Child and Family Poverty

Introduction

It is an unfortunate reality that many children and young people in Cheshire and Merseyside are living in poverty.  

Poverty latches onto children before they are born, stays with them their entire lives, and continues to cause harm for many generations after. It ruins lives and has far-reaching consequences for society and the economy. 

The subregion’s Directors of Public Health and Population Health, who work together as the Champs Public Health Collaborative, want to put a stop to this.  

Cheshire and Merseyside’s work to tackle Child and Family Poverty is part of the subregion’s All Together Fairer Programme.  

The ambition

There are 100,300 children living in poverty in Cheshire and Merseyside. These children, who deserve to be born into a world that provides them with all the conditions and opportunities they need to thrive, are instead suffering.

This is an injustice and it must stop. Our ambition is that no child in Cheshire and Merseyside lives in poverty. 

The current situation

An independent analysis found that:

  • 100,300
    children (aged 16 and under) in Cheshire and Merseyside are living in poverty
  • Rates of poverty in the subregion are higher than the national average
  • 60%
    of children in poverty were living in a household with parents or carers that are in work
  • There are pockets of poverty in each of the subregion’s nine local authority areas, which local averages don’t show
  • The distribution of poverty is uneven, with some groups and households having higher than average levels of poverty including lone parent families and ethnic minority families

Why is it important?

Children living in poverty are more likely to:

  • Be born underweight and die before they reach their first birthday
  • Have serious issues with tooth decay by the time they are five years old
  • Not be able to learn and develop like other children their age
  • Become pregnant as a teenager
  • Be obese, have asthma, and suffer from poor mental health by the time they reach their adult years

What are we doing?

In August 2024, the Collaborative published an independent report, ‘A rapid situational analysis on child and family poverty in Cheshire and Merseyside’. The report outlined the scale of poverty in the subregion and the impact this has on children and families. The report also set out four recommendations:  

  1. Set an ambition on child poverty and articulate this widely  
  1. Agree a governance and oversight system  
  1. Set and plan and have the capacity to implement it  
  1. Adopt a framework to set, monitor and drive action  

Working together, the Cheshire and Merseyside system has worked quickly to make significant progress on these recommendations.  

Joint statement on Child and Family Poverty in Cheshire and Merseyside  

The subregion’s Directors of Public Health and Population Health joined forced with Directors of Children’s Services, the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) Children and Young People Network, Voluntary Sector North West, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership, to publish a powerful joint statement.  

The statement calls for urgent, coordinated action to ensure that partners work together to meet a shared ambition of no child in Cheshire and Merseyside is living in poverty. 

Read the statement here.  

A Framework for Action  

This framework, which is aligned with the work of the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership, as well as the All Together Fairer Programme, summarises the key actions and activities for the subregion. Along with system leadership and advocacy, three priority pillars have been identified:  

  1. Maximising household income  
  1. Supporting children, young people and families  
  1. Building inclusive places  

Resources

Leadership

This work is part of All Together Fairer.  

All Together Fairer is coordinated by the Cheshire and Merseyside Population Health Partnership, currently chaired by Professor Ian Ashworth, Director of Population Health for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, on behalf of the subregion’s Directors of Public Health.  Read more about Ian here.

Find out more about All Together Fairer here. 

This work is overseen by Cheshire and Merseyside’s All Together Fairer Board and day-to-day operations are led by the Cheshire and Merseyside All Together Fairer Leads Group. 

More information

The Strategic Lead for All Together Fairer in the Champs Support Team is Alan Higgins. 

The Programme Manager in the Champs Support Team for All Together Fairer is Louise Vernon. You can contact Louise by emailing louisevernon@wirral.gov.uk 

The Public Health Practitioner in the Champs Support Team for All Together Fairer is Hannah Sharp. You can contact Hannah by emailing hannahsharp@wirral.gov.uk