Sefton Council’s Director of Public health, Margaret Jones, has joined colleagues from across Cheshire and Merseyside for action to deal with the ‘unacceptable’ poverty is having on local.

Higher than the national average

Their call comes in the light of a new report that has found that 100,300 children in Cheshire and Merseyside are living in poverty. This represents 22.3% of all children and young people, which is higher than the national average of 19.8%.

Commissioned by Cheshire and Merseyside’s Directors of Public Health and Population Health, the report, A Rapid Situational Analysis on Child and Family Poverty in Cheshire and Merseyside, also found that 60% of children in poverty were living in a household with parents or carers that are in work.

You can use these links to find:

• an executive summary of the report.
  
  
• the full report.

Statement

The Directors of Public Health and Population Health have issued the following statement to coincide with report’s publication.

Today, we are asking you to join us on our urgent mission to eradicate child and family poverty from the subregion.

An independent report, commissioned by the subregion’s Directors of Public Health and Population Health, who work together as the Champs Public Health Collaborative, has lifted the lid on the sheer scale of poverty in Cheshire and Merseyside and the unacceptable impact that this has on our children.

This situation is outrageous. In our subregion we have 100,300 children living in poverty. This amounts to 22.3% of all children and young people, which is higher than the national average of 19.8%. There are pockets of poverty in each of our nine local authorities, with some households facing greater deprivation, for example single-parent families and those who are an ethnic minority. Many hold the view that poverty comes about as a result of not having a job, this is simply not true. This report shows that 60% of children in poverty were living in a household with parents or carers that are in work.

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. 

Children living in poverty are more likely to be born underweight and die before they reach their first birthday. Their teeth are decaying by the time they are five years old, and they are not able to learn and develop like other children their age. They are also more likely to be obese, have asthma and poor mental health, and levels of teenage pregnancies are higher than those not in poverty.

We will say it again: there are 100,300 children living in poverty in our subregion. 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.

This report marks the beginning of this. Today, we are joining forces across a range of partners and organisation to ask our entire system to read the report, share far and wide and do what they can to help us meet our ambition. 

The statement is signed by:

Dr Matt Tyrer
Director of Public Health for Cheshire East

Professor Helen Bromley
Director of Public Health Cheshire West and Chester

Dr Ifeoma Onyia
Director of Public Health for Halton

Dr Sarah McNulty
Director of Public Health for Knowsley

Professor Matt Ashton
Director of Public Health for Liverpool

Margaret Jones
Director of Public Health for Sefton

Ruth Du Plessis
Director of Public Health for St Helens

Debbie Watson
Director of Public Health for Warrington

Dave Bradburn
Director of Public Health for Wirral

Professor Ian Ashworth
Director of Population Health
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside

The report has also been endorsed by:

Warren Escalade Chief Executive
Voluntary Sector North West

Dave Packwood
Chair of the Cheshire and Merseyside Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise (VCFSE) Children and Young People Network

Cllr Louise Gittins
Co-Chair of the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership

Rev Canon Dr Ellen Loudon
Co-Chair of the Cheshire and Merseyside Health and Care Partnership