Sixty per cent of the city’s children are now living in poverty as the recession takes its toll on Salford, according to a shocking new report.
It states that around 30,000 youngsters are now born with the odds of having happy, healthy lives firmly stacked against them.
Council leader John Merry has now called for ‘urgent and collective action’ to eradicate poverty and break the cycle highlighted in the report ‘Ending Child Poverty in Salford’.
He said: "It is unacceptable that the odds of having happy, healthy lives are stacked against any of our children. It must also not be forgotten that child poverty is not only about children.
"We know for parents and carers, bringing up children on incomes below the bread line means a daily struggle. A child’s birthday can be a cause for crisis, not celebration."
The report says poor educational attainment and high unemployment are also putting untold pressure on local services.
The recession has now pushed 1,100 children into poverty as their parents lost their jobs. However, if low incomes are taken into account, 14,000 more children are plunged into poverty.
The report, released by Salford council, states that poverty is most prevalent in certain neighbourhoods in the east of the city, in lone parent households, in large families, among minority groups and in families living with disability.
Some families have a mere £10 per day per person to buy food, heating, toys, clothes, electrify and transport,
The report is a response to the new Child Poverty Act which demands local authorities and partners work together to eradicate child poverty within a generation.
The council aims to lift 700 children out of poverty by 2011 and 8,000 by 2020 by focussing on four aspects: education, health and family; housing and neighbourhoods; financial support; and employment. But all of this has to be achieved at a time when the public sector is facing significant budget restrictions.
Cllr Merry said poverty was ‘everybody’s business’.
He added: "The impact of poverty on the life chances of children is stark. A child that grows up in poverty is more likely to experience poor physical and mental health throughout their lives.
"Poor children are less likely to get qualifications but more likely to be bullied. Their chances of securