Child Poverty in London: a societal problem calls for community-led solutions (Part 1)

Our Research and Learning Officer, Emily, discusses three questions on the issue of child poverty in London. This piece is split across three blog posts:  

What is child poverty?

The very fact that children experience poverty across London reflects the failings of British society to support its youngest members. Children are experiencing poverty because their guardians don’t have enough resource to meet their basic needs. Despite their care givers’ best efforts to protect them, children in poverty can experience the stress and insecurity that stems from not having enough to meet essential needs and some children even take on the practical or emotional responsibility to help alleviate some of the worries of the adults in their household.  Children don’t choose poverty. And they can’t choose to end it. They rely on adults in their community, both local and national to make the changes necessary to ensure they, as children, get what they need.  

Relative poverty is defined as a household income that is 60% below the median income. While children are in poverty across the country, they may not experience it in the same way. In London, housing costs and childcare costs mean that children in London are more likely to live in unsuitable accommodation and fewer access early years education whereas in other parts of the country, the challenges may be high travel costs or their adult carers experiencing difficulty finding work.  

What causes it?  

The simple reason for what causes poverty is that household income isn’t enough and is far below the average of many other households. The much more complicated answer is that inadequate income can be the result of an inability to work, poor health, disability, discrimination or unexpected change of circumstances or a combination of challenges that lead to income insecurity. Where it gets really complicated is that accessing adequate income is not a case of simply trying to secure more work because often suitable, paid work is not accessible, for example because of prohibitive childcare costs. This is where narratives around personal responsibility and shame can take root and spring life to inaccurate descriptions as to why some people have enough and others don’t.  

Child poverty is caused by both indirect and direct policy decisions related to children. For example, financial budget reductions for schools, youth services and community organisations mean that children are cut off from the services meant to serve them specifically and in turn it’s only those who can afford to pay for those same services that get the high quality opportunities that help shape children’s present experiences to lead to privileged future opportunities. In addition, policies that impact wages, housing and service provision across the country mean that adults can’t access the jobs and support they need, which has a knock-on effect for children. In combination, these circumstances exacerbate inequality making a greater divide between those who can afford to pay extra and those who can’t afford the essentials.  

What makes child poverty different? 

One of the worst parts of child poverty is that it hurts people at a crucial time in their lives when poverty is integrated into their physiological systems. When their bodies and minds are developing rapidly, and their emotional regulation is dynamically maturing, the trauma that poverty inflicts has a lasting impact. While adults might feel the burden of responsibility, they also have more political influence as voters. Children do not. They can’t work, they can’t vote and they can’t always access the people with power and influence to change. So, they are made to wait and struggle.  

by Emily Barker

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.  

 

 

by Emily Barker

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.   

by Emily Barker

London mothers tell the United Nations temporary accommodation violates children’s rights.

4in10 and Little Village have collaborated to write a submission for the examination of the United Kingdom’s 7th periodic report to the United Nation Committee on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The CESCR committee is currently reviewing the UK Government’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Little Village is a charity that fosters a village of support and solidarity for families on low incomes with children under five in London. Little Village equips families with pre-loved children’s clothes and baby essentials as well as linking them with key services. They also work alongside parents to fix the system that keeps them trapped in poverty.

The research for this report was informed by a human rights-based approach, 4in10 worked  in partnership with a small group of mothers who are part of the Little Village community. In this process, the contribution made by the mothers seeks to bring to the attention of the CESCR their experiences of struggling to access safe and affordable housing, a lack of access to basic necessities and difficulties accessing childcare and therefore being able to work. Therefore, this report contains evidence that the rights under Article 11 ICESCR – the right to an adequate standard of living, and Article 6 ICESCR – the right to work are not enjoyed equally in London. The UK government has failed to protect the rights of families with young children under 5 years of age living in London.  It’s time to hold the UK Government to account and more than that, it’s time for change.

A few excerpts from the report are illustrated below. To read the report in full click here.

Key findings

Experiences of inappropriate and unsafe housing

The mothers shared their experience of a lack of access to safe, secure housing for themselves and their children as one of the most acute issues they face and an issue that they wished the report to draw the Committee’s attention to. Several of the women were or had previously been placed by their local authority in temporary accommodation. London has an acute homelessness problem, with 10 times more London households in temporary accommodation than in the rest of England[1]. In 2021 nearly 56,500 households were living in temporary accommodation, including 75, 580 children. Furthermore, research on the crisis of family homelessness in the UK shows that temporary accommodation is harmful to families. For example, research commissioned by The Cardinal Hume Centre and Home-Start Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham and published last week into the experience of families living in temporary accommodation in Westminster found that temporary accommodation is more than just a housing problem, the impact spans many areas including health, education, child development and a family’s financial situation.[2]

Similarly, the mothers had found the housing their families where places in to be inadequate for their needs and damaging to their mental and physical health as well as that of their children. One mother shared:

“When I had a studio flat with my son, it was so damp. Every time I called they just say you have to wash it [the walls]…but it would keep coming back. My son has an inhaler because of living in mould.”

Inadequate housing can have a detrimental impact on a child’s mental health. A mother shared that their children were showing signs of depression due to overcrowding:

‘Children are depressed because of sharing bedrooms. So, they may act out at school because their needs are not being met at home.’

 While temporary accommodation is intended to house homeless families only for short periods of time, this was not the case for the women and other families across the UK.  A combination of cuts to local government funding, an inadequate welfare system and a lack of permanent social or affordable housing has driven this increase. Consequently, children in London are growing up in substandard and unsafe temporary accommodation and the effect this is having on children’s rights cannot be understated. If the government is committed to its pledge to the international covenant, then giving families a safe, secure and decent home to live in must be the foundation of this.

 Lack of access to childcare as a barrier to work

Another issue that the women highlighted as a priority for the Committee to examine was the barriers that prevent them from exercising their right to work.

When families are housed, especially in temporary accommodation, this is often far away from existing connections including employers and wider families and other sources of support. One mother told us how she was moved from south to north London, which meant, she would have to travel up to 2 hours each way to drop off her child with a family member who could provide childcare while she worked. The high costs of travel and subsequent lost work-time mean that this is not financially viable. Unable to make work pay this mother must rely on a small maternity payment: “I receive £626 a month and that is it. I have to buy nappies, electric every week… the money goes like that.”

Additionally, the women expressed their desire to work to increase their incomes to support their children, but this was impossible given the lack of affordable and accessible childcare available to them.  Another woman, reflecting on the very high costs of childcare, asked “How can I work with 3 kids?’ Childcare in the UK is amongst the most expensive in the world according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In London, the cost of childcare is 30% higher than elsewhere is the country. [3] The consequence of the failure of the government to uprate the childcare element of Universal credit  and the universal credit system not being set up to pay childcare fees in advance means parents are unable to make work pay and are being blocked from the workforce. Hence, polling commissioned by 4in10 in 2021 among a representative sample of Londoners found that childcare costs were felt to be the biggest driver of poverty in the city[4]. While childcare is the infrastructure that allows parents, particularly mothers, to enter or re-enter the workforce, we also know that early years is crucial to for enhancing life chances for children living in poverty.

These experiences shared by the group of mothers are shocking to read and sadly have been a reality of many low income families living in Londoners for too long. The report concludes that despite the UK Government’s assertion in its 7th periodic report to the Committee on Economic, social and Cultural Rights that it is “committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to tackling poverty”, the evidence in the report shows the UK Government is in fact failing to protect young children and their families in London from the damaging effects of poverty and is breaching their rights under ICESCR, specifically Article 11 (1) The right to an adequate standard of living and Article 6 the right to work.  We urge the United Nations to listen to the voices of the women who share their experiences and call on the UK government to uphold their commitment to protect and implement these rights.

[1] Centre for London (Sept 2022) Temporary Accommodation: London’s hidden homelessness crisis

[2] The Cardinal Hume Centre and Home-Start Westminster, Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham (Feb 2023) The Experiences of Families Living in Temporary accommodation in Westminster.

[3] Child Poverty Action Group (June 2021) ‘THE COST OF A CHILD IN LONDON: HELP WITH CHILDCARE FEES ‘WOEFULLY INADEQUATE’

[4] 4in10 London’s Child Poverty Network (October 2021) Flying Against Gravity: the lived reality of poverty in London

by Liza Dresner

Children with special educational needs and disabled children

4in10 organised a coffee morning in February 2023 that was jointly hosted by staff and parents at Marjory Kinnon School in Hounslow. Rochelle McIntyre, the Family Support and Community Outreach Worker facilitated the discussion and had invited her colleague Jo Stacey, Assistant Head Teacher, Key Stage 2 and Staff Governor as well as a parent to provide first-hand experience.  

