Tackling child poverty in Stockport

Written by Paul Porgess and published in PAUL PORGESS is a Liberal Democrat Councillor in Stockport, and a member of the Children and Young People`s Scrutiny Commitee on Sat 12th Jan 2008

Stockport is highly polarised; it has parts that are very deprived and other parts affluent, but with pockets of deprivation. Although school performance overall is very good, there are pockets of underachievement.

Every year Scrutiny Committee takes two subjects for review. As part of its work the Children and Young People`s Scrutiny Committee examined child poverty.

Child poverty is a complex, multi-dimensional issue. The starting point was the Local Government Association (LGA) Discussion Paper "Local Government and Child Poverty: Making a Shared Commitment a Shared Reality" (March, 2006). Our study was limited to strategic planning, childcare provision, secondary education and the supporting of young people into post-16 education, employment or training. We were careful to distinguish between shorter- term interventions to help children living in poverty now and longer-term strategies averting the likelihood of poverty for the next generation.

We looked at childcare: whether we are meeting the needs of groups vulnerable to child poverty and deprived areas in our existing childcare provision, and what further work is needed to identify/conclude how childcare provision can maximise its contribution to tackling child poverty in Stockport.

We also looked at educational attainment and post-16 destinations: what we are doing to improve outcomes for children who are vulnerable to poverty, by addressing truancy and educational underachievement, and the link to 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training, to reduce numbers of such young people. One aspect was the large size of secondary schools, and their traditional organisation. An experiment in one school, where smaller groups are being formed, will be watched carefully.

The full report is on the Stockport Council website. Go to www.stockport.gov.uk, click on Your Council, then On-Line Council Committee Papers, Content Search. In the search box enter Child Poverty.

The work is being followed up this year by looking at Raising Aspirations, the effect of SureStart on parents, and how to improve aspirations at 14 to 19.