Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services that provided Members with the progress of the Child Poverty Working Group (CPWG) in addressing the impact of poverty on children, young people and their families in County Durham since the last update in October 2022 (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Strategic Manager, One Point Service, Early Help, Inclusion and Vulnerable Children was in attendance to present the report and deliver a presentation.

The presentation provided Members with details of the aim and four key priorities for the Child Poverty Working Group. Members were also provided with details of additional support and next steps (for copy of presentation, see file of minutes).

Councillor Coult indicated that parents did not always know where to obtain information and it was key to get this done. She then asked if the Family Hubs would accept school uniform donations from schools.

In response, the Strategic Manager confirmed that the Family Hubs would accept donations from schools and provided details of a little boy who obtained a pair of school shoes from the Hub and was thrilled and stated how the donations make a real difference.

Councillor Scurfield referred to the number of families who were eligible for free school meals that were not registered and to those families that were not aware of the other areas of support available to families eligible for free school meals. She asked what schools do to promote the assistance available.

The Strategic Manager responded that this had been discussed at the Child Poverty Working Group and indicated that they needed to do more around communications and marketing as those children in years 1 and 2 automatically receive free school meals and parents don’t think that they need to apply and if eligible should be registering.

Councillor Scurfield indicated that if schools were distributing the healthy start vouchers, they would know the eligible families.

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that they needed to go back to schools and ask the family support networks where the gaps were with free school meal take up but not voucher take up and stated that he would take this back to the next DASH meeting.

In response to a question from Councillor Scurfield, the Strategic Manager indicated that pre-school children would receive their vouchers from Nurseries or Health Visitors and commented that the take up of the vouchers was really good. The uptake would reduce once the children attended college and indicated that they needed to do something and getting families on the Healthy Start voucher in the beginning and help them gain access to free school meals.

Councillor Scurfield responded that automatic enrolment would solve a number of issues.

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that he would take this to the forums.

Councillor Mulholland asked if there was any further data as to what the main causes were of poverty.

The Strategic Manager responded that they know that three quarters of the families in poverty at least one parent worked so it was low wages and zero-hour contracts as well as the cost of childcare. It was difficult for some families to return to work due to the cost of childcare, there was also the transition to universal credit and child benefit care it was multi layered. She indicated that the Northeast was suffering due to the lower wages within the region.

Councillor Varty referred to transport issues that prevented some people from going to work.

Councillor Mavin indicated that if parents were not claiming free school meals, they were not included in the census data and schools would not receive the pupil premium, so schools needed to chase this to obtain the pupil premium.

The Head of Education and Skills indicated that they were confident in moving forward with enrolment due to the systems they had in place and the work done around sharing data.

The Strategic Manager indicated that this was going to be one of the main priorities this year for the Working Group.

Councillor Crute referred to the MTFP report and the reasons behind cuts and pressures was government austerity. He stated that one in four children in Durham were living in poverty and should never have been allowed to happen and he was worried about pressures on this budget. He stated that auto enrolment for free school meals had to be the way forward and his concern was the stigma around free school meals and removing this stigma and the solution was to give every child a free school meal. He congratulated the team on the work they were doing.

The Strategic Manager responded that the National Working Group may recommend at the end of their pilot work for the Department for Work and Pensions to enrol.

Councillor Reed referred to free school meals and the use of biometrics that would flash up on the screen that the child received free school meals.

The Head of Education and Skills responded that if they alleviated all these issues, you still have the monetary allocation and not purchasing anything on a morning breaks signals that you are on free school meals. He commented that schools were thinking about carrying forward money and meal options where you could purchase food at break and lunchtime.

Councillor Reed indicated that there were positives in the biometric system and you could monitor what the child was eating and indicated that auto enrolment for free school meals was the way forward.

Councillor Crute indicated that it was important that children were eating and if not eating properly could not concentrate and needed to eat regularly during the day.

Resolved: That the contents of the report and presentation be noted.