This mother shared her experiences as a single-parent and the challenges of caring for a child with autism. Throughout the group discussion, a few key costs were mentioned that demonstrate the challenge of parenting and educating children with a learning disability. These include:  

  • Changing dietary needs and specific food items being essential to meet the sensory needs of the child, these foods are often more expensive or difficult to predict and buy reduced  
  • Clothing and textures becoming uncomfortable leading to new purchases frequently 
  • High costs to attend a sensory appropriate gym, averaging £17.50 per visit which swallows up a high proportion of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) that her son is entitled to 
  • Taxis across London for appointments as the underground is too overstimulating 
  • This parent shared that her son often strips off his clothes at home meaning its particularly important to keep the house warm enough, thus adding to the cost of utilities.  

The emotional side for parents was also highlighted. A parent in attendance explained that working part time and taking coursework all had to stop because it just became too overwhelming for her and exhausting to keep up. Even when she was able to access a personal assistant, there were still costs associated with the PA taking care of her son or taking him out and about that limited how much her son could do with her PA. Thus, it felt like there were always limitations and challenges as to how much help she could get because the costs keep adding up.  

Another parent of a child with autism shared her own experiences and emphasised that practical help is important, but the challenge of supporting and adjusting to the sensory needs of a growing child with autism is always there.  

At 4in10, we want to listen to these experiences and share them with those who make decisions that impact children and their parents. We want to highlight the financial and emotional challenges that parents face and the impossible situations that parents with low-incomes encounter when caring for a child with a special need or disability. If you have other thoughts or experiences that you’d like to share, please do get in touch so we can support growing more awareness and social action to advocate for better support of children with varying needs and financial situations.  

by Emily Barker

Research about young people designed by young people for young people

Reflections from Research and Learning Officer, Emily Barker, on an exciting new venture organised by one of our members and taking place across London.

Young Londoners Research Project  

For those interested in youth-led research, I’ve got something to share! I came across a brilliant series of projects that our member, Partnership for Young London, is coordinating along with Rocket Science and Young Harrow Foundation. A total of nine research projects are taking place thanks to these partners working with the Greater London Authority who has commissioned ‘a new programme that will fund and support young people, their youth or support workers and their youth organisations to research young people’s views.’  

Follow this link to learn more about the Young Researchers Programme and for a description of the nine exciting projects underway. The variety of projects speaks to the scope of creativity and talent of these young people. It’s a thrill to hear how passionate as well as thorough and insightful these young people are about putting in the work to develop new knowledge that will help improve the experiences of young Londoners. 

When young people are involved in evaluating and improving the services aimed at them, it can help increase the reach and impact of these services on those who need it most. Many of the projects consider what barriers exist for young people who need to access additional support. Making steps to improve young people’s lives is a key strategy in mitigating the impact , both immediate and long term, of child poverty.

I am especially looking forward to hearing about the findings of the research projects in spring 2023! I can’t wait to learn from their analysis! 

 

 

by Emily Barker

Government Holiday activities and food programme 2022

Holiday activities and food programme 2022 across London

The Government has provided local councils with some funding to allow them to fund free holiday childcare and food provision.

Full details about the program can be found here.

Around London each local council has spent the funding in different ways and supported different organisations so here at 4in10 we have attempted to gather them all together in one place.

 

Barking and Dagenham
Barnet
Bexley
Brent
Bromley
Camden
City of Westminster
Croydon
Ealing
Enfield
Greenwich
Hackney
Hammersmith and Fulham
Haringey
Harrow
Havering
Hillingdon
Hounslow
Islington
Kensington and Chelsea (linked with Westminster)
Kingston upon Thames
Lambeth
Lewisham
Merton
Newham
Redbridge
Richmond upon Thames
Southwark
Sutton
Tower Hamlets
Waltham Forest
Wandsworth

by Maddie Henson

Levelling Up White Paper: Why using London as a yardstick risks children everywhere

Levelling Up White Paper: Why using London as a yardstick risks children everywhere

 

In February, this year, the government released their long-awaited Levelling Up White Paper, a 300-page long publication covering everything from the history of the biggest cities in the world to twelve separate missions for the UK. By now, and a few months on from its publication, you may have read any number of analyses or opinion pieces on this unusual document.

