Agenda item

a)    Report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services

b)    Presentation by Karen Davison, Interim Strategic Manager One Point Service and Think Family Services

The Committee considered a report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services which presented progress of the Child Poverty Working Group and aims to develop and implement a single coherent and coordinated approach to addressing and mitigating child poverty across County Durham. The Interim Strategic Manager, One Point Service and Think Family provided members with a presentation which looked at how child poverty was being tackled in County Durham (for copy of report and slides, see file of minutes).

It was highlighted that child poverty was set to soar to 5.1 million children by 2022, which would be a 42% increase in ten years and many of the children come from working families.

Members were advised of the government’s new measures for child poverty:-

• The proportion of children living in workless households as well as long-term worklessness households.
• The educational attainment of children and disadvantaged children in England at the end of KS4.

In County Durham in 2007, 14.6% of children under the age of 16 were living in workless households, this figure had risen to 19.3% in 2015.  It was therefore estimated that there was approximately 18,000 children in County Durham living in a workless household.

Over half of children living in poverty have a working parent, however, this would not be reported in the new government measure of child poverty.  It was identified that the highest levels of looked after children live in the most deprived wards.

The Child Poverty Working Group was formed in March 2017 by Durham County Council and partner organisations which was supported by Dr Deborah Harrison from the North East Child Poverty Commission.  The Child Poverty Action Group had implemented a range of projects and approaches.

Members where shown a short video on Roots out of Poverty which focused on how agencies were working together to help families and included information on the Durham Savers scheme.

Councillor Brookes was extremely concerned that the statistics provided indicated a 42% rise in child poverty over 10 years which was a huge issue.

It was felt that in some cases there were issues of unfair generalisation and even low level support such as building confidence would help towards changing that trajectory. 

In relation to the language and values associated with child poverty being a consideration of the Child Poverty Working Group, Councillor Kennedy agreed that care was needed with the language used to avoid stigma and asked about the referral procedure for families being referred onto the Stronger Families Programme. The Interim Strategic Manager advised of the criteria and added that a family would not be refused support, even if they had been on the programme previously. The same help and support would be available, however this would be from an alternative route as the programme was payment by results, the same family could not be counted twice. Work had taken place with Area Action Partnerships across the County to provide Holiday Hunger play schemes. Councillor Kennedy added that two national play days had taken place in her electoral division that had fed over 900 children.

Councillor Bainbridge asked what was considered as low income and how the local authority identified working families who where on low income. The Interim Strategic Manager advised that 60% below the national average was considered as low income and the average was £25,000 per annum which would be in the region of £15,000. She added that schools were the eyes and ears and they relied on schools considerably to notify of any families that may require help.

Councillor Davinson referred to the Durham Savers scheme and asked if they were predominantly concentrating on primary and secondary schools and if academies were also included.  He was advised that this would be taken up and the information would be reported back to him.  Councillor Davinson also asked how aspirations of children and young people could be raised. The Interim Strategic Manager advised that raising children’s aspirations should start at the earliest opportunity and this was why early help in children’s centres worked with young parents with short steps to build confidence.  She advised that work had also taken place with Job Centre Plus to provide advice.

Councillor Durham pointed out that the statistics were a great concern and suggested that it would be easier to understand if they were provided year on year so that comparisons could be made and an understanding of what other factors were involved.

Councillor Hopper commented that there was a lot of good work done by Area Action Partnerships in helping people back into work and there was a multi-agency approach to making communities more resilient to the changing economy. The Interim Strategic Manager added that families were signposted to working with the voluntary sector to help build confidence and there was a more joined up approach.

In response to a query from Councillor Considine, the Interim Strategic Manager confirmed that the local authority works with all childcare providers and the child-minding network was a point of contact.

Miss Ashcroft asked when the next set of statistics would be available. She was informed that it was unknown when the next statistics would be released, however, the free school meals data was used as a measure.

The Chairman asked if the service was prepared for the roll out of Universal Credit and was advised that a number of training sessions had been arranged for Children’s Services staff on universal credit and smarter budgeting.

The Chairman thanked the Interim Strategic Manager for her presentation and asked to keep the committee updated with the work of the Child Poverty Working Group.

Resolved:

That the report be noted and the committee receive a further progress update on the Child Poverty Working Group Action Plan.