A chance at childhood
After the Prime Minister launched a ministerial taskforce to work on a child poverty strategy to transform lives, we partnered with young people from Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill to map how they see child poverty connecting to different parts of their childhoods and futures.
The young people’s sense of fairness and need for every young person to have equal opportunity to succeed in life was apparent in all discussions. This is what they want to convey to the Government now.
12 pages
4.5 million young people in poverty
4.5 million
young people across the UK are living in poverty
Over 1 million
children are now living in destitution
School, Home, Community
The everyday impact of poverty
This report focuses on three areas that are common to all young people: life at school, life at home, and life in their community. Their views and ideas focused on what young people should reasonably expect in life and what is enough to have a decent life.
In this report, young people’s perspectives and experiences have been expressed using their own words, as far as is possible, including through direct quotes.
Key reflections from the report
Experiences of poverty impact a young person in many different ways, including:
- Material barriers and access to resources
- A negative impact on concentration in school and homework
- Unequal access to opportunities
- Struggles with mental health and wellbeing
- Emotional neglect and increased tensions at home
- Additional pressures and responsibilities
- Lack of safety in areas with higher crime rates
Our recommendations
What do we recommend?
Many of the experiences the young people shared with us in this report aren’t new. That in itself should be alarming and bring into focus the need for young people’s voices to be at the heart of government policy.
The Child Poverty Strategy needs to:
- Capture the perspectives and experience of young people who are best qualified to understand their lives and what they need
- Be comprehensive, recognising the complexity of young people’s lives and addressing the knock-on effect of the issue across childhoods and futures
- Remain ambitious, receiving the support and investment necessary to tackle the depth, scale, and complexity of the problem
We all need to hear these insights, and commit ourselves to fight for the change we need, so that every child has a good childhood, free from poverty, and where they’re able to thrive, not just survive.
- Mark Russell
Learn more
If you want to learn more about the impact of poverty on a young person, download the report.
