Local Children’s Partnerships Reducing the impact of poverty

1. Local Children’s Partnerships Reducing the impact of poverty

2. Children and Young People’s Plan Hampshire’s Children’s Trust is committed to upholding and promoting the rights of children and young people, as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention asserts that every child in the world has rights – to survival and development, to protection, to health and well being and to be active participants in all the things that happen to them including all decisions that affect them. Unless their needs are met, they will be denied a childhood and the opportunity to develop their full potential. Those needs will not be met unless adults take responsibility for providing the necessary conditions for their fulfilment.

3. So…………………………. Is there ‘institutional’ abuse of the rights of some children?Are children from some particular groups denied the same rights as others – to a childhood that leads to successful adulthood?

4. All pupils - GCSE English 2008

5. FSM pupils - GCSE English 2008

6. White FSM boys - GCSE English 2008

7. Poor outcomes in Hampshire? • 31% of our 11 year olds do not reach the national standard in English and maths • 54% of our 11 year olds on free school meals do not reach the national standard in English and maths • 44% of our 16 year olds do not achieve what’s needed to become a teacher, a social worker or a nurse • 71% of our 16 year olds on free school meals do not achieve what’s needed to become a teacher, a social worker or a nurse

8. What causes children to be at risk of poor outcomes? At the root of vulnerability, risky behaviours, an absence of well-being and poor outcomes at the end of childhood…….. usually lies the relative poverty in which they live.

9. Children and Young People’s Plan Reducing the incidence and impact of poverty on the achievement and life chances of children and young people.

11. Narrowing these gaps, while not disadvantaging children and young people who already do well, is the core business of the Children’s Trust.

12. The key areas for the work of Local Children’s Partnerships • Reducing teenage conceptions • Reducing those not in employment, education or training • Increasing the number of children in care in employment, education or training • Improving the educational attainment of vulnerable children, including children in care and children on free school meals • Reducing the impact of poverty on children’s lives

13. The problem There is a huge amount of national and international research and analysis that shows the link between poverty and poor outcomes. There is very little research and analysis nationally and internationally on what you do to improve outcomes for children who live in relative poverty. But we do know that it’s going to be much more difficult here than in most other countries.

14. The Impact of Poverty • Poverty and poor outcomes are related to a number of factors including parental education, family structure and neighbourhood • Lack of learning experiences in the home account for up to half of the effect of poverty on the educational scores of 5 year olds • Poverty produces children who are more likely to have emotional and behavioural problems • Living in substandard housing within a violent neighbourhood is an important predictor of later child psychopathology • The likelihood of becoming a teenage mother is 10 times higher for a girl whose family is in the lowest social class compared with the highest social class.

15. The Double Jeopardy of Poverty

19. In less equal societies………. • People trust each other less • People fear becoming a victim of crime more - even if the crime rates are low • People are more likely to be anxious and depressed • Physical health is worse and life expectancy lower – obviously for poorer people, but others too • The well-being of children is worse – not just for the poorest children but particularly so for them.

20. Children and Young People’s Plan Reducing the incidence and impact of poverty on the achievement and life chances of children and young people.

21. Reducing the Incidence of Poverty? • Child poverty in UK remains worse than in most other European countries. A UK child has nearly twice as much chance of living in a household with relatively low income than a generation ago • Child poverty had started to fall since the late 1990s but rose again in 2006 and present policies are unlikely to produce substantial further reductions • The Government could have meet its target of halving child poverty by 2010 but only by spending an extra estimated £4bn a year (0.3% of GDP) • If the Government relied on tax credits and benefits to get the second half of children out of poverty between 2010 - 2020 a further £28bn would be needed (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

22. “Save the Children is outraged that children and families are living in severe poverty in the UK. We believe that government policy must address the needs of those children and families in the deepest poverty, alongside those closest to the poverty line, if the aim of eradicating child poverty once and for all is to be met. The report highlights that progress on reducing the number of children living in severe poverty is not being made in the UK, in fact generally it is going up.” Measuring Severe Child Poverty in the UK (2010)

23. Golden Threads • You can do it – trusted adult • From good to great – vision and distributed leadership • It takes a community to raise a child – the power of communities • Together with parents – real partnership • Through the voice and eyes of the child – real participation • Holding on to the baton – ensuring stability • Learning to learn – building resilience • Cornflakes to canoeing – targeted extended services • Unite to succeed – deepening integration • Shape up and keep fit – reshaping the workforce • Culture not structure – shared vision / shared behaviour • Prove it, making change happen

24. Example

25. Hampshire’s 5 year olds: 2009 • 51% of 5 year olds reach 78 points in the Foundation Stage Profile (including at least 6 points in Communication, Language and Literacy and 6 in Personal Development) • Only 28.5% of 5 years olds on free school meals do • There is a 30 percentage point gap between the median of the top 80% on the Foundation Stage Profile and the median of the bottom 20%

26. Supposing each Local Children’s Partnership had the names of all the children in the bottom 20% on the Foundation Stage Profile…………………………………What could each Partnership do to improve outcomes for these children as they grow towards adulthood?

27. There are 2,960 5 year olds in the bottom 20%This equates to about 130 for each partnership (if they were the same size and served the same sort of areas). They’re not : 131 in East Hants and 420 in Basingstoke and Deane for example.

28. What we know from research • Focus on the whole family, creating opportunities for children to learn and work with their parents/carers • Build on the positive elements and experiences of each child’s life • Work at the level of the whole child, recognising that each of the 5 outcomes, if positive, supports improvement in the others and deal with the range of obstacles that are holding the children back • Work on increasing resilience • Work on literacy and one-to-one tuition

29. And, recognise that this is whole partnership work, make the work visible, and recognise that expertise and resources will need to be shared.

30. Developing a deeper understanding and a whole system approach, within Local Children’s Partnerships, to working with children from poorer backgrounds.

31. Hidden rules

32. Leaving poverty • Leaving poverty through achievement is more dependent on other resources than on financial resources. • A level of persistence and an ability to stay with a situation until it can be learned are necessary. • These come, in part, from emotional strength that can be nurtured and comes in part from role models. • It also comes from setting out to build cognitive strategies that give children the ability to plan systematically.

33. Why is this so important? • If a child depends on an episodic story structure for memory patterns, or lives in an unpredictable environment, he/she has probably not developed the ability to plan • He/she will probably not be able to predict too well • Without prediction it will be tough to determine cause and effect • People who cannot determine cause and effect find it more difficult to control impulsivity and more difficult to take control of their own lives

34. Accommodating difference • Schools – and other organisations – operate from a set of norms, assumptions and hidden rules which are not directly taught in most schools • Not all children and young people know these norms and rules • We cannot scold children for not knowing nor ignore the fact that they don’t • Instead we – and this is not just staff in schools – need to teach them and provide support, insistence, and expectations.

35. Resilience “An essential component of resilience and high self-esteem is the belief that one has some control over what is occurring in one’s life. To acquire this attitude of ownership, children require experiences from which they can learn and apply decision-making and problem-solving skills.” Risk, Resilience and Futurists: The Changing Lives of Our Children (Brooks & Goldstein)