End Child Poverty in Kensington and Chelsea
DID YOU KNOW…..?
- Kensington and Chelsea is ranked 101 for deprivation (1 being the most deprived) out of 354 local authorities, nationally.
- Kensington and Chelsea is the 19th most deprived borough in London and has the 21st highest level of child poverty out of London’s 32 boroughs.
- Statistics reveal that 42% of children are in low income families with 12% of children from low income families in work and 29% out of work.
- 9 borough wards are classed as deprived out of a total of 103.
- 59% of the poorest children in Kensington and Chelsea (those who qualify for free school meals) achieved 5 GCSE’s a*-c or more. The borough topped a new league table compiled for the campaign group End Child Poverty. Bottom of the table is Nottinghamshire with just 21%.
DID YOU ALSO KNOW …….?
Kensington and Chelsea’s Local Area Agreement contains national indicator 116 – ‘proportion of children in poverty’. The current baseline figure for the borough is 26.1% of children living in poverty. The milestone for 2009/10 is to reduce child poverty to 22.4% and by 2010/11 to 21.2%
Annual Lecture on Inequality and Poverty
This event on 2 June 2010 was addressed by Professor John Hills from the National Equality Panel speaking on the recommendations of his recent publication ‘An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK’.
Michelle Kennedy, Child Poverty Sector Specialist; C4EO also gave an overview of some of the government's work to combat child poverty, highlighting its wider impact.
Maeve McGoldrick introduced the work on the Working Age Poverty project which Community Links have teamed up with Church Action on Poverty to deliver. The project aims to uncover the views of people of working age on poverty, work and unemployment.
Mind the Gap Campaign
‘Mind The Gap’ is a new campaign led by KCSC which aims to raise the issues of child poverty within the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Sofia Roupakia at KCSC will be leading on its development and will be looking for support from the sector to get behind the campaign.
‘Mind the Gap’ is about addressing the issues which affect our children locally, we need your support to help identify areas for action such as the re-introduction of the school clothing grant.
Read the Mind the Gap Campaign Briefing and Sign Up to Support the Campaign
What Else Can The Voluntary and Community Sector Do?
There are many voluntary and community organisations in Kensington and Chelsea that work with children and families. They are ideally placed to understand the needs of their clients and ways to support them. The Social Council also runs a quarterly children, young people and families forum for local organisations to share good practice and to consult on local strategies and to find ways of addressing child poverty.
Together we aim to raise the profile of local organisations that work to support children and families and to highlight case studies which clearly identify and tackle the causes of child poverty.
The Social Council is currently writing a position paper on the voluntary and community sector’s response to tackling child poverty in the borough and in supporting the Council to reduce child poverty as one of its indicators set out in the Local Area Agreement.
Keep checking the website for further updates.
‘Keeping Child Poverty on the Agenda’ - Summary report - April 2010
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This is a summary of an independent evaluation of 4in10 that captures the impact and lessons learnt through 4in10 for partners and funders. For a copy of the full report and to download a copy of ‘Child Poverty Champions’, 4in10’s guide to good practice in London, please visit www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/london.
Read an update report on the ‘End Child Poverty’ AGM 30th April 2009
- including a contribution and response to questions from the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury