United front declared in war on district’s blight of child poverty

Bradford Children’s Trust, backed by organisations across the city, is launching its first strategy to tackle child poverty in the district.

The launch will take place on Monday June 27 at City Exchange in Bradford.

The participants will plan how the different organisations that deliver services to children will together tackle the impacts and the causes of poverty.

There will be about 70 delegates attending including headteachers and key staff from other areas of education, health, regeneration and the voluntary sector.

Councilllor Ian Greenwood, leader of Bradford Council, will address the launch and presentations will be given by Bradford Council’s strategic director, Kath Tunstall, and deputy director of children’s services, Cindy Peek, and Councillor Ralph Berry, the lead member for children’s services.

Coun Berry said of the strategy: “We believe that child poverty is everybody’s business and we hope that by putting this plan into action we can make a difference to children’s lives.

“Childhood experience lays the foundation for later life and growing up in poverty can damage both children’s physical and emotional development.

“Whilst some children living in poverty will achieve their full potential against the odds, many others don’t and we want to be able to help those young people improve their life chances and then pass on the benefits to their own children.

“The Children’s Trust partners are fully committed to making real changes and this strategy is just the start.”

Kath Tunstall said: “Children are victims of families in poverty.

“It is essential that we work together to support families to break out of the poverty trap so that our children and young people can make the most of all opportunities before them.”

The presentations will be followed by workshops looking at how the partners can improve housing, promote employability within families, help children eat better food and increase the uptake of free school meals.

The key aims identified in the strategy are to:

Improve sub-standard housing

Provide families with support such as debt, benefits and career advice

Help young people take advantage of education and training opportunities

Break the unemployment cycle

Promote positive parenting in children and families.

The strategy will be managed through the Children’s Trust which reports to the Bradford District Partnership, which is the Local Strategic Partnership for the Bradford district.

Last month it was revealed that almost a third of children in the Bradford district are living in poverty.

The Campaign to End Child Poverty published a report which showed that 29 per cent of youngsters are blighted by poverty.

In some council wards the numbers are high as as 44 per cent but there are big differences between urban and rural areas of the Bradford area.

In England as a whole, just over 21 per cent of children, about 2.4 million, are living in poverty, according to the study.

That figure rises to 36 per cent in the Bradford West constituency and 35 per cent in Bradford North.

Keighley and Shipley have child poverty levels of 21 per cent and 14 per cent respectively but the problem is much worse in inner-city areas of Bradford.

The worst wards are said to be Bradford Moor and Manningham where an estimated 44 per cent of children are living in poverty.

In wealthier suburbs the figures drop dramatically, with only eight per cent in Baildon and the Worth Valley.