Child & Family Poverty

Recently a new report, A Rapid Situational Analysis on Child and Family Poverty in Cheshire and Merseyside (August 2024) has been published.

The report found that child poverty levels in England, and across Cheshire and Merseyside (C&M), are a serious issue of social injustice.

Poverty can harm children before they are born, throughout their childhood and into adulthood. It can persist when they have their own children.

The consequences impact on every part of an individual’s life, and have a negative impact on society, including the economy, potentially
creating an inter-generational cycle of inequalities.

The two main measures of Child Poverty as shown on our State of the Borough report, are:

• Children living in relative low income families: this is the more commonly used measure of child poverty, and is defined as families classed as having low income in that particular year, before housing costs, and who are in receipt of Child Benefit and at least one other household benefit such as Universal Credit, Tax Credits or Housing Benefit

• Children living in absolute low income families: this measure of child poverty is defined as families classed as having low income in comparison with incomes in 2011, before housing costs, and who are in receipt of Child Benefit and at least one other household benefit such as Universal Credit, Tax Credits or Housing Benefit.

But child and family poverty are not inevitable. Many people do exit poverty, although generally this requires a range of government and local interventions and support.

Across Cheshire and Merseyside organisations are taking action to address both the symptoms and the causes of poverty, including for example a C&M Health Care Partnership commitment to prioritise poverty, as well as a sub-regional commitment to being a Marmot community. Some of this has been intensified because of the cost-of-living crisis and the post-pandemic effects.

This report, and others, show that national government policies have been a dominant factor for the rise in child poverty through changes to the welfare system, cuts in funding to local government, and arguably the absence of a cross government strategy on child poverty. The new government’s ministerial taskforce to work on a Child Poverty Strategy will be seen as a major first step in using “all available levers … across government to create an ambitious strategy”.

Notwithstanding the influence of national policies, there is a great deal that can be done at a local and sub-regional level, which this report sets out. And there is more that can be done to advocate for action at sub-regional and national levels, drawing on the positive experience of Cheshire and Merseyside’s Directors of Public Health and Population Health speaking with one voice as the Champs Public Health Collaborative on issues such as COVID-19 policies and smoking cessation.

• Wirral Child and Family Poverty JSNA (January 2019)

• Wirral Child and Family Poverty JSNA (November 2018)

• Wirral Child Poverty JSNA (July 2016)

• Wirral Child Poverty JSNA (March 2016)

• Wirral Child Poverty JSNA (December 2014)

• Wirral Child Poverty JSNA (July 2014)

• Improving Life Chances: A New Child and Family Poverty Strategy for Wirral (March 2016)
  Wirral partners have developed a collaborative and robust response to the issues faced by those families who find themselves with low incomes. A strategy has been completed that outlines the work that will be undertaken over the coming months and years. To inform the Strategy Development Group a variety of underpinning data was collated and presented in the document below. 

• Wirral Children in Low Income Families (December 2015)
  A summary of local data and information used to inform the strategy group developments sessions.

• Estimating the effect of child poverty on health in Wirral (2011)
  Child poverty has been shown to have long lasting negative effects on health throughout the life course of a person. The objective of this work is to quantify the impact of childhood poverty on health in Wirral Primary Care Trust. To reach this objective we reviewed the literature on negative health outcomes associated with child poverty at different stages in life and then use the evidence to quantify the burden of childhood poverty on health in Wirral.

• UK Poverty 2024. This report looks at the current situation across different groups and regions, and the future prospects for poverty in the UK.

• Making the local matter: How the forces of power, poverty and place shape schools and schooling (October 2023). This article explores what needs to change to move children out of poverty quickly and equitably.

• Poverty and child health in the UK: using evidence for action (2016). This article outlines some key definitions with regard to child poverty, reviews the links between child poverty and a range of health, developmental, behavioural and social outcomes for children, describes gaps in the evidence base and provides an overview of current policies relevant to child poverty in the UK.

• Poverty in the UK: Statistics (April 2024). This briefing explains the levels and rates of poverty in the UK. It includes historical trends and forecasts for future years, as well as statistics on food poverty and poverty by employment status, tenure, family size, ethnic group, disability, region, and constituency. The focus in this briefing is on poverty defined in terms of disposable household income (income after adding benefits and deducting direct taxes). However, poverty may be defined in different ways and there is no single, universally accepted definition.

• A new measure of poverty for the UK: the final report of the Social Metrics Commission (September 2018) The Social Metrics Commission (SMC) is an independent commission founded in 2016, which has brought together experts to develop a new approach to measuring poverty. Currently there is no agreed UK government measure of poverty and the SMC’s mission is to provide a new consensus around poverty measurement that enables action, informs policy making and so improves the lives of people in poverty, in real ways. The report reveals key findings such as the total number of people living in poverty is 14.2 million with the composition of poverty moving towards a better identification of children (4.5 million). 

• Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2017
  This report examines changes in the distribution of household incomes in the UK, and the determinants and consequences of recent trends.