UK child poverty - still of huge concern - how can it be sorted?

[PersephoneSnape]

Whilst I appreciate that poverty in the UK is relative and that there are billions of children worldwide who are far worse off, I found this news story very unsettling yesterday ?

The government has various targets designed to half child poverty by 2020 ? and it doesn?t seem to be working quickly or going far enough.

What are your thoughts? Any solutions?

i don't agree about Glasgow and meals at all - if it's the difference between a child getting no breakfast, or getting a packed lunch consisting of a bag of crisps a fruit shoot and a mars bar, and getting breakfast and lunch, nutrionally balanced - containing food they might not get the opportunity to try at home, then great - If it teaches those children about nutrition that they take forward for the rest of their lives then it's done it's job and the subsequent savings to the health service will contribute towards the cost now.

schools falling apart is a seperate issue, although still obviously linked to poverty - i think the city council is building some new schools at the mo - but then that's one of the areas where you can't please everyone, because then is then a travel-to-school problem when they merge schools onto new sites.

my children go to breakfast club at their Glasgow primary. that means i can get to work earlier and subsequently pick them up from school two/three days a week, thanks to flexi time. They've have toast/cereal at home if they have time and might have a slice of toast at breakfast club - they get to socialise with their school friends in am atmosphere that doesn't include school work.

'chools falling apart is a seperate issue, although still obviously linked to poverty - i think the city council is building some new schools at the mo - but then that's one of the areas where you can't please everyone, because then is then a travel-to-school problem when they merge schools onto new sites.'

But Porty High is in one of the nicest parts of Edinburgh.

So is Boroughmuir and Gillespie's, also in dire need of urgent repairs.

The government did not allocate extra monies to pay for the free lunches for everyone.

Where is it supposed to come from?

Those parents that consistently fail to provide their DC with breakfast and a packed lunch are probably not feeding them properly outside of school time either. That is why SS needs to get involved. All the school meals in the world won't help a neglected 5 year old outside of term time.

i agree, Upwind and Fio.

'Just have a little think here about the schools providing free meals. Can you imagine the sort of parents those schools are going to attract'

thrifty parents? parents who are worried about the credit crunch? working parents who can't afford multiple school lunches? working parents who come home from a hard days slog, make tea from scratch and then have to make a packed lunch as well? parents where the mum SOH and the dad has just lost his job with HBOS because lloyds TSb has taken it over?

the parents that i think you might be alluding to already get free school meals. it's telling that in the areas of the country that have the highest levels of deprivation, as measured in the original link possibly 70 - 80% of children will already be entitled to a 'free' lunch because of their parents income. Income ceratinly doesn't measure the 'type' of parent you will be - it's a bit of a sweeping generalisation to think that low income = bad parent.

Hmmmm, I certainly don't mean that low income = bad parents. Perhaps I worded it wrong.

I do think it will lead to a divide though.

yes, but people who, now that IIRC the council tax hike freeze is up here in Scotland, are going to face higher taxes to pay for hte free school dinners for all, even those who don't need them for free.

let's face it, the money has to come from somewhere.

why not lobby instead for the personal threshhold and/or the working tax credit threshhold to be raised so that low-income earners - like us AS WELL AS ALL working people! - can benefit?

these stop gap populist measures to 'tackle' child poverty are part of the problem.

how about real policies to make working pay better and decent accommodation and fuel more affordable overall?

we did it again expat

I'm not sure if i read more into your comment than you intended, nametaken

for me, working single mum, breakfast club is a godsend - coupled with flexible working, it means i can get to work an hour earlier. less stress - more time with children at the other end of the day

how it's paid for - no idea yet. Glasgow likes to cut other services to not put up council tax - it might do so again - although i guess a lot is dependant on local income tax bill being passed.

theres an incandescant article in the telegraph about how English taxpayers will be paying for this - i'll try and find a link.

oh come on Persephone, you know perfectly well that throwing scraps of food of people WON'T get them out of poverty.

It didn't get them out of poverty in the third world and it won't get them out of poverty in Glasgow either. If anything, it will keep them poor.

at people, not of people

How about better funding for organisations like Homestart that actually get into homes and support struggling parents. I had some help from them when I had 3 under 5 and one with SN. I just needed an hours break now and then but my helper said she had done basic cooking and childcare skills with young mums before.

in that case, it's very frightening to consider how corrupt councils like Aberdeen will pay for it when they've been slashing some pretty vital services to make up for an astonishing large shortfall of funds.

child poverty is about lack of affordable decent, secure accommodation, fuel poverty (particularly among the working poor who are left out of most measures to help), lack of time from parents who must work all the hours god sends just to keep the wolf from the door, ignorance, lack of personal responsibility/laziness/the blame, excuse, entitlement culture, lack of hope and a whole host of things that no one seems truly interested in addressing because it either will mean less wealth for the priviledged few (including elected officials and their cronies) or it's not very PC.

Agree FioFio - and managing money/credit should be taught too. Especially how interest mounts up.

hull did it ofr a while too

'Results showed a dramatic difference in behaviour, concentration and attendance when the pilot was first introduced.'

it's not 'scraps' of food, it's nutrionally balanced square meals that they might not get elsewhere - it's levelling that part of the playing field so that all children get at least one or two proper meals a day. that does take away parental responsibility, granted, but unless you finance educating those parents and put measures into place to ensure that they continue to feed their children properly - then there is no guarentee that children will get a square meal as opp to a jam sandwhich for tea. the free meals does, at least do that.

telegraph - public service apartheid!

then you run into issues like those raised on the Jamie Oliver threads and on the one about Healthy Eating edicts in schools.

that's the other problem.

what you need is a paradigm shift.

but it's expensive and not PC .

So in 10 years time, there will be plenty of well fed unemployed people in Glasgow and Hull.

Yeah, that'll help child poverty

sorry - shouldn't have lowered myself to sarcasm there . What I should have said was

How is giving people free food going to end child poverty?

I do agree expat - to an extent the free meals thing is a sidetrack (agree with name as well here..) it's not enough and it won't wave a magic wand, but i do think it's a start.

I'm getting into discussing this when there are more important things.

where does the lack of personal responsibility come from (to diverge a little) my grandparents always worked, so did my mum, after my dad left her) - I've always worked as well - apart from cases where there is lack of childcare (decent childcare, affordable childcare) or (dis) ability - when did it become socially acceptable to just not work - or to (help to)provide for you & your children yourself? was there some seachange in the 1960s or something? is it the fault of liberalism, or feminism or the welfare state?

i genuinely don't know - i can't get my head around why people who can work might not..

'All the school meals in the world won't help a neglected 5 year old outside of term time'

our old surestart was campaigning for a rise in child benefit for people claiming free school meals in the long summer holidays.

Given that a lot of these famillies were not the 'lazy' stereotype people love so much, i think they had a point.