Last week I led a debate in Westminster Hall to address the issue of stark inequality that has seen our region suffer child poverty levels of 38%, rising to 42% in South Shields.
The North East region represents the hardest hit area in the UK with poverty of those under 18. Speaking during the debate, I recalled that in the six years between 2015 and 2021 the region saw a staggering 12-point increase from 26% to 38% and in South Shields specifically that figure has risen to over 42% of children who are now living in poverty.
I recently heard statements to the Child of the North All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) from Child Poverty Youth Ambassador Sophie Balmer, who urged us to remember these graphs are people, that they are a number on these statistics. “Why does it feel like I don’t matter… my sisters don’t matter”, Sophie had said in her evidence to the APPG.
I have an upcoming Private Members’ Bill slated for June in an attempt to change the Healthy Start Scheme to an automatic enrolment plan in an attempt to address some of the issues surrounding child poverty. Currently around 200,000 eligible families miss out on the scheme which supplies vulnerable families with young children access to baby formula and healthy food.
The impacts of child poverty and child hunger are well documented. Numerous studies have shown the links between nutrition and cognitive development. Hungry children suffer developmental impairment, language delays and delayed motor skills.
The anxiety and worry faced by children living in families struggling to make ends meet can make it difficult to concentrate in school, to feel included, and to afford the resources needed to learn well and join in with friends, which undermines educational outcomes and social wellbeing.
The last Labour government lifted millions of children out of poverty. Child poverty is not inevitable, there can be progress in tackling it, but progress can also rapidly be undone. What we’ve seen over the last 13 years of Tory rule is a consistent fall in living standards which is now culminating in a generational crisis for the children in our region. This is a political choice. Whilst poverty is, sadly, not a new experience for many children in the north, the scale and severity of deprivation is now unprecedented.
I am determined to do something about it.