How Hartlepool Borough Council plans to tackle 'frightening' child poverty levels
Council chiefs stressed tackling "frightening" levels of child poverty in Hartlepool is one of their key priorities after concerns were raised by councillors.
It comes as official figures show 21.7% of children in the borough live in “absolute” low income families.
Councillor Moss Boddy, Rossmere ward representative on Hartlepool Borough Council, raised concerns over the figure at several recent local authority meetings, stating it was “staggering”.
He added: “That frightened the life out of me quite frankly, there are 21.7% of children living in absolute poverty… it has a complete and utter effect on everything they do.”
A recent council scrutiny investigation defined “absolute” poverty as when household income is “below 60 per cent of the median as it stood in 2011, below which people lack the necessary food, clothing, or shelter”.
Sally Robinson, council executive director of children’s and joint commissioning services, stressed the issue was one of their priorities for the coming year and beyond, with a poverty strategy already in place.
She added: “There is a huge amount of work that is going on in the town and through all of our schools to try and tackle poverty.
“For me, investment in opportunities for families to get into employment would be a key driver that would make a difference. We need to build pathways out of poverty rather than trying to mitigate the impact of poverty.
“If we are serious about building routes out of poverty, we need to try and improve those educational outcomes for our children and young people.”
She added national funding help is also a “critical issue” that could make the “biggest difference” for children, along with allowing councils to use it to reflect local needs.
The comments were made at the latest meeting of the children’s services committee, where it was also heard a Poverty Truth Commission has been set up in Hartlepool to work with people who have experienced poverty.
Speaking at a health and wellbeing board meeting the previous day, Cllr Boddy stressed poverty is an issue that needs to be looked at by organisations across the region and it is also a key challenge for the new Government.
He added: “I can imagine there’s unfortunately a number of other towns around the country that have very similar figures, with very similar problems.”