on the opportunities that could give them the best start in life or feel pressured by situations they encounter. Before we took part in Poverty Proofing® the team already had some great practices in place promoting an inclusive school day, but we thought taking part would give us the chance to hear new perspectives, new ideas and identify different ways of doing things.”

Rebecca continues, “We approached Poverty Proofing® as a way of adjusting and amending our current ways of working, rather than wiping the slate. Our advice to anyone starting on the journey is to be open to the process, but we also wanted to ensure everyone had ownership over the parts which impacted them rather than imposing from the top; from staff and pupils to families and governors.”

Making changes at a speed that carefully considers ‘what is right for the school’ is a recurrent theme in our conversation, with staff creating ‘space for debate’ and being thoughtful about the pace in which they ask new ways of doing things of parents. However, there has also been a flurry of creative actions off the back of the school’s report, addressing the ‘little things’ that can make a big impact on a pupil’s day-to-day experience.

“There were some things that felt easy to address and after getting the pupils perspective we wanted to act on quickly”, shares Joanne.

“The school photo process will be revised so that students now ‘opt-in’ and discreetly get their picture taken. This removes the pressure of buying prints from families and children don’t face feeling uncomfortable knowing they are having a photo taken their families won’t be able to afford.”

Other initiatives we are going to pursue include allocating money from Pupil Premium funds to pay for music tuition when a student shows a real passion; changing the way birthdays are celebrated so there isn’t pressure on students to bring in treats from home; doing donation drives for a dress up box so all students can participate in costume activities; and launching a drop-in for families to access money management and benefits advice.

One exciting area that has taken off is the appointment of ‘Eco Warriors’ in every class, who have recently managed a swap shop and play an important role in reducing the stigma around recycling uniform.

“We want the students to see it as normal to reuse and recycle and the uniform project is something they’ve definitely embraced. There are permanent donation boxes which they help us sort and organise. We

want to develop an environment that isn’t materialistic and where pupils value the ‘free’ opportunities in life. Eco Warriors has been a great addition to that culture.”

In keeping with the step-by-step approach, they are exploring a range of other ways to support families, from savers schemes for parents to reviewing their behaviour policy to ensure it doesn’t create additional barriers for children dealing with challenges outside of school.

Asking about the value the process has given Wallsend Jubilee, the importance of discussion comes up.

Joanne explains, “The training for staff really hits home and engages you in the challenges faced by pupils living in poverty and their families. This sets up discussion between different members of the team and we saw them sharing case studies of their own experience with pupils that would otherwise never have been highlighted.

“In the long-term, taking part was another way to ensure we are offering a school experience in which everyone feels valued, and the process has been an important part of our journey towards achieving that goal.”

We are very pleased to announce that Robertson are returning for another year as the headline sponsor of our annual fundraising ball, which this year will be glamourously Winter Wonderland themed.

Robertson and its team have been ardent supporters of our work for over two decades, including over 18 years as sponsors of our flagship annual event.

They are the UK’s largest family-owned business offering construction and related services. Passionate about having a positive effect on communities, the firm has a strong history of delivering socially impactful projects across the North East, including the Spanish City regeneration, the NUCASTLE Community Hub for NUFC Foundation and Teesside Uni’s Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre.

Last year our Ball raised over £26,000, which is now benefitting babies, children, young people and their families across our home region. For perspective that is enough to fund 866 young people through counselling.

We’d like to take this moment to say a huge thank you to Robertson for being our continue champions and supporters of this exciting event.

To reserve your place or learn more about opportunities to get involved, get in touch with Joanne King, [email protected].

Children North East are thrilled to announce that they have received Awards from both the Northumberland and Tyne and Wear High Sheriffs, in recognition of ‘great and valuable services to the community’. 

Presented to the charity in March, the Awards also ‘recognise the appreciation of the residents of each High Sheriff’s county for activity and contribution in enhancing life of the community’. A High Sheriff is a Royal appointed role, who acts as a voluntary ambassador for their local communities for a year. This year the post was held by James Royds in Northumberland and David Bavaird in Tyne and Wear. 

The Awards were judged on a range of categories, including your experience, how you meet the needs of your community and how ‘open to everyone’ the services you provide are. 

Leigh Elliott, Chief Executive at Children North East, commented, “We are very proud to be recognised by these prestigious Awards in both Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. They are testament to the incredible hard work of our teams delivering services in communities across the region, who go above and beyond to provide life-changing help and work hard to understand the communities they serve.” 

Two of our youth workers, Teresa Bromilow and Robyn Andrews, attended a special celebration event for 150 guests aged from eight to 80 at the Alnwick Playhouse. They were joined by two young people supported by the projects run by the charity.  

Teresa explains, “It was wonderful not just to be recognised by the High Sheriff Awards, but also to be able to share that celebration with two of the young people from the Children North East community. To give them a chance to attend this type of event and meet inspiring people from across the region is very special.” 

Organisations recognised by the Awards receive £700 towards their work, which Children North East will use towards funding Forest School sessions in Northumberland and education youth work sessions in Tyne and Wear. 

Children North East have joined forces with award-winning local organisation Mortal Fools to reduce the number of North East children reaching mental health crises.

We’ll be working with 14 North East schools offering support via a new project called ‘Worrit Warriors’ specifically targeting children facing challenges with their mental health.

Starting this month, ‘Worrit Warriors’ will work with over 120 pupils aged 9 to 11, including those that have shared thoughts about suicide and self-harming to the adults in their lives.

Whilst these are often thought of as issues most common amongst teenagers, there has also been a significant rise in recent years in the treatment of pre-teen mental health disorders, with over 3,000 North East children hospitalised due to mental health conditions, self-harm and disordered eating every year; a number which is growing.

Children who struggle with their mental health at the crucial developmental age of 7 to 11 years are also more at risk of a mental health crisis before adulthood and developing long-term problems.

Adele Wimhurst, Counselling Team Manager at Children North East, explains, “Children are often overlooked as having an emotional life which is not very complicated, but the reality is that they are often dealing with ‘big’ feelings and experiences, as well as being very perceptive of those around them. Worrit Warriors offers a space for them, to voice how they are feeling and learn new, healthy ways of dealing with those ‘big’ feelings before they grow into something more difficult to manage”.

Funded by the NHS Integrated Care Board, the project represents an increased investment by the NHS in early interventions for children facing mental health challenges; partly a response to the impact of the

pandemic on young people’s wellbeing and the need for emotional development support for all children, not just the ones in crisis.

Delivered by mental health professionals and supported by creatives from Mortal Fools, children taking part in ‘Worrit Warriors’ will explore how they can look after their own mental health, grow their resilience, and learn coping techniques for dealing with challenging emotions and processing difficult experiences. It will promote the idea “Brave isn’t how you feel… it’s what you do”.

Leigh Elliott, Chief Executive of Children North East, shared, “The increase of mental health crises among North East children is a significant area of concern. Every young person has the right to grow up happy and healthy and with the early intervention the ‘Worrit Warriors’ project provides a pathway of support that overstretched schools and healthcare services are often unable to provide.”

The ‘Worrit Warriors’ project combines the award-winning ‘Melva’ Digital Programme, a creative mental health intervention, created by Mortal Fools with therapeutic practitioner support. The ‘Melva’ programme includes a feature film, digital game and creative resource toolbox, which provide an accessible, fun and dynamically structured approach to talking about and understanding negative thoughts, feelings and experiences. The ‘Melva’ Programme has a particular focus on our ‘worrits’ (worries), and children learn that bravery isn’t how you feel, it’s what you do – that it’s ok to feel worried, anxious, nervous sometimes. What’s important is knowing how to recognise and manage those thoughts and feelings.

Kiz Crosbie, Artistic Director and CEO of Mortal Fools, comments, “The Melva programme provides children and the adults in their lives a way to understand and have deep, life-changing conversations about worries and anxiety. Many adults want to help children but simply don’t know where to start or worry that they won’t do a good job with it. Melva is an accessible, guided programme to help them and makes talking about difficult things fun.”

Our Chief Executive Leigh Elliott shares the charity’s view on the Devolution Deal for the North East and the impact it will have on the lives of babies, children and young people across the region. 

Children North East works with babies, children, young people and families across the North East. We know that people’s lives do not neatly fit into the boundaries created by Local Authorities, as they move around for education, access to healthcare, specialist services and opportunities. For this reason, the current arrangement of two Combined Authorities North and South of Tyne doesn’t work for many people and has had less opportunity to improve infrastructure and systems which work region-wide and impact on the daily lives of families in the region. We therefore wholly welcome the new proposals for a devolved Mayoral Authority covering the seven Local Authorities of Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear.   

Young people gaining independence, frequent, affordable, reliable public transport and safe routes to walk and cycle are critical.

We are particularly pleased about the transport settlement of funding included with the Devolution Deal, and the powers it will provide the new Mayoral Authority with to design, invest and manage transport services around the needs of local people.  

Experience of, access to and availability of transport, especially public transport is a recurring theme in our consultation work with young people and families across the region. For families without access to a car, and young people gaining independence, frequent, affordable, reliable public transport and safe routes to walk and cycle are critical in enabling them to access services they need, make the most of opportunities available to them, and ultimately to grow up happy and healthy.  

We know that the costs of public transport journeys involving two or more providers are particularly prohibitive for many families, especially the nearly 40% of children in the North East who are growing up in poverty. Integrated ticketing has the potential to be a game-changer for many people and we are thrilled to see this is a core part of the Devolution Deal agreement. We hope there will be further opportunity to collaborate in the review and refresh of the Regional Transport Plan over the next 12 months, to ensure that the voices of young people, and the needs of families living in poverty, can be fully considered and prioritised.   

