Council fighting hard to tackle child poverty

A Child Poverty Needs Assessment has recently been incorporated into the Southend Children's Partnership's Children and Young People's Plan.

The needs assessment is being used to refresh Southend's existing Child Poverty Strategy, which identifies six key areas for action:  

• setting a child poverty 'baseline' and agreeing targets for improvement
• maximising income in and out of work
• removing barriers to work
• ensuring the provision of affordable housing
• mitigating the impact of poverty and
• breaking the cycle of poverty

A recent study by the Prince's Trust found that one in four young people in Southend and Basildon lived in poverty.

Families are defined as being in poverty if they have 60 per cent less disposable cash than the average family after bills and housing costs have been met.

Lifting children and young people out of poverty and inspiring them to achieve are the top two priorities of the joint plan for the Children & Young People of Southend.

A multi-agency Child Poverty Group was set up in 2010 by the Council in conjunction with colleagues from the NHS, local schools, Job Centre Plus and the local voluntary sector, to drive forward the work.

The Council's Child Poverty Strategy and Children and Young People's Action Plan were reviewed in May last year by the Government's regional Child Poverty Adviser.

She commented that Southend was well on track and further ahead than many other areas in the region, with good progress being made in the following areas: 

• improving the standard of 137 homes for vulnerable householders
• giving 1,352 families access to loft and cavity wall insulation funding through the Government's Warm Front scheme
• mapping available volunteering opportunities across Southend
• brokering 897 volunteering opportunities for young people through the V-Involved initiative (against a target of 600)
• developing a 'Locality Guidance' toolkit to support integrated working across all services for children
• increasing the uptake of free school meals
• enabling 96 vulnerable two-year-olds to benefit from funded child care places and
• ensuring a Job Centre Plus presence in Children's Centres

The Council also used funding it received in 2010/11 from the Government's Child Poverty Group to commission a pilot project from Family Action.

Under the project the Cambridge Road Children's Centre Family Support team will work with health visitors to identify families living in poverty.

The team will then engage with the families, providing holistic support aimed at maximising their income.

Child poverty funding has also been used to commission a qualified nutritionist to work alongside schools and children's centres.

In addition funding was obtained to subsidise the salaries of 82 apprentices who have been supported by the Council since March through the Apprenticeship Subsidy Scheme.

Funding has also been used to support a pre-apprenticeship programme for vulnerable young people including care leavers, those with learning difficulties or disabilities and young offenders.

The programme has helped motivate young people previously disengaged with education and training, supporting young people to gain skills and find employment. 

Mark Flewitt, Executive Councillor for Children and Learning, said: "Along with its partner agencies the Council is doing all it can to reduce child poverty in Southend.

"Significant progress has already been made but we must keep the momentum going and adopt a zero tolerance approach to this issue.

"By incorporating a child poverty needs assessment in our Children and Young People's Plan we can ensure any action we take is as well-targeted and effective as possible.

"Fighting to make child poverty history in our town is my top priority - everything else we do for our children and young people is irrelevant if there is a section of society who get left behind."