C hild Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Report 2014 April 2014 www.jsna.info/ 1 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster This Report This report describes the extent and nature of child poverty in the Tri-borough area, and summarises: What causes child poverty What works in tackling child poverty What is being done locally to alleviate the effects of it What further opportunities there are support those affected, beyond what is already being done Report authors and contributors The production of this report was led by Anna Waterman with the help of Colin Brodie, Ian Elliott, James Hebblethwaite, Posy Zawalnyski and contributions from the Task and Finish group (see appendix 1). 2 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster CONTENTS Executive Summary and recommendations 5 1 The definition of child poverty 9 2 The drivers of child poverty 11 3 The effects of child poverty 13 4 Rates of child poverty 15 5 The national response 23 6 Alleviating child poverty: the local picture 25 7 Priorities recommended for attention in local strategies 27 Priority 1: Supporting families to engage with services 29 Priority 2: Promoting parental employment 31 Priority 3: All families have access to quality, affordable childcare 35 Priority 4: Supporting the role of the school community 37 Priority 5: Appropriate health care, at the right time 41 Priority 6: Promoting family wellbeing by addressing housing related 45 needs 8 Next steps 49 Appendices 71 3 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster 4 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster Executive Summary and Recommendations Introduction Children who grow up in poverty face serious disadvantage and consequently struggle to thrive, learn and achieve, meaning the following generation may also continue in a cycle of poverty. Evidence has shown that the foundations for virtually every aspect of human development are laid in early childhood, and that this has a lifelong impact on health and wellbeing, from obesity, heart disease and mental health through to educational achievement and economic status. National research has found that child poverty in the UK results in additional public spending of £12 billion a year, 60% of which is spent on personal social services, school education, the police and criminal justice.1 The Child Poverty Act 20102 established a framework for local partners to cooperate to tackle child poverty, by publishing a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and preparing a Child Poverty Strategy. This report constitutes the JSNA for the boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster. This JSNA will inform commissioning decisions and local approaches to child poverty, with the local responsibility for strategy response remaining with each local authority. The JSNA sets out to: describe child poverty and the effect it has on children and families describe the level of child poverty across Tri-borough area outline the drivers of child poverty identify examples of what is being done locally to alleviate the effects of child poverty provide recommendations for further action. Findings Acknowledging that the measurement of child poverty is complex, the JSNA reports that locally, 37% of children in Westminster are estimated to live in poverty, with 30% in Hammersmith and Fulham and 25% in Kensington and Chelsea (according to the local HMRC measure). Recent estimates mirror national findings; a fall in child poverty in the last few years is due to relative median incomes (wages) falling rather than poor households having increased incomes. The areas of high child poverty according to the HMRC definition tend to coincide with areas of social housing across the three boroughs, which also tend to be areas with children so the numbers as well as the percentages affected are high. Children are well supported by services across the three boroughs and many outcomes for families are very good. Nevertheless, children who grow up in poverty may face additional disadvantages which affect their development, educational achievement and long-term outcomes. Low educational attainment, 1 http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/public-service-costs-child-poverty 2 Child Poverty Act 2010 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/9/contents 5 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster worklessness and lack of financial capability increase the risk that families will not have the resources for a decent standard of living, or for their children to achieve their potential in later life. Priority areas and recommendations Through engagement with stakeholders and a review of evidence, 16 recommendations were identified for consideration by each borough for their local strategy response and commissioning decisions. These recommendations were considered and ‘filtered’ at the summit of officers and partners in November 2013. The stakeholder engagement process, service mapping exercise and review of evidence/best practice identified six priority areas which highlight where the most effective action can be taken to address child poverty locally. The 16 recommendations were categorised into these six priority areas and are outlined below. Priority 1- Supporting families to engage with services Recommendation 1: Develop an approach to engage and support hard to reach families, sponsoring a strengths-based model which focuses on engagement and building trusting relationships, and using a key- worker model where appropriate. Priority 2 – Promoting parental employment Recommendation 2: Local commissioning of employability support should be co-ordinated and joined-up. Service models should reflect diverse needs, cover the pathway to work and employment retention in the initial period, and integrate provision, including co-location and alignment with relevant advice services. Recommendation 3: Ensure that the diverse needs/barriers experienced by parents returning to work are addressed and that suitable progression measures are incorporated into how success of employability programmes is measured. Recommendation 4: Local Authorities should work strategically with partners to increase the number of family friendly employment opportunities, for example with local employers, through procurement terms and conditions and/or using planning levers (e.g. CIL). Priority 3 – Access to quality/affordable childcare, for all families Recommendation 5: Support families to explore the full range of childcare options that are available and recognise their relative merits (e.g. quality, flexibility and cost). Recommendation 6: Ensure that early years’ childcare meets the needs of disadvantaged families. This might include the development of additional criteria: to increase provision for working families and/or to secure greater flexibility in the offer to facilitate take-up. 6 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster Priority 4 – Supporting the role of the school community Recommendation 7: Support schools to identify and address the needs of deprived families and explore how to make effective use of the Pupil Premium to address those needs. Recommendation 8: Explore the potential to develop schools as community hubs, to make best use of their facilities as a location to provide a range of services tailored for parents and children. Recommendation 9: Promote the early identification of families who may need additional support during transition to integrate their child successfully into nursery / reception / secondary school. Recommendation 10: Identify and address the needs of those aged 5-13 yrs to support their transition from children to young people, ensuring that service design (e.g. of after school clubs; holiday provision) facilitates the engagement of children of poor families. Priority 5 – Appropriate healthcare, at the right time Recommendation 11: Ensure that the ‘Connecting Care for Children’ model is implemented within a broader social model of health, ensuring that primary healthcare works closely with children’s centres, early help and other family services to identify and address the family’s wider socio-economic issues more effectively. Recommendation 12: In order to facilitate early identification of need and to provide earlier support for pregnant women, pilot Maternity Champions to facilitate access to maternity services for BME and vulnerable women. Ensure that the integrated maternity care pathway works effectively within broader children and family services and supports women to register with children’s centres ante-natally. Recommendation 13: Increase children and families’ joint working with IAPT services and support improved access to mental health support for parents with depression and anxiety. GPs, Adult Mental Health and CAMHS to ensure that assessments take account of the child’s (and family’s) broader needs, and that CAMHS are fully integrated into established care pathways. Priority 6 – All families have access to housing of a reasonable standard Recommendation 14: Ensure the effective use of all planning, housing investment and housing allocation powers to respond to the need for good quality and affordable family sized housing, regardless of tenure; meeting and, where appropriate, exceeding agreed targets and supporting mixed communities. Recommendation 15: Review targeted support for families who are homeless or threatened with homelessness to ensure early intervention that supports families to engage with the range of advice, support and care services available. Recommendation 16: Develop greater integration between REHS and other front line services, particularly health and social care, to ensure that poor housing conditions are addressed regardless of tenure. 7 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster 8 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster 1. The Definition of Child Poverty Background Nationally, over five million people suffer from multiple disadvantage and around two million children live in workless households. Children who grow up in poverty face serious disadvantage and consequently struggle to thrive, learn and achieve. Poverty can rob children of the chances others take for granted growing up and lead to the following generation continuing in a cycle of poverty. How Child Poverty is measured and monitored The main child poverty measure adopted in the UK – a relative measure of child poverty – is used across the EU. Child poverty is measured nationally using net household income, after removing council tax, income tax and national insurance. The approach identifies the proportion of the population with less than 60% of the median income. It is therefore a relative measure of the gap between the poorest and the middle (rather than the poorest and the richest) and is therefore sensitive to changes in the median population in the country: a fall in the country’s average income will result in the rate of child poverty lowering. Absolute poverty refers to the minimum level of resource required to sustain basic human needs and purchase a certain basic level of goods and services. This threshold only changes with inflation and stays the same even if society becomes richer. In the UK this is monitored at a national level and the threshold is the number at less than 60% of the median income in 2010/11, adjusted each year for inflation. In early 2013, the government consulted on a revised ‘multidimensional’ measure of child poverty. The government’s child poverty strategy was launched in February 2014, accompanied by an evidence report. The consultation on the strategy runs until May 2014 but no revised measure of poverty was published in either report. Not all local administrative datasets hold sufficient detail on household income to be able to replicate the national calculations of relative poverty at a local level. Therefore, the local HMRC child poverty rates are not exactly comparable to the national ‘headline measure’, but do still give a good indication of relative position by borough, ward, or small area. Related to poverty figures, data is also published by the Department of Work and Pensions on the number of children living in workless households. This identifies households where at least one parent or guardian is claiming an out-of-work benefit. 9 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014 Child Poverty in Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster Income thresholds and housing costs In 2012/13, a child in a family classified as in child poverty according to the HMRC definitions would have a yearly income of less than the following: Cash income per week of £392 before housing costs Cash income per week of £357 after housing costs (national) Couple with a 14 year old and 5 year old Cash income per week of £308 before housing costs Cash income per week of £264 after housing costs (national) Lone parent with a 14 year old and 5 year old The Tri-borough area is typified by the high cost of housing, in particular for those in private housing receiving housing benefit. Changes to the welfare system, resulting in a ‘cap’ on housing benefit, is having an impact on the cash income of workless families in the area. Some indicative estimates of cash income for those in social housing and private rented housing (receiving housing benefit) have been given below. The Mayor of London’s figures (GLA website) suggest: a lower quartile average rent for a two bed property in Kensington and Chelsea of £495 for the W10 postcode area (which covers north Kensington and Hammersmith) the average rent is £326 per week upper quartile is £750 and £405 respectively this compares with a Local Housing Allowance cap for a two bedroom property of approximately £295 per week. Hence the first example on p9 would see Cash income per week of £384 before housing costs, with the lowest rent at £495 (without any housing benefit). Although child poverty is usually defined by household income, poverty is usually considered to be more far-reaching, impacting on opportunity, aspiration, social mobility and family stability. 10 JSNA Tri-Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Report 2014