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Naming and “shaming” London

London has recently been named and “shamed” for its child poverty and inequality rates. The shocking truth stands as a cloud behind its richness and importance. Tamila Varshalomidze tries to find out what drives child poverty specifically in London.

City Parochial Foundation and New Policy Institute have done a thorough research and published London Poverty Profile in April 2009 that reveals that 40 per cent of children living in London are below the poverty line.

While the proportion of children in Inner London in low-income households has come down in recent years, the opposite has happened in Outer London. The proportion of children in households receiving out-of-work benefits varies hugely between boroughs, from 9% in Richmond to 50% in Tower Hamlets.

Around 400,000 children in London live in workless households. In both Inner and Outer London, two-thirds of children in workless households live in lone parent households.

At age 11, the proportion of pupils not reaching Level 4 at Key Stage 2 is higher in Inner London than in any other region but has dropped substantially since 1999.

The high number of children living in temporary accommodation contributes to the high turnover in pupil numbers and leads to gaps in the child's schooling. Children in such accommodation have lower levels of achievement than other children.

City Parochial Foundation Field Officer Rachael Takens-Milne says: “40% of children in London are living below the poverty line. One of the things that is dramatic and different is that now half of those children are living in families where at least one adult works. So a lot of policy focus has been on getting parents into work and yet what we are seeing is that it’s not resolving the issue of child poverty, particularly in London.”

End Child Poverty London Development Manager Liz Thorne explains why that could be the case:

“Some of policies [to tackle child poverty] are designed at national level and London has particular problems. The problem with London is that the minimum wage is set very low to make any difference because of the high costs of housing, so you do need to have some different policies for London,” insists New Policy Institute researcher Tom MacInnes.

However, as London differs from other parts of the UK not only with the rates of the poverty but also the causes of it, the government is trying to use specific methods to tackle child poverty there. One of such initiatives is creating London Child Poverty Commission.

The chair of this Commission, Kate Green explains:

One of the other methods to deal with London child poverty is creating London Child Poverty Pledge. The pledge enables organisations to make commitment to tackling child poverty by signing up to a set of actions to improve the services they provide for disadvantaged families.
Besides, they should assess how their own employment practices can be improved to ensure that they are family friendly, and enable local parents to succeed in work. It is aimed at any organisation that delivers services for families in London.

Chair of London Child Poverty Commission Kate Green says: “I think it’s helpful if it concentrates minds and helps people to think about it and develop internal operational practices which are pro poor. However, it probably needs more high profile and it’s secured at the moment.”

 

Copyright of Tamila Varshalomidze 2009