Council proposes new plan to tackle child poverty

A council has unveiled a new strategy to "mitigate, reduce and prevent" child poverty.

South Tyneside Council has outlined plans to tackle the issue after data showed a third of its neighbourhoods were among the worst deprived areas in the country, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

More financial support would be provided to families, employers would be encouraged to pay the real living wage and the free school meal programme would be expanded.

Council leader Tracey Dixon said the new strategy was needed as the area was suffering from "devastating levels of child poverty".

"We know that almost a third of young people in South Tyneside are living in poverty and the impact of that on children's lives and childhoods can be linked to low birth weight in babies, poor physical and mental health and much more," she said.

"Our child poverty strategy directly tackles those burning issues."

The strategy has four overarching priorities, namely maximising family income, making work a route out of poverty, focusing on ensuring the best start in life and making all decisions through a "poverty lens".

More specific plans include a programme designed to reduce the cost of the school day for families, increasing the number of baby boxes available to new parents and improving the uptake of Healthy Start Vouchers.

South Tyneside Council would also become part of the national Get Britain Working Agenda pilot scheme - a government policy which aims to improve employment by helping people to enter or rejoin the workforce.

However, Dixon, who is deputy chair of the North East Combined Authority's Child Poverty Reduction Unit, noted "most of the levers to action real change are still in the control of central government".

She said she hoped the council's strategy would "directly influence" the work of the national Child Poverty Taskforce in developing its National Child Poverty Strategy due to be published later this year.

The strategy will be discussed by the council on 20 March.

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