Tackling child poverty in Hackney

posted by: Administrator

Did you know that Hackney has one of the highest rates of child poverty in London, third only after Tower Hamlets and Islington? 

The Child Poverty Act 2010 set a target to reduce child poverty by 2020.  Local Authorities like Hackney are responsible for helping to meet this target through working with other organisations to tackle child poverty in the borough.

Hackney Council is developing a child poverty plan, to make sure organisations in the borough work together to reduce child poverty and improve family wellbeing. The Council wants to hear your ideas about how best to tackle child poverty.

So how much is not not enough?

According to Barnardo's a family with two adults and two children needs to have £352 each week in order to be above the poverty line, and many families living on a low income have only about £13 per day per person.

That’s £13 to cover everything:

• food and transport
• new shoes and clothes, school trips and activities, birthday presents
• all bills such as electricity, gas and water, telephone bills, and TV.

What does poverty mean to young people in Hackney? 

Watch the Our Everyday Lives programme on Child Poverty (you need to click through to the Mouth That Roars site to watch this).

What does child poverty mean to young people in the UK?

Have a look at this clip produced by some young people in Birmingham (different city, but the problems are the same for young people in London).

So what does the Council need to do to tackle child poverty?

Hackney Council has produced a draft action plan to reduce child poverty. The aim is to reduce child poverty by:

• making sure all Council departments think about child poverty and family wellbeing when they are designing services
• making an extra effort to make sure children, young people and families who are at risk of poverty are able to get the services they need
• providing support for the whole family: parents, carers and children
• trying to reduce the effect that spending cuts and changes to the benefits system might have
• looking at ways to influence government policies as it relates to child poverty.

Have your say!

If you would like to make recommendations to the Council about reducing child poverty, you can email consultation@hackney.gov.uk (including “Child Poverty Plan” in the subject line)

Or send in your written views by completing a consultation questionnaire and returning to the address below (contact the consultation team to find out how to get a questionnaire).

Send your completed questionnaire and/or your written views by 31 August 2011 to: Freepost LON 18819, The Consultation Team, London Borough of Hackney, Mare Street, London E8 IEA. 

Need to find out more?

• Read the summary recommendations of the Child Poverty and Family Wellbeing Review
• Or contact Pam Baldwin or Lin Cotterrell in the Policy Team. Call: 020 8356 3967/ 2167 or email: pamela.baldwin@hackney.gov.uk or lin.cotterrell@hackney.gov.uk