At 4in10, London’s Child Poverty Network, amongst the myriad of missions and metrics, there were two key issues stand out as being of great concern:

  • Child poverty in London is completely absent from the paper (the phrase ‘child poverty’ does not appear at all).
  • London is used a yardstick for success for other regions, despite having the highest levels of inequality and poverty. The White Paper explicitly intends to replicate London’s economic model in other regions despite these facts. This risks the exacerbation of child poverty not just in London but in other areas identified as needing to be ‘Levelled Up’ (Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Newcastle, the Humber etc).

Child Poverty in London and Levelling Up

Although London is discussed in some sections of the Levelling Up White Paper, child poverty levels are not referenced. This is despite four in ten children in London currently living in poverty and nine of the ten local authorities with the highest levels of child poverty being located in London. If children in the capital, or elsewhere in the UK, are going hungry due to poverty – and the White Paper fails to mention – let alone address this – the phrase ‘Levelling-Up’ rings hollow. The White Paper does discuss the deprivation and lack of investment into many regions across the UK. However, it is possible for two truths to be present at once:

  • Vast areas of the UK have experienced chronic underinvestment.
  • London’s children are experiencing worsening poverty levels and increasingly deep levels of poverty.

It is true that some of London’s children do experience some advantages (but these tend to be limited to social mobility measures); a child on free school meals in London is twice as likely to attend university compared to those in the north of England. In London’s most deprived areas, nearly 90 per cent of secondary schools are either good or outstanding, compared with less than 50 per cent in deprived areas of the north. Transport spend per head has been higher in London for a decade (although this doesn’t always benefit poorer Londoners in outer boroughs); London transport spending per head was £864, compared with £379 in the north-west of England between 2009-2020. All of these facts are little compensation to the 12 children in a classroom of 30 who live in poverty in London. If one of the children in an East London classroom ends up going to Oxbridge, or gets a job at a top law firm, that is little compensation to the 11 others who still live in poverty. Similarly, the ability to get from Hackney (East London) to Thornton Heath (South West London), for as little as £1.65, means very little when the parent to the child pays (on average) £1,650 on rent per month in Hackney.

At 4in10, believe the Levelling Up agenda can, and should, address both regional underinvestment and child poverty rates in all areas of the country, including London.  We should not pit children in one area against another (as the White Paper states itself; page xiv)– any child growing up in poverty in the United Kingdom is an avoidable tragedy.

There is a real risk that the high levels of poverty and child poverty, experienced in London and elsewhere, will be overlooked by national policy makers in light of the White Paper.

Replicating London’s Private Sector Productivity Model

“Typically, differences within UK regions or cities are larger than differences between regions on most performance metrics” (Levelling Up White Paper 2022: p27)

A significant part of the reason child poverty is overlooked by the Levelling Up White Paper is due to the fact the main objective of ‘Levelling Up’ is to reproduce the London’s levels of productivity in other regions of the UK, through processes of agglomeration. It is consistently implied, in the White Paper, that living standards will increase once the rest of the UK’s long standing productivity problems are resolved. In London, both as a whole unit and at local authority levels, productivity metrics are higher than other regions. Across the measures selected by the government as indicative of a productive area, Gross Value Added per hour, median gross weekly pay, and proportion of population with a Level 3+ qualification – London scores highly in comparison to other regions. This leaves London’s true picture of poverty somewhat obscured.

Using Gross Value Added (GVA), the favoured productivity measurement of the government, Tower Hamlets is the third most productive region in the country (ONS 2021). Therefore, Tower Hamlets has ‘Levelled Up’, right?

If you were to walk down in a street in Tower Hamlets, in the shadow of Canary Wharf, one in two families (55.8% – End Child Poverty Coalition: 2021) would be living in poverty; if you asked them how high GVA levels or the private sector productivity of the financial district has benefited them, they would struggle to give you an answer.

This gets to the heart of why we at 4in10 are alarmed that this model is being sought to be replicated elsewhere. Living standards, such as child poverty, in Tower Hamlets for example, would not be improved by a further increase in shiny new private sector buildings in the borough.

As a network organisation whose members have seen the impact of child poverty rising over the last decade, the use of London as a yardstick for success or model to be copied is highly concerning. It is not just concerning for children in London, but also for children in places like Leeds, Rotherham, and Middlesbrough, who are the primary focus of ‘Levelling Up’ narratives. Whilst ‘Levelling Up’ certainly means different things to different people, but we would all agree that an area has not levelled up whilst still having extremely high levels of child poverty.

The Equality Trust and New Economics Foundation have already flagged that the Levelling Up White Paper must focus on people, not just places. Research from the NPC (2022) shows that only 2% of the total levelling up funding is going on supporting social infrastructure so far, despite the public’s expectation that will Levelling Up tackle social issues. The public consider the most important aspects to an area being levelled up to be reduced homelessness (36%) and reduced poverty (36%).

However, the problems with the White Paper and child poverty levels in London run even deeper when contextualised against continuous unhelpful narratives:

How Can We Change The Narrative That London Doesn’t Need To Be Levelled Up?

After waiting a few months to see if these concerns would be addressed by policy makers, it is clear that we need an alternative narrative or frame to tell the true story of child poverty in London. Despite years of (sky) high child poverty rates in London, Westminster are simply not listening. No single statistic will provide a silver bullet to this problem, as:

 

  • People outside of London either aren’t aware of the scale of child poverty in London, or they simply don’t believe the scale of inequality and poverty in London when presented with evidence.
  • There is a sense of unfairness/grievance felt towards London from some parts of the UK; typically providing London with any public funding is unpopular.
  • London is no longer a major political priority for either the national Conservative or national Labour parties

In light of these factors, we need urgently to find an alternative way to make the case for the 700,000 children living in poverty in the capital.

We want to work alongside our members, and anyone who shares our concerns about child poverty in London to help us tell the true story of its impact and challenge the prevailing narratives in the White Paper that prevent us from tackling it.

 

by Emily Barker

London Infinity Elite

Poverty Reports and Data, Funding Opportunities and News

Dear All

This issue has information about the Mayoral elections, the Select Committee Enquiry into child poverty and a Spotlight Interview at the end with Little Village. A very happy 5th birthday to them. They have done so much to help families over their 5 years while exposing the root causes of poverty, we are proud to have them as members. Read on for new reports and useful data as well as funding opportunities and an interesting job vacancy.

But first, 4in10 have a new Strategic Project Manager starting on March 8th. Her name is Katherine Hill and she comes with a wealth of campaigning and policy experience.  She joins us after serving for several years as a clerk to the Joint Committee on Human Rights in parliament, and before that she has had a number of human rights policy and campaigning roles at Age UK, Scope and The Children’s Society. We are excited to welcome her to the team.

Other 4in10 staff news is that Keisha is expecting a baby soon and has decided not to return after her maternity leave.  We all wish her and the new baby the very best of luck and much love.

Work and Pensions Select Committee Inquiry into child poverty – deadline for submissions 25th Feb. It is important that organisations make submissions if you can.  If you would like some guidance as to what could go in a submission, CPAG have put together a briefing based on the main questions posed by the Committee.

The London Elections are planned for 6th May this year for the London Assembly and London Mayor. People must be on the electoral register to vote. It is simple to register online and applications for postal votes are available but people must be on the electoral register before applying for a postal vote. This is a good opportunity to ask candidates questions about poverty and inequality in London. If your organisation is contacting candidates please let us know the questions you are asking them and if you get a response that we can share. (Questions suggested in the link below for the End Child Poverty campaign might spark ideas.)
Candidates are:
Sadiq Khan      Labour  Contact
Shaun Bailey   Conservative  Contact
Sian Berry       Green Party  Contact
Luisa Porritt     Liberal Democrats  Contact
Also standing are the Women’s Equality Party, UKIP and a number of Independents.

From members and friends:

