Labour’s Child Poverty Taskforce

The new child poverty taskforce is a long overdue commitment to taking the issue of child poverty seriously and has the potential to make life vastly better for millions of children.

However, it needs to take a holistic view of the problem and be willing to commit resources where they are needed to make a real impact in reducing child poverty.

From the frontline work of our pioneering Poverty Proofing© project, and our teams listening to the issues affecting babies, children and young people we work with, here are some of the things we want the Taskforce to take into consideration.

Putting more money in people’s pockets

This is the most fundamental element of lifting families out of poverty, and there are two ways to do this – increase earnings from work, and reform the social security system. We know that we need both, and the taskforce needs to focus on:

  • Making work pay, with a minimum wage which reflects real living costs, and an end to exploitative and insecure work
  • Making it easier for parents to work by addressing the big gaps around access to childcare. In particular, the issues parents face finding suitable care for school age pupils during school holidays as we know this is a barrier to parents moving into work and staying in work
  • Removing punitive measures from Universal Credit, particularly the Benefits Cap, Two Child Limit and Five Week Wait, which are forcing hundreds of thousands of families into poverty

Removing barriers for those on low incomes

‘No activity or planned activity should identify, exclude, treat differently or make assumptions about those babies, children, young people and families whose household income or resources are lower than others.’

This is the driving principle of our Poverty Proofing© work. A holistic Child Poverty Strategy needs to ensure that across the range of services and settings children, young people and families access, they don’t face exclusion or barriers to participation because of low-income.

We have been helping individual settings to identify and remove such barriers for over 10 years, and over this time we have built up a picture of common themes impacting how children are able to get an education, access healthcare, take part in opportunities for development and grow up happy and healthy.

Food and Nutrition

We continue to hear regularly stories of school pupils feeling singled out for being eligible for Free School Meals, for example not being able to sit with their friends or having less choice over what they have to eat. We also know hundreds of thousands of families in poverty don’t qualify for free meals, and many struggle to manage dinner money debt or to provide healthy packed lunches. This policy needs to be properly reviewed so all children can eat well at school and no one faces stigma.

Transport

Low-income households are less likely to have access to a car and rely wholly on public transport. If this is unreliable, expensive, or doesn’t take them where they need to get to, it can make services virtually inaccessible. From the cost of bus fare being a barrier to school attendance, to health clinics held in locations away from major transport hubs, appointment times when buses don’t run frequently, long and complex journeys and resorting to expensive taxis, the issue of transport is a continual theme in our conversations with those on low incomes. It’s a barrier to families visiting cultural venues and having days out during school holidays, and a significant barrier to children taking part in sports, clubs and activities outside of school.

At local and regional levels, schools and multi-academy trusts, local authorities, health services and transport infrastructure bodies need to commit to and take action on ensuring children and young people in poverty can get to where they need to go. Moreover, national government must ensure they are held to account. Listening to young people locally to understand where they want and need to go, what barriers they face, and how they want to travel to develop solutions is critical.

Equipment

Equipment is equally a recurring theme in barriers low-income families face. This includes having the right school uniform and all the hidden costs of school life, particularly at secondary school, with examples cited like computers at home, access to the internet to do homework, ingredients for Food Technology classes, sports kits and more. It all adds up, and those without the means to pay for these things fall behind in their studies and can’t take part in wider enrichment opportunities.

It’s also a problem for families managing health conditions; from having a compatible smartphone and internet access to manage diabetes, to the additional costs associated with a restricted diet and allergies, families on lower incomes are struggling to manage their health well. And that is without the wider aspirations of children – being able to afford football boots so they can play in the local junior league; uniform for the scouts or guides, learning to ride a bicycle.

All these exclusions make it harder for children in poverty to participate fully in society, and to thrive. Many of the solutions are found at place-based level. That’s why it needs to become part of the DNA of our schools, health providers and the wider breadth of organisations and opportunities families access – to listen to people they work with, understand barriers they face and take steps to remove them. This will ensure that a low income doesn’t equal a poorer childhood. Leadership at the national level is needed to drive this change. But this needs to be rooted in a commitment to listen to those with lived experience, and the organisations working with them, who understand the problems and can offer real solutions.

Money isn’t the only problem

Let’s be clear – money is a huge part of the problem. Giving people the money they need to pay the bills, put food on the table and provide a decent standard of living for their children, in a society, which doesn’t penalise poverty at every turn, will solve a huge part of the crisis we are facing.

But the impact of poverty on many families is deep – poor mental health, fractured relationships, substance dependency, violence and abuse blight the lives of thousands of children, and they are messy to address. That’s why we can’t separate financial measures to tackle poverty from the wider social safety net we put around families to give them the best chance to thrive. Those safety nets have been decimated over the last decade, with help not available for many until it’s too late, and children have faced unnecessary trauma; even ending up in the care system.

The child poverty strategy can’t be separated from a holistic plan to ensure support structures around families. Family hubs, intensive family support, mental health provision, addictions services and youth work must be repaired to ensure children have not just the material resources to thrive, but also the safe, nurturing homes and relationships they need in order to grow up happy and healthy.