With the very welcome advent of Spring comes also the approach of this year’s local elections which will take place across London in May. This is a major opportunity for us to come together as a Network to lobby those who would represent us as our local councillors, to put tackling child poverty at the top of their agendas.
Over the past months, we have been working with Network members to develop an Action Plan which sets out what needs to happen to tackle poverty rates and improve the lives of London’s children, in the context of the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy. Alongside calls to action the plan aims to spotlight examples of good practice from across the network and amplify your campaigns and priorities.
You are now able to view the Action Plan set out on this microsite: www.childpovertylondon.org (use the password: stationsummaryautomatic). There is still a small amount of tinkering to do, but you can see it in its nearly final shape.
As agreed at our recent Policy Forum meeting the intention is to formally launch the Action Plan to coincide with the publication of this years’ official poverty statistics on 26 March. This will also mark the launch of a campaign to ask prospective councillors to sign up to ‘work towards a child poverty-free London’. More details of how you can support this campaign will be shared soon.
We are asking members if they would like to add their logos to the site to signal that they support the overall aims and approach of the document. If you would, email your logo to Katherine by 19 March.
Mass Lobby for Migrants Rights
Praxis in partnership with other members of the NRPF partnership are convening a mass Lobby for Migrant Rights on 11 March to share their deep concerns about the Government's plans to introduce an "earned settlement" immigration system. If these plans go ahead they will push thousands more children into poverty, so if you possibly can, please do support. Details here.
