APPENDIX 2

Housing & Neighbourhood Partnership – Agenda item 5

A Brighter Borough for All

Tackling Family Poverty across Stockton on Tees

AUGUST 2013

Contents

  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Requirements for a Framework
  • How the Framework was developed
  • Challenges
  • Stockton Local Strategic Partnership
  • Vision and Aims
  • What we are doing already
  • Monitoring and Review
  • Appendix 1 – Needs Assessment
  • Appendix 2 – Local Strategic Partnership Structure

Foreword

Poverty is not a new concept but one that has been around for decades.

The concept of child poverty is complex and is not only linked to income but embraces a range of other aspects including education, housing and health.The effects of children and families growing up in poverty are shown to have far reaching and long-term consequences both economically and socially.

Of course children don’t live in isolation but in family units of varying descriptions, whether that is with their birth parent (s) or in care.There are examples of families living in poverty where there are no dependant children and examples of older children living independently, who also experience poverty.

It is for these reasons that Stockton Local Strategic Partnership has agreed to develop a framework for tackling family poverty that seeks to recognise the issues, the potential and current impact and the actions required to tackle, at a local level, what is a nationally recognised issue.

The Government’s aim to eradicate child poverty by 2020 is challenging particularly within the current and projected economic context, however it does not mean that we should not be actively working to do what we can, to support lifting families out of poverty.

This framework sets out our approach for doing that.

Introduction

In the UK today some 3.6 million plus children currently live below the poverty line. Growing up in poverty can affect every area of a child’s development and their future life chances. Evidence suggests that children from low incomehouseholds are less likely to achieve in many aspects of their lives including reaching their academic potential and therefore securing employmentasadults. They are more likely to suffer from poor health, live in poor quality housing and unsafe environments, often affecting their whole life cycle.

In March 1999 the government of the time pledged to eradicate child poverty by 2020. They issued a statement saying:

“Poverty should not be a birth right. Being poor should not be a life sentence. We need to sow the seeds of ambition in the young. Our historic aim will be for ours to be the first generation to end child poverty and it will take a generation. It is a 20 year mission but I believe it can be done”

The Child Poverty Bill, which provided a statutory basis for the commitment to eradicate child poverty was first announced in September 2008 and introduced to parliament in July 2009. The Child Poverty Act achievedRoyal Assent on 25th March 2010. The act sets out the duties of local authorities and other bodies in tackling poverty providing national targets to achieve by 2020. It requires that “responsible local authorities and their partner authorities co-operate to reduce and mitigate the effects of child poverty in our local areas”.

The coalition government, in power following the May 2011 elections, decided not to publish statutory guidance on local authority duties relating to the act and instead provide a short, non statutory guide, signposting to a package of sector led support. There was therefore no statutory requirement to carry out and publish an assessment of need of children living in poverty in our local area or prepare a joint Child Poverty Strategy.

However Stockton for some time has looked to narrow the inequalities gap, our aim is to ensure a better quality of life for everyone in the Borough of Stockton on Tees, now and for future generations.

The origin of this document “A Brighter Borough for All, Tackling Family Poverty across Stockton on Tees” isbased on the requirements of the Child Poverty Act 2010 and our continued commitment to tackle disadvantage and protect the vulnerable within our communities.

Requirements for a Framework

A Brighter Future for All – Tackling Family Poverty across Stockton on Tees

There is no longer a statutory requirement to have a Local Strategic Partnership or a Sustainable Community Strategy. Both of these have historically served the Council, its key partners and the Voluntary and Community sector representatives well in terms of developing a shared vision and action plan for the Borough, linked to Promoting Achievement and Tackling Disadvantage.

The Health and Social Care Act has led to the establishment of Health and Wellbeing boards and the development of a Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan for the Borough.

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act introduced the role of Police and Crime commissioners and reinforced the role of Community Safety Partnerships. Our Community Safety Plan sets out the Community safety priorities and delivery plan for the Borough.

The establishment and ongoing development of the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the associated Statement of Ambition alongside proposals around an emerging City Deal has become the main forum for setting the vision, strategy and action plan for business engagement around economic development and enterprise.

The role of Voice, the forum representing the Voluntary and Community Sector, has been refreshed to reflect changes in the sector, the importance of their role in future service delivery and to provide clarity of their role, responsibility and accountability arrangements. The Compact, an agreement between the Voluntary and Community sector and the partners within the Stockton Local Strategic Partnership, will be refreshed in the autumn of 2013 to take account of the changes detailed above.

As a result of these legislative changes, the changing role of the public sector and the need to reconsider how services are delivered and priorities determined, a review of the Local Strategic Partnership- Renaissance has taken place. The Renaissance structure has been replaced witha refreshed structure - The Stockton Local Strategic Partnership. With the introduction of the statutory Health and Wellbeing Strategy and theexistence of the wellestablished Community Safety Plan,this provided an opportunity to review the focus of the partnership and the need for the continuation of the Sustainable Community Strategy in its present form. Many elements of the Sustainable Community Strategy are now embedded within these and other plans such as the LEP Statement of Ambition, Area Transport Plansand the emerging Green Vision. It has been agreed therefore that the focus of the Stockton Local Strategic Partnership will be to tackle disadvantage and protectthe vulnerable”, with plans to achieve this set out in the Stockton Local Strategic Partnership Document “A Brighter Future for All – Tackling Family Poverty”

How have we developed this framework?

The Council and its partners have a longstanding commitment to tackling child and family poverty and through working in partnership we havemade progress in some areas in narrowing the gap between both our most disadvantaged and more affluent communities but also the borough and UK as a whole. However in order to focus and concentrate our activities to tackle family poverty we decided to develop a family poverty framework to help us better target our existing activity and bring together in one place the activity supporting our commitment to a Brighter future for All - Tackling Family Poverty.

Community involvement is at the heart of everything we do. Over the last few years we have held a series of large consultation events with members of the Local Strategic Partnership looking at differing aspects of poverty and its impacts and considering our approaches to tackling this issue. A Framework for Tackling Family Poverty was agreed in July 2012.

Recent changes to the structure of the Local Strategic Partnership and the introduction of new statutory bodies and plans such as the Health and Wellbeing partnership, the Fuel Poverty Partnership and the inclusion of the Infinity Group within partnership arrangements, coupled with the introduction of Welfare Reform and continued economic austerity, highlighted the need to update the existing framework document.

Discussions from stakeholder consultation events, feedback from residents through surveys and focus groups, updated intelligence gained through customer contact and partner organisations supporting our communitiesand a revised needs assessment, have informed the refresh of this framework document.

It was also important to consider the views of our young people in Stockton and understand what Poverty means to them. Our young people took part in a regional project in the summer of 2011, supported by Children North East. The project sought to understand the views and experiences of children and young people in relation to poverty. Photography was chosen as the media to enable the widest possible range of children and young people to take part as well as those for who English is not used as their first language and those who may have difficulty in communicating. In total 517 children and young people from the North East used disposable cameras to capture poverty through their eyes. Returned disposable cameras generated 11,000 images.

The images were sorted into themes which generated a list of priorities for children; identifying the areas they felt had the biggest impact on what living in poverty was like for them. This work has now been published by Children North East along with an action plan which seeks to work with organizations across the North East to eradicate Poverty for Children. As well as the images produced the children went on to identify associated issues of poverty through further workshops and also bringing to life the images through the development of a play. The play acted out the impacts of poverty on every day life highlighting issues such as the stigma of free school meals and being labeled as “poor” or “in poverty”; the stigma of the language used, the impact of branding, peer pressure at school and at home, not wanting to go to school due to poor clothing, bullying, not inviting friends home due to the state of their home or neighborhood, the quality of their TV/ appliances, limitations on watching TV due to time limits of the electric meter.

The desire of the Partnership remains to be as focussed and as practical as possible, concentrating on tackling disadvantage and protecting the vulnerable, responsive to the current financial climate and maximising the opportunities community led action can have in tackling family poverty, particularly around advice and guidance, credit unions and promoting sound financial management and practices.

This feedback has been taken on board in refreshing this framework document.

Challenges

Local context

Our needs assessment tells us that there are some significant challenges ahead for Stockton on Tees.

  • 22.3% of our children are living in poverty
  • 7 of our wards are in the most deprived 10% in the country.
  • We have a higher rate of unemployment than the national average
  • Average earnings are lower than the national average.
  • High levels of benefit dependency

There are also a number of issues that affect the wider determinants of poverty;

  • Future demographic pressures – increasing number of older people as a % of the population, an increase in births
  • The growing diversity of our communities, support for refugees and asylum seekers, other vulnerable groups such as single parent families, those with disabilities, carers or those with mental health problems.
  • Increased fuel and energy costs
  • A growing need for affordable housing
  • Managing the inequality gaps, social, educational , health, income etc
  • Our health outcomes are worse in the North East compared to the National Average.
  • Unprecedented budget cuts to public sector and continued austerity measures affecting the whole economy.

A needs assessment is attached at Appendix 1.

National context

The Child Poverty Act received Royal Assent in March 2011. Following the general elections in May 2011, the coalition government remained committed to reducing child poverty. Whilst the proposals to create a Child Poverty Commission are under review the policy direction is to tackle poverty by increasing life chances and social mobility.

The coalition government has instigated a number of reviews which have influenced both the national child poverty strategy and this framework. These are listed below. Key amongst these is the Independent Review of Poverty and Life Chances chaired by Frank Field. Themes emerging from Fields review which consider the overall impact of poverty on society, look at the impact and influence of poverty through key life stages:

  • Early years / early intervention ( 0 – 5 years )
  • The foundations years ( 5 – 11 years )
  • The transition years ( 11 – 18 years )
  • Adulthood.

The review recommended a fundamentally different approach to measuring and preventing poverty, going beyond a narrow focus on incomes and recognising the importance of parenting and family support, health and education in framing life chances. The Allen and MarmotReviews and other research support these findings, suggesting prevention or early intervention is key to reducing poverty going forward.

The period from conception to age five, the Foundation Years, is of fundamental importance for improving life chances and highlights the need to give these years greater prominence in both policy and resource terms. Getting early intervention right makes moral and financial sense and is key to breaking the intergenerational transmission of dysfunction and disadvantage.

The Stockton local Strategic Partnership has considered these development areas and supported by our strategic plans such as the Early Help Strategy, Health and Wellbeing Strategy, Better Start project, this framework highlights how we will work in partnership to target vulnerable groups and activities to tackle family poverty along these lines.

The National Child Poverty Strategy is also set against the backdrop of a challenging Spending Review. The Government has made it clear that

Its central priority is to reduce the financial deficit and has launched a programme of tax increases, welfare reforms and public spending reductions. Significant reductions have been made to the funding available to the Public Sector over the last few years with further reductions to come. For Local Authorities nationally, this means a 40+% reduction in funding. Many local authorities, including Stockton, are working hard to minimise the impact of budget cuts on the most vulnerable. Nationally this is expected to have a disproportionate impact on areas with higher levels of deprivation. The localisation of Business Rates will disproportionally affect lower tax base authorities and their ability to grow their tax base to fund services furthermore, over the years the links between funding and relative needs will become more disparate. According to Government reports the Spending Review will have no measurable impact on progress towards meeting its child poverty targets over the next two years. However analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), suggests that families with children will be hit hardest by the reforms.

In addition to these cuts the Government has an ambitious programme of welfare reform across a number of major areas. Many of these have come into affect from the 1st April 2013 and are already identifying an impact on residents across the borough. The introduction of Universal Credit which seeks to streamline a range of different welfare benefits into one overall payment has been delayed beyond October 2013. however there remain significant challenges in implementing this reform, not least of which being, to fully understand the impact it will have on the support provided to families: this detail continues to be worked through.

Related review and research documentation:

  • The Foundation Years: Preventing Poor Children Becoming Poor Adults December 2010, Frank Field
  • Early Intervention: The Next Steps January 2011, Graham Allen
  • Health and Social Care Bill (2011)
  • The National Child Poverty Strategy - A New Approach to Child Poverty - Tackling the Causes of Disadvantage and Transforming Families’ Lives
  • Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage March 2011, Dame Clare Tickell
  • Fair Society, Healthy Lives (February 2010, Sir Michael Marmot)
  • Association of North East Councils and Institute of Loccal Governance – the Impact of Welfare Reform in the North East ( August 2013) and in Stockton ( 2012)
  • Social Justice - Transforming lives 2012
  • Strategy for Social Mobility – HM Government 2011
  • Children and Working Age Poverty from 2010 to 2020 – Joseph Rowntree Foundation
  • Poverty and Inequality in 2020 Joseph Rowntree Foundation May 2012.
  • Local Authorities and Child Poverty; balancing threats and opportunities July 2012 – Child Poverty Action Group
  • Children north East – Child Poverty definitely not a thing of the past 2011/12
  • Measuring Child Poverty – A National Government consultation on a better measure of child poverty. May 2013.
  • Written out of the Picture – Child Poverty Commission - Support for Refugees and Asylum Seekers 2013.

Stockton Local Strategic Partnership