Agenda item
Child Poverty Strategy (CAB 147/089)
Decision:
Resolved:
That, subject to (a) below, the Child Poverty Strategy attached at Appendix 1 to the report (CAB 147/089), be agreed:
(a) Section 10 “Planned Actions”, Sub-section headed “Mitigating the effects of poverty, we will…”, second bullet, first line: deletion of word “unemployed”.
Action by:
CORPORATE DIRECTOR, CHILDREN’S SERVICES (K. COLLINS)
Service Head, Young People and Learning, Children’s Services (C. Littleton)
Service Manager, Partnerships and Equality, Children’s Services (L. Richards)
Minutes:
Mr Collins, Corporate Director Children’s Services, at the request of the Chair, in introducing the report, summarised the salient points contained therein, commenting as follows:
· Preventing and tackling child poverty was not a new agenda and there was a commitment to this that extended from local to national level. The Strategy was intended to bring together commitments and activities, such as those for worklessness and overcrowding, and sharpen their focus on ending child poverty.
· One of the key objectives was to take more than one thousand children out of child poverty by 2011, which was an even more important and challenging deliverable in the current economic climate.
· The new three year Children’s and Young People’s Plan had identified tackling child poverty as one of its three cross cutting priorities and this would require deepening the work with parents and promoting engagement with families and children. The Strategy provided the framework for achieving this and it was built around four key priorities
o Removing barriers to work
o Developing pathways to success
o Breaking the cycle of poverty
o Mitigating the effects of poverty
Mitigating poverty did not mean offering hope for the future but taking action now.
Councillor Hawkins, Lead Member Children’s Services commented that:-
· There were far too many children living in poverty which disadvantaged them and their families in many ways. The Administration shared the commitment to ending child poverty and not accepting disadvantage as an excuse for poor attainment and limited life chances.
· The Authority’s approach and success to date had been recognised with the award of Beacon status for preventing and tackling child poverty, only one of three authorities across the country to receive this. A key element of this success was the provision of services offered through the network of Children’s Centres to reduce child poverty at the start of a child’s life.
· The Children’s and Young People’s Plan set out that tackling child poverty was key to everything the Authority did. The Child Poverty Strategy set out a wide range of positive activities for optimum impact in reducing child poverty. Councillor Hawkins considered that these must be a priority for all in the Tower Hamlets Partnership.
· The Strategy recognised that there was a limit to what could be achieved locally and the continued lobbying of Government was needed to maintain the focus on its commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020.
· The context of the current economic recession only served to increase the importance of reducing child poverty.
· The Strategy was to be commended for approval to the Cabinet because it would help the Administration achieve the aspirations of the Community for Social Justice, reducing inequality and creating opportunity for all.
Councillor Peck, Lead Member Resources and Performance, commented that to mitigate the effect of poverty the Strategy must tackle fully the issue of debt and the poverty trap. It was recognised that many people despite working, and working hard, had large historic debts and therefore little disposable income as a result of their efforts. Many considered giving up work and claiming benefits instead, because they were unaware of the benefits they were entitled to if they were in employment. The take up of family tax credit in Tower Hamlets was very low. Consequently financial literacy was of great importance to all parents, not just those that were unemployed, and the commitment in the Strategy to mitigating the effects of poverty through provision of in depth financial literary training needed to reflect this. Accordingly, Councillor Peck proposed the following amendment to the Child Poverty Strategy appended to the report for the consideration of members of the Cabinet:-
· Section 10 Planned Actions, Sub-section headed “Mitigating the effects of poverty, we will…”, second bullet, first line “Provide in depth financial literary training to unemployed parents...” be revised by deletion of word “unemployed’”
A discussion followed, during which the proposed strategy was broadly welcomed. Councillor Hawkins, Lead Member Children’s Services, and Corporate Director Children’s Services, were commended for their vision and commitment in developing the Strategy. The following points were also made:-
· Commented that as a member of the Bangladeshi Community who had grown up in Tower Hamlets there was now a palpable sense of opportunity for young people in Tower Hamlets to do well for themselves, which was far greater than a generation previously. The high aspirations of the Authority for young people, and the promotion of opportunity for them, were detailed in the Strategy. The barriers to opportunity were not so much language for third generation Bangladeshis but more inflexibilities in the educational system, which the Strategy endeavoured to address for example through the supporting of schools to deliver an Out of School Hours Learning entitlement.
· All public bodies had a role to play in promoting the eradication of child poverty by 2020.
· Consideration that the poverty trap was a key barrier preventing parents getting into employment and the Council needed to be leading the challenge to Government to eradicate this, despite the need for substantial resources and additional complexities in the benefit system.
· Commented that the Authority had lobbied Government for additional public subsidy to keep rent increases down, and indeed to be permitted to use its own resources to do so, and this had been right because of the number of families upon which such increases had a great impact. Registered Social Landlords had not made appropriate increases in rent levels, and many parents would find the increase difficult to pay when on the borderline between benefit and employment. This Government must be pressed on this matter.
· Consideration, in relation to families of prisoners and ex-prisoner, that it was important to break the cycle of crime (and the victims of crime) and the consequent impact of this on children and families. Benefit take up should be a priority in doing so as it was acknowledged that many did not do so. Considered that the “Strangers into Citizens” initiative was useful in this regard through its regularisation of status.
The Chair Moved the recommendations contained in the report (taking account of the amendment proposed by Councillor Peck), and it was:-
Resolved:
That, subject to (a) below, the Child Poverty Strategy attached at Appendix 1 to the report (CAB 147/089), be agreed:
(a) Section 10 “Planned Actions”, Sub-section headed “Mitigating the effects of poverty, we will…”, second bullet, first line: deletion of word “unemployed”.
Supporting documents:
- Child Poverty Strategy Final CAB 060509, item 8.1 PDF 59 KB
- Child Poverty Strategy Appx 1 CAB 060509, item 8.1 PDF 252 KB