4in10 Newsletter 17.5.23
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Spotlight on 4in10 Member Whizz-kids
How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
We work to support young wheelchair users through 3 main strategies – Mobile, Enabled, Included. All of which have an impact upon the potential for poverty faced by young Londoners with a disability.
We enable young people to have a chance to have a childhood through our free clubs and programmes, aimed to break the isolation of disability, and give the young people confidence, social skills and a group of friends. At no cost to the family, these can help to tackle the mental impacts of financial deprivation. For young people who are older, we also supply free Employability skill and work placement with our network of partners to provide the launchpad for young wheelchair users to beat the employment gap, and to aid in systemic change to a less impoverished disabled generation.
Tell us something you are excited about?
Morph! Yes, Morph! This year across the summer, Whizz-Kidz has teamed up with Wild in Art and Aardman Animations to do the first step-free Art Trail within London. The trail will have 50+ 6ft high Morph sculptures painted and designed running down the Southbank from Tower Bridge then across past St Pauls and into the city. Alongside the “big” Morphs will be “gaggles” of ‘Mini’ Morphs, designed and painted by schools to support the trail, and of course to support Whizz-Kidz.
Pop along between June and August to see Morph having an “Epic Adventure” in London!
Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?
It has been shown repeatedly that the right wheelchair can a big impact on a young person, both mentally and physically, allowing them to access education, recreation and employment with a greater ease and confidence. Through the Mobile strategy, Whizz-Kidz supported approx. 1,000 families through our clinical services, of which near 1/3 were from the most deprived parts of England, helping to alleviate disability related costs averaging £2,400 per piece of equipment, whilst giving a young person the same chances and childhood of non-disabled children.
What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
Our work to make our young people more included starts and ends at their voice, aims and ambitions. The Kidz Board, a group of 12 young people that help to guide and steer the organisation onto topics that are concerning to them as young disabled people, has allowed us to look at the issues around poverty and financial deficit of the disabled community from all the angles impacting their daily lives. Examples have included the non-standardised “disabled bus pass”, longer journey times due to inadequate higher education accommodations, the job market, social activities, the role of assistance dogs and many more – all of which have a financial impact on young person and their family.
What would most help you achieve your goals?
Whilst of course, funding is always helpful to a charity, we are always looking to be raising awareness of the additional issues faced by Young Wheelchair Users, as quite often they go unnoticed. Partners committing to having Disability Awareness provided by people with lived experience, or work with people with lived experience to open their horizons, and break the misconceptions around disability. The young people that we work with also need people to provide them with the opportunities to succeed, whether that is in a social setting through supporting our clubs, or a employability setting supporting Work Placements and Employability Skills Sessions.
Show these young people that they have a future just like anyone else.
Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
We joined 4in10 as we have become rapidly aware of the additional effects of having a disability on the Cost of Living, and Child Poverty issues currently within the UK, and London. As an organisation that helps to support these young people, we know that we need to be connected to others fighting this issue as well. A candle is dim, but a handful can become a lighthouse, after all.
It is great to be part of a group of organisations looking to tackle this issue within London, a city often shown by its tourist-y bits and not some of the areas of great deprivation and be able to talk about the work we are doing, and ask to help from others on the topic, and campaigns we are running.
To connect with other groups who are interested in childcare and child poverty. So far its been really useful, thank you!
4in10 Member Conducts Research on Low-Income Families and SEND Support
Over the past several months, 4in10 has been working with one of our members, Education and Skills Development Group (ESDEG) to support them in creating an excellent report that outlines the importance of their work with low-income ethnic minority families with children who are eligible for SEND support. With a financial contribution from 4in10, Suchismita Majumdar, ESDEG’s Communications & Policy Officer conducted comprehensive interviews and analysis with the ESDEG team to get a sense of the particular needs and challenges children who require SEND support face when they and their parents seek access to additional support.
The report takes an impressive introspective look at the programmes ESDEG offers and the support they give to children and their parents in response to the particular needs of specific ethnic groups, in particular, Somali, Pakistani, Afghan, Indian and Black Caribbean communities.
Their report, available here, shines a light on the situation both for non-white families across London who encounter barriers because of cultural and economic stigma as well as the more widespread scarcity of SEND programmes and professionals in the state school system across London.
The report also includes some key evaluations that ESDEG has identified to help guide them as they plan and implement future programmes, policies and campaigns going forward.
4in10 Newsletter 4.5.23
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How Poverty Feels
In 2021, 4in10 in partnership with the Greater London Authority commissioned ClearView Research to speak with Londoners to understand what poverty felt like since the Covid-19 pandemic had hit. What Londoners said helps paint a picture of the challenges that so many people face.
All of us across the city have ambitions and there is plenty of opportunity to go around, but it’s been ring-fenced for a small group of people leaving many with too little left. The report showed that with an inadequate social security system, many families found the challenge of gaining secure employment, suitable housing, affordable childcare and everyday costs out of reach. Despite having big dreams, many felt that they were fighting forces beyond their control, an experience compared to flying against gravity.
In 2023, with numerous strikes occurring on a regular basis, it’s clear that workers in many sectors feel they are at breaking point highlighting that the foundations are in need of repair. Basic transportation, health and teaching services are woefully underfunded and lacking investment for innovation and expansion. It’s worth revisiting this report to understand what families are facing today.
Families can’t strike, they have to keep up the fight despite recent data showing that low-income Londoners have faced 21% inflation over the last three years. Families are choosing between heating and eating and the prospect of focusing on career progression when your flat is mouldy and transportation is unaffordable and childcare is inaccessible is an impossible challenge.
What Londoners asked for in the report was for government to make the basics affordable. If childcare, cost of living bills and transportation were affordable then the possibility of families accessing better employment and housing that would enable them to thrive could come to fruition. This is what a good social security system does, it ensures we all have what we need through a social investment for us all. We need policies shaped by all of us to ensure no one gets shut out of decisions that affect them.
Revisiting this report from 2021 is worthwhile because its key findings still hold their weight. That is that poverty is something most of us are concerned about and 85% of us believe that politicians should do more about it.
With local elections just around the corner and London mayoral elections and a General Election on the horizon, it’s worthwhile thinking about making sure politicians hear from you that ending poverty warrants strategic policies. It must be a priority if communities are to thrive, and industries continue to expand providing income sources for Londoners. Flying Against Gravity shows the experiences of Londoners in first-hand accounts that remind us of the emotional toll that is unacceptable.
Together we can do more by demanding lasting change to ensure we all have what we need to soar.
4in10 Newsletter 20.4.23
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4in10 Newsletter 6.4.23
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4in10 Newsletter 23.3.23
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4in10 Newsletter 23.2.23
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Spotlight on 4in10 Member On The Record
How are you helping to tackle child poverty in London?
The lack of affordable childcare and inequality in educational opportunities for the early years is a major cause of poverty. Our project ‘Grow Your Own’ is sharing the history of how people created childcare and early years education and campaigned for improvements in London from the 1960s till the present day. We hope that learning more about how childcare was created in the past could help people change the childcare system we have today for the better, and therefore help to tackle child poverty.
Tell us something you are excited about?
We are excited that we can offer 10 free places on a podcast training course running from April 20th for six weeks. People taking part will get expert training in writing, recording, researching and editing a podcast episode, with all expenses covered including childcare. If you are affected by the lack of affordable childcare or trying to change childcare for the better, and have a connection to east London, please apply to join the course!
Share with our members something positive about your organisation’s achievement or service?
We’ve only just begun, but we have found a lot of people already with really interesting stories to share from decades of work making childcare better. We are starting to plan a program of events where we’ll share some of that experience and learning.
What can other network members learn from you or find out more about through you?
About the history of childcare, including how parents set up their own community run nurseries in the 1970s when they couldn’t find any childcare, how they campaigned to get their local councils to fund them, and how their work setting up community nurseries directly influenced the Sure Start Children’s Centres that were set up in the late 1990s. We want to get the most useful information to you to help you achieve your goals today.
What would most help you achieve your goals?
Reaching lots of people – so please help spread the word!
Why did you join 4in10? What do you enjoy about being part of the 4in10 network?
To connect with other groups who are interested in childcare and child poverty. So far its been really useful, thank you!