Report reveals best and worst areas for child poverty

According to one assessment, a total of 7,935 children in the East Riding are growing up in poverty – about 11 per cent of the child population.

The national average is 20 per cent, while the most deprived councils have rates as high as 40 per cent, and the least have rates of 10 per cent.

Across Yorkshire and the Humber region, only North Yorkshire, at just over 10 per cent, has fewer children growing up in poverty than the East Riding.

The figures, contained in a report to East Riding Council's Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, put Hull at the foot of the regional table, where child poverty rates are about 33 per cent.

Methods of measuring child poverty vary, and nationally the number of children living in poverty across the UK ranges from 2.8 million to four million.

The report said pockets of extreme deprivation can be found in parts of Beverley, Goole, Bridlington and Holderness.

One measure of child poverty is to calculate the number of children taking free school meals – there are 3,904 children in the East Riding registered to do so, as well as 810 who attend East Riding Schools but live elsewhere.

But this measure is flawed, the report said, as it does not take into account children who are eligible but not registered, or children below school age.

The Bridlington Children's Trust is due to report on its Eradicating Child Poverty project later this month. This will feed into the council's strategy to tackling the issue.

The report calls for "bold and brave" decision making as the council adjusts to Government funding cuts.

But the report's authors say that despite budgetary restraints the authority can still make a "significant difference" to the lives of children who are growing up in poverty.