After years of decline, child poverty rates have started to rise again – with levels in the West Midlands among the highest in the country. A new briefing, produced by the West Midlands Children and Young People's Forum, explains how local authorites can tackle child poverty.

The government originally set out its vision for tackling child poverty in 1999, when it announced its intention to eradicate child poverty by 2020. It has now said this will be supported through a Child Poverty Act, which will, among other things, create a statutory duty on local authorities and their partners to co-operate in undertaking an assessment of the needs of children living locally as the basis of a joint child poverty strategy.

This paper also highlights some interesting local practice including:

Birmingham’s Child Poverty Summit, which brought together strategic partners from the private, public, faith, voluntary and community sectors to explore the challenges of tackling child poverty collectively.
Warwickshire County Council’s strategy, which sees child poverty as another dimension of promoting equalities, with children in poverty another disadvantaged ‘community’, and sets multi-purpose Children’s Centres at its heart.
Wolverhampton’s strategy which describes an imaginary ideal model neighbourhood where all its aims and objectives have already been achieved, to demonstrate the potential impact of neighbourhood working on child poverty.

Download the paper here.

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