Agenda item

Report by Maggie Rae and Carolyn Godfrey, Corporate Directors.

Councillor Keith Humphries introduced a report which briefed members on the development of the Wiltshire Reducing Child Poverty Strategy 2014 – 2020. The strategy provided the strategic direction for Wiltshire Council and partner organisations in reducing the level of children living in poverty in Wiltshire, and mitigating the effects of child poverty across Wiltshire. Cabinet was asked to approve the Strategy and recommend its adoption to Council.

The Strategy would support a number of public health strategic aims. It was noted that public health would be taking on commissioning responsibilities for health visiting services for children aged 0-5 in 2015 and would also be taking the family nurse partnership supporting teenage parents.

Councillor Laura Mayes welcomed the Strategy. She highlighted the plight of those in poverty and the lasting impact it can have on their lives and the lives of their families. She urged members to review the local data which would enable more targeted and locally focussed support.

Maggie Rae, Corporate Director referred to the collaborative and supportive work being undertaken through public health which worked closely with Children’s Services. She also offered to assist members with targeted support for their respective areas.

Councillor Jon Hubbard explained that Children’s Select Committee had looked at how best it could monitor the implementation of this Strategy. He endorsed the aspirations of the Strategy and hoped it could be adopted by the Council at the earliest opportunity to ensure swift implementation. He stressed that the Council should be doing all it could to help and support affected people in our communities. Councillor Mayes agreed with the monitoring of the Strategy to quickly identify what was working and what was not and needed to be changed.

Carolyn Godfrey, Corporate Director noted that the Select Committee had appropriately made the link with the early intervention strategy. She referred to other strategies and initiatives and the involvement of public health which all made a positive and combined difference.

Councillor Chris Caswill welcomed the report. He very much agreed with the concept of the needs assessment which he considered a very strong evidence based tool. He noted areas where the Strategy needed updating and the need to emphasise particular key areas and made a number of suggestions to further strengthen and refine the Strategy before its submission to Council. Cllr Caswill referred to the work of the Child Poverty Forum in Chippenham which he helped establish and brought together a number of organisations. He welcomed the opportunity to develop locally focussed solutions. In relation to the monitoring of the Strategy, he suggested the drawing up of a more simplified action plan with specific locally based action plans especially for Chippenham.

Maggie Rae responded to the points raised. She considered that the document lent itself to the creation of a local checklist to focus on child poverty to ensure it remained focused which would also enable closer monitoring of its implementation.

Councillor de Rhé-Philipe referred to the economic development measures to provide more good high quality jobs for the County. Councillor Mayes sought further information from Councillor Caswill on the Child Poverty Forums as this was something  positive that could be progressed by Area Boards in their respective areas.

Carolyn Godfrey referred to the attainment gap and the work the Council was doing with school governing bodies to close those gaps.

Resolved:

That Cabinet approve the updated strategy and recommend its adoption to Council.

Reason for decision:

1.    Part 2 of the Child Poverty Act 2010 places duties on local authorities and named partners to 'cooperate with a view to reducing and mitigating the effects of child poverty in their areas'. They are also required to prepare and publish local child poverty needs assessments and to develop joint child poverty strategies.

2.    Child poverty features as a priority in key top-level Wiltshire documents. It is in the Wiltshire Assembly’s “People, Places and Promises: Wiltshire Community Plan 2011-2026” which was adopted in April 2011. It is included in Wiltshire Council’s 2013-2017 Business Plan through priorities to protect those who are most vulnerable, boost the local economy and bring communities together to enable and support them to do more for themselves.  In addition, the Wiltshire Children and Young People’s Trust (comprised of representatives from key children’s services in Wiltshire) specifically states in its vision a commitment to “reduce, prevent and mitigate the effects of child poverty” – and this is reflected in its Children & Young People’s Plan 2012-2015 and in the various commissioning strategies which sit underneath it.

3.    Once the Child Poverty Strategy has been approved by Cabinet the implementation plan can be signed off and work can begin to mitigate and reduce the effects of child poverty in Wiltshire in line with our responsibilities as laid out in the Child Poverty Act.