Agenda item

FOR DISCUSSION

Further to Minute No. 51 of the meeting of the Cabinet Member and Advisers for Children and Young People’s Services held on 1^st October, 2008, consideration was given to a report presented by the Policy Officer (Chief Executive’s Office) stating that, in 1999, the Government made a commitment to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020 – at this time child poverty had doubled in the previous twenty years and the United Kingdom had the worst level of child poverty in Europe.

The report stated that, although significant progress has been made, with some 600,000 children having been lifted out of poverty since 1999, there are still four million children living in a state of poverty within the UK.     

In June 2009, the Child Poverty Bill was introduced to Parliament, making the case to entrench in law the commitment to end child poverty by 2020.  The Bill places a duty on local authorities and their partners to conduct a local needs assessment and develop a joint local strategy.   

The Scrutiny Panel noted that a local needs assessment had been carried out during 2008 and the resulting report, which outlines the national picture of child poverty and how Rotherham compares with its statistical neighbours, was submitted to this meeting.

Members’ discussion of this issue included the following salient points:-

-     definitions of poverty and the way in which childhood experiences of poverty often influence a person’s later life in a negative way;

-     the Government’s PSA Target 9, to reduce child poverty;

-     the Child Poverty Bill (published in the Summer 2009) will place a duty on local authorities to produce a local joint strategy and a performance indicator has been developed as part of the National Indicator set: NI 116 ‘Proportion of Children in Poverty’;

-     statistics and details of child poverty nationally, compared to the position in Rotherham;

-     the child well-being index;

-     the impact of poverty upon children’s educational attainment;

-     the need to develop a joint local strategy to try and reduce child poverty in Rotherham;

-     the Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children’s and Young People’s Services (C4EO) is a new organisation developed to coordinate local, regional and national evidence for ‘what works’ in children’s services;

-     comparative levels of poverty in the South Yorkshire region; and the changed patterns of employment with the demise of the area’s traditional heavy industries;

-     preparing and training local people for the new employment prospects in the South Yorkshire region; some employment being as a consequence of the introduction of the Digital Region;

-     provision support for children’s learning in schools, especially reading (eg: Rotherham Titans rugby players involvement in schools);

-     the link between poverty and health;

-     the problem of ‘stuck’ families, whose successive generations suffer poverty;

-     arrangements for a Partnership-wide consultation event, to take place in Rotherham early in 2010, to bring together all key stakeholders for consideration of the data and information resulting from the local needs assessment (from 2008) of child poverty.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and its contents noted.

(2) That the Scrutiny Panel notes the duty being placed on local authorities to develop a local strategy to try and reduce the level of child poverty.

(3) That further information be reported to a future meeting of this Scrutiny Panel about the Partnership-wide consultation event, due to take place in 2010, as well as updates on the joint local strategy for reducing child poverty.