Agenda item

Further to Minute No. 21 of the meeting of the Self Regulation Select Commission held on 20th September, 2012, consideration was given to a report presented by Joyce Thacker, Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services, which provided an update on action being taken to reduce and mitigate the impact of child poverty in Rotherham.

The Selection Commission had expressed some concern that the corporate outcome relating to child poverty - fewer children are living in poverty – had consistently been rated red (not meeting targets) and were informed that this was measured by relative low income, specifically: the proportion of children living in families in receipt of out of work benefits or tax credits where income was less than 60% of median income.

Using this measure, child poverty levels have increased locally showing an increase in 2009 to 23.3% (13,665 children) up from 22% in 2008.  Child poverty levels remained above the national and regional averages of 21.3% and 21.9% respectively.

This measure did not seem wholly appropriate as it did not measure poverty in the wider sense (i.e. assessing factors such as worklessness, parents’ qualifications, children’s attainment, teen pregnancy etc) to give a better indication of children’s prospects for escaping poverty in the longer term; their “life chances”.  Using this measure, poverty could be seen to decrease due to proportionately higher income reductions for middle earners, which would be misleading and the Council’s ability to increase the income of struggling families was very limited, particularly when the economy was weak

This being the case it was now recommended that performance measures were broadened to include a range of “life chances” indicators and that the headline income measure was used primarily to compare progress with poverty levels nationally and in other areas (e.g. South Yorkshire, comparator authorities).

The Council and its local partners have a strong strategic focus on tackling poverty and a key priority of the new Health and Wellbeing Strategy was to reduce poverty in disadvantaged areas.   The early Help Strategy, with its focus on preventative work with children and families, aimed to mitigate the effects of child poverty and supported families to fulfil their potential.

These strategies were being implemented via a range of initiatives and projects, many of which would have an impact on child poverty.  It should be emphasised though, that much activity was primarily concerned with mitigating the effects of poverty and intervening early to help children and families.  Achieving significant reductions in poverty levels was, realistically, a longer term aim, particularly during an economic downturn.

The appended action plan was put in place after a child poverty performance clinic in February, 2012.  The latest updates give an indication of progress on some of the key initiatives that will impact on poverty levels.

It was recommended that a more comprehensive position statement on child poverty be produced on an annual basis.  In particular, this would assess progress on the broader areas of work like the Welfare Reform, Health and Wellbeing Strategy poverty priority and Early Help, which could be seen, collectively, as forming the bulk of our response to the issue of child and family poverty.

A discussion and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised and subsequently clarified:-

·              The impact on child poverty with children living within poorer households who were claiming benefits, which the Council had no control over.

·              The actual figures of children suffering from child poverty in Rotherham rather than reliance on national and regional figures.

·              Whether or not inclusion of a range of “life chances” indicators and variable approaches took place in other Local Authorities.

·              Linking the work on deprived communities to the initiatives that aimed to reduce or mitigate the impact of child and family poverty.

·              Wider measures to mitigate child poverty and discussions taking place regionally to produce relevant indicators.

·              The need for comparisons to be drawn from relevant and up-to-date data.

·              Outside influences on the economy, which may mean the performance measure may remain ‘red’

·              More detail within the action plan, which will identify what initiatives have been/not been successful to reduce or mitigate the impact of child and family poverty, along with the work within deprived communities.

·              Reporting lines and where quarterly updates were provided to ensure action being taken was taking effect, co-ordinated and having some kind of impact.

·              The indicator does not measure poverty in the wider sense.

·              The need for further monitoring and detail to identify the numbers of children involved and outcomes.

The Select Commission was mindful of the duty to alleviate the pressure of this indicator being in red, but accepted that some areas were out of the Council’s control.  There was more interest in what action was being taken locally to address some of the concerns and whether these had had impact.

The Select Commission requested that the future action plans (following performance clinics) explicitly detail measures to be taken to improve performance and these be reflected in further reports to this Commission.