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Child Poverty

Newcastle Beacon Authority 2009 - 2010
Child Poverty Needs Assessment
Child Poverty Strategy
Child Poverty Act 2010
Child Poverty Programme Board
Child Poverty Network
Key Documents
Contact

Almost a third of children in Newcastle live in poverty.  Child poverty is heavily concentrated in specific areas of the city and therefore to reduce child poverty and narrow the gap within Newcastle many of our activities need to be geographically targeted or targeted at specific groups so that we can narrow the gap in outcomes between children in the most deprived areas and the rest of Newcastle.  

We are working against a background of a severe economic downturn, which is likely to lead to more children living in workless households and therefore at greater risk of being in poverty.

Children and young people who grow up in poverty are less likely to;

  • attend schools;
  • stay on at school;
  • obtain qualifications;
  • go on to higher education; and
  • aspire to well-paid employment

Reducing the number of children who grow up in poverty will increase the number of young people with opportunities to succeed as adults.  This success will increase the life chances of their children. This is a cycle of opportunity that we want in Newcastle. 

Newcastle Beacon Authority 2009 - 2010
Tackling and Preventing Child Poverty

In 2008-09 Newcastle applied for Beacon status in relation to Tackling and Preventing Child Poverty, and as part of this application process developed a Reducing Child Poverty Strategy.  Newcastle was awarded Beacon Status for the year 2009-10 and still has a significant role to play in helping to reduce and mitigate the effects of child poverty.

Case study: Newcastle city council application case study
Case study: Moorside Primary School case study
Case study: Changing TraX case study

Child Poverty Strategy

The Reducing Child Policy Strategy seeks to reduce child poverty and mitigate the effects of child poverty by:

  • Reducing the risk of child poverty among out of work and low income families by helping parents into work and training, improving opportunities for career progression and maximising family income.
  • Addressing the symptoms of child poverty and reducing the chances of future poverty by working with families and children to break the poverty cycle, raising aspirations and attainment and improving health, neighbourhoods and quality of life.

The strategy groups issues and actions related to poverty into 6 main themes: 

Employment and skills
We want to increase opportunities for parents to enter employment, education or training. This will increase family income and the chances of progression to
higher paid employment and have a beneficial impact on parental self esteem.

Financial wellbeing of families 
We want to maximising family income - including raising benefit take up, raising take up of free school meals; improving debt management; raising financial literacy and increasing access to affordable credit.

Improving services to families 
We want to focus on services for families with a particular emphasis on parenting services, including supporting families with disabilities. In addition, we are committed to ensuring that all services across the Council have a 'family-focus' so that we consider the circumstances of the whole family when addressing the needs of the child.

Regeneration of local communities 
Many of the children living in poverty live in Newcastle's regeneration areas. We want to ensure that physical and social regeneration is raising quality of life and making Newcastle a family-friendly city.

Raising attainment and aspirations of young people and of their parents 
We want to raise the attainment and aspirations of young people and of
their parents in order to break the inter-generational poverty cycle.

Addressing health inequalities
We want to promote healthy lifestyles among our children and young people to help them to meet their potential.

The Child Poverty Act 2010

The Child Poverty Act received Royal Assent on 24 March 2010. From 24 April 2010, the ACT infers a number of duties on local authorities:

Duty for a range of partners to co-operate with the LA in reducing and mitigating the effects of child poverty including:  

Governance arrangements to meet the Duty to Co-operate

Child Poverty Programme Board

Programme Board

Child Poverty Network

Network 

Child Poverty Key Documents 

Key Documents

Contacts

Louise Metcalfe
Child Poverty Co-ordinator
Phone: 0191 211 5896
Email: louise.metcalfe@newcastle.gov.uk

Abby Holder
Child Poverty Co-ordinator
Phone: 0191 277 7132
Email: abigail.holder@newcastle.gov.uk

Janette Brown
Child Poverty Programme Manager
0191 2116308
Email: janette.brown@newcastle.gov.uk