  • ACEVO, NCVO and the Lloyds Bank Foundation have published their final report on Rebalancing the Relationship between small and large charities and how the culture of commissioning impacts on this.
  • Be Gamble Aware and Expert Link have joined forces to develop a user led network of those affected by gambling.
  • Big Issue reports that government is proposing a new strategy to help people on low incomes heat their homes, but warn that people will still struggle to stay warm without a stronger benefit system and help getting out of problem debt. The proposals will extend the £140 Warm Home Discount to an extra 750,000 households,  including working-age households earning less than £16,190. This would mean a total 2.7 million people paying £140 less on their fuel bills every winter.
  • Beyond the Box are looking for young people aged between 14 and 25 and living in East London to attend a series of workshops on cultural programming, leading to possible work on the Peoples Pavilion events and programming. Applications closing shortly.
  • The Bike Project is looking for a new Trustee with lived experience of the asylum system.
  • Bromley By Bow Centre the Working Well Trust and the Work Rights Centre have joined forces to run a free webinar on employment and employability in Tower Hamlets. 4th March from 1-2pm.
  • Centre for London is working with the Mayors Office and others to produce a ‘shared vision for London 2050’. They have created a survey with a wide variety of options as to what matters to you and for London. Please do share the survey with your networks and those who use your services.
  • Children England, Lloyds Bank Foundation and others are hosting a webinar on the government’s procurement green paper as it impacts on the voluntary sector. 25th February 2.30 – 4.
  • Debt Free London have extended their 24 hour a day service throughout February. For debt advice and support call  0800 808 5700. Video advice session online debtfree.london/video WhatsApp message on 0800 808 5700 or live web chat online at debtfree.london.
  • Digital Candle is a free service matching voluntary organisations up with a volunteer expert for an hour of free digital advice. Submit your question and within 48 hours you will receive an email matching you with an appropriate expert. No question is too broad or too niche; whatever you need to know, they will find someone who can help.
  • Doctors Of The World have published information on entitlement to the Covid vaccine.
  • End Child Poverty Campaign have a template email you can send to your local MP and ideas of questions to ask and how to phrase them. This can be linked to both the upcoming budget and the #NeverMoreNeeded campaign
  • Expert Link are recruiting a panel of people with lived experience of disadvantage and the benefit system to develop a strategy for long and short-term policy change, and lead monthly online forum with local and national influencers such as DWP Partnership Managers, national charities and Government officials. They are running a 2 part training session for anyone interested on Thursday 25th February (2-4pm) and Thursday 4th March (2-4pm).
  • Feeding Britain and Emma Lewell-Buck MP have published a briefing paper on Stemming the Rise of Child Poverty with some clear recommendations for immediate action.
  • Gingerbread and StepChange  have published a report on lone parent debt.
  • Homeless Link are running a survey until the 21st February for organisations providing homelessness services if they have used Homeless Link in any way.
  • Huffington Post have published a piece on the rise in Tuberculosis, a direct result of people living in poverty.
  • Juniper Education Dataset Report unsurprisingly shows it has been the youngest children whose learning has had the most significant drop during Covid, particularly those in last year’s Year 1, current Year 2s. Certain groups have been disproportionately affected by the disruption to their learning with disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs showing greater gaps than their peers.
  • Lime Bikes are offering all London key workers – from NHS and emergency service staff to carers, teachers and supermarket staff unlimited free Lime e-bike rides to help commuting in a safe and socially distanced way during lockdown.
  • Little Village have published their report on the rates, persistence and depth of poverty in families with young children. (See their Spotlight interview below)
  • Magic Breakfast are continuing their campaign to get the school breakfast bill through parliament. This is running until the end of February and there are many ways you can show your  support.
  • Maternity Action and the Women’s Budget Group are hosting a webinar on reforming shared parental leave. 19th February 1-2.15
  • Migrant Rights are running a series of workshops for migrants on NRPF and everyday rights each day from Feb 22nd to 24th from 1-3.
  • Money and Mental Health report the findings from the Mental Health and Income Commission that there is a significant gap in average income for those with mental health conditions and that this has worsened during Covid.
  • NCVO, Nottingham Trent and Hallam Universities have published their latest report on the impact of Covid on the voluntary sector. They welcome new participants in this ongoing study. It involves completing a survey and the information is important to evidence the fact that our sector is Never More Needed.
  • Refugee Council, Coram Children’s Legal Centre and six other organisations have written to the Children’s Minister calling for every unaccompanied child to receive the specialist care they need.
  • Revolving Door have compiled a collection of eight essays titled The Knot, that explore how poverty, trauma and structural disadvantage create and perpetuate multiple disadvantage. To launch its publication there is an event on the 25th February from 11-12.30 featuring contributors and those with lived experience.
  • Runnymede Trust have published a paper on ethnic inequalities in Covid 19 mortality.
  • Small Charities Coalition have launched a new mentoring service for organisations looking for peer to peer support. They also run events all year to support smaller organisations including governance issues, finance support and events in community languages on setting up a charity. The next ones are for health and wellbeing charities on the 22nd February from 10 – 11 and Poverty, Housing and Homelessness Small Charities Meet-Up with the ASA on the 23rd February from 10-11.
  • Sound Connections host the Music and Social Justice Network and welcome new members. Anyone working with children and young people in London through music is invited to join.