Reducing pollution from vehicles in the communities where children live and study will make a huge impact on their wellbeing. 

We are pleased that decarbonisation of travel is also a priority within the deal, as air pollution and air quality is one of the biggest causes of poor respiratory health in children and young people in our region. Reducing pollution from vehicles in the communities where children live and study will make a huge impact on their wellbeing.   

Access to affordable, high-quality housing is a huge priority for families with children in our region. The North East has the second highest ‘After-Housing Costs’ poverty rate in the country (with only London faring worse). Whilst the deal does not commit a huge amount of funding initially to support investment in housing, particularly social housing, which is so desperately needed, increased powers at a regional level, is an opportunity to ensure a coordinated approach to tackling the housing issues facing our region and children growing up here.   

Finally, we are thrilled that the Devolution Deal becomes the first in the country to contain a specific commitment to addressing Child Poverty, building on the work already being undertaken in the North of Tyne Combined Authority area. We have been privileged to support this work and would welcome the opportunity to be a strategic partner, bringing the wealth of expertise and evidence collated through our Poverty Proofing© work in schools, healthcare, cultural organisations and community settings, to enable the NECMA to lead the way in tackling and preventing child poverty so all babies, children and young people are able to grow up happy and healthy.  

Today, our Chief Executive Leigh Elliott shares the charity’s response to the Spring Statement and its ask for the Chancellor to reconsider his decision not to give better protections to babies, children and young people living in poverty. 

The expansion of funding for childcare announced in the Spring Statement masks the reality that there are no real measures to tackle the underlying causes of soaring child poverty in the UK.

The headline announcement in this week’s Spring Statement will be very welcome for families struggling with the high cost of childcare. But it doesn’t tackle the issues of low wages, insecure employment or a broken Social Security system keeping 3.9 million children in the UK trapped in poverty, and there is limited help for families battling with the rising cost of living.  

Children North East are disappointed that the Chancellor missed the opportunity provided by the Spring Statement to take decisive action on the causes of spiralling child poverty.

Children North East are disappointed that the Chancellor missed the opportunity provided by the Spring Statement to take decisive action on the causes of spiralling child poverty, and improve the chances of all babies, children and young people to grow up happy and healthy. Whilst we welcome some of the measures announced, the reality is they don’t go far enough in helping families struggling with the cost of living now, or reducing child poverty over the long term.  

The move to end the premium paid by energy customers on pre-payment meters is long overdue, and we are relieved with the decision to delay the increase of the energy price cap. However, the current cap is still almost double the amount it was a year ago, and is one of the biggest causes of increased hardship for families. Moreover, with Local Housing Allowance still frozen and rents going up (Homelet Rental Index, March 2023), even more money will be eaten up in housing costs, with little left to cover the basics. 

The OBR’s sobering analysis that living standards are expected to fall by 6% over this fiscal year and next, comes after years of cuts and benefit freezes, which have left hundreds of thousands of families with nothing left to cut back on. It is frustrating that the government has ignored calls to extend Free School Meals to all families on Universal Credit, or to increase Child Benefit to give families the cash they need to put food on the table. In the light of the Mayor of London announcing Universal Free School Meals for Primary School children in London, the government failing to match this commitment for children across the rest of the country will increase inequalities for children in places like the North East, which has the highest child poverty rate in England. 

The Chancellor has set out that his priority is to get more people into work, and we know that in the long-term, work is one of the best ways of lifting families out of poverty. The 30 hours funding for Childcare for 1 and 2 year olds will make a big difference to many working families. But the majority of parents with children under five say they would like to spend more time with their children but feel they can’t afford to (Centre for Social Justice). Attachments with a consistent primary caregiver in the first two years are vitally important for child development (Parent Infant Foundation), and it is important that the government value the role parents play in their children’s lives, not just their contribution to the economy.  

Guarantee the essentials, so that our social security system provides a genuine safety net for families on low incomes.

The main causes of child poverty, particularly in the North East, are wages failing to keep up with inflation (North East Child Poverty Commission) and a benefits system that fails to provide families what families need to cover the basics. We echo the calls of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to guarantee the essentials, so that our social security system provides a genuine safety net for families on low incomes. Deductions from benefits payments because of debt or sanctions are already a leading reason for families’ income falling below the minimum they need to live on (North East Child Poverty Commission), so we are concerned about proposals to extend the use of sanctions further. Rather than moving people closer to the labour market, there is a risk it will push some of the most vulnerable families further into poverty and destitution.  

Children North East urges the chancellor to reconsider how the government protects children in poverty facing even greater hardship over the next two years, and to focus not just on how to get parents back to work, but how to build a prosperous future for everyone, and one which puts the wellbeing of babies, children and young people at its heart.