Local Authority and Health Statutory Updates:

Funding Opportunities:

Job vacancy at Save the Children:
Senior Policy Adviser and Advocacy Adviser (UK Child Poverty), will lead Save the Children’s UK child poverty policy work targeting the UK government.

Keep an eye out for announcements about 4in10’s new website. The plan is for test runs to start on the 22nd February with the site going fully live on the 1st March. The site is planned to be very interactive and to include the work started during London Challenge Poverty Week, creating a searchable and useful list of the many wonderful voluntary organisations working directly with child poverty in London. We still welcome your photos or videos to share on the site, which we intend  will visually reflect our members work. All material will be credited.

Finally, thank you to Little Village for their Spotlight interview below and if you would like to be our Spotlight organisation in March or April or if you have information to share with our network, please do get in touch.

Very best wishes and stay safe.
Liza

by Liza Dresner

Resources for Autism

Great Job Opportunity, News, Funding, Reports and More

Dear All

We hope you are well and coping with where we all find ourselves.

You may have seen that sadly, Laura Payne is moving on from 4in10 to a great new post at the end of January. This means we have an exciting new vacancy for our team leader. Can you see yourself running our amazing 4in10 network, championing London's diverse and tireless anti-poverty organisations, maintaining, creating and developing contacts with decision makers and those who influence and inform them while leading a small and diverse team? Do you have excellent people skills and experience of campaigning and collaboration? Job description is here and the closing date is midday on the 18th January. Please do share as widely as you can.

As before a return to full lockdown means the danger of yet another increase in Domestic Violence. This is an updated list of the help available:

From our members and friends:

4in10 and a group of our frontline medical members are planning a Webinar on the impact of poor housing on children's health and safeguarding and what practical steps that can be taken to change this from a health practitioners perspective. The provisional date for this is the 29th March 1 – 2.30. If you feel you have something you would like to contribute please get in touch. More details will be available next month.

Local Authority and Statutory Updates:
Many London Local Authorities have developed an elibrary service. This gives access to online books, magazines, comics, homework help and more. Examples below of what is available from some individual boroughs but do check your own borough's library website for more details:

  • Barnet
  • Brent
  • Croydon
  • Ealing
  • Kensington and Chelsea
  • Waltham Forest
  • Hounslow have launched a swop shop for residents for children's clothes and toys and have created a way for families to give away items and request things they need. Send an email with the items to give away or needed.
  • The Department of Culture, Media and Sport are hosting webinars on Winning Central Government Contracts and the New Social Value Model from 2pm-4pm, on the 20th January 2021, 3rd February and the 17th March.
  • The Department for Education has confirmed it will go ahead with previously announced plans to increase the number of free laptops and 4G routers made available to disadvantaged children.
  • Ofcom estimates that 9% of children in the UK (between 1.1 million and 1.8 million) do not have access to a laptop, desktop, or tablet at home and that more than 880,000 children live in a household with only a mobile internet connection.
  • ONS state that only 51% of households earning between £6,000 and £10,000 have internet access.
  • The DofE also updated their guidance on safeguarding children on the 30th December. It now includes homelessness or potential homelessness as a safeguarding concern and requires public bodies to refer families to a housing authority.
  • GLA have a London Learning from Home resource site for parents and children to access resources and help.
  • London Boroughs Faiths Network, the GLA and London Plus are running the pan-London Volunteering Summit 14th January 1.30 – 3.30. Free and online, this will address ways to support volunteers and volunteering in London.
  • The Prime Minister stated that children eligible for free school meals would now receive supermarket vouchers similar to those provided during the first lockdown and during the summer and Christmas holidays. There is currently no information on how this is to be administered while schools are closed. Check individual local authority websites for updates.

Funding Opportunities:

Very best wishes and as always please keep sharing information with us so we can share on...

Laura, Keisha and Liza

PS: Did you see the Member Spotlight in our last newsletter? Do let us know if you'd like to feature your work here too.

by Liza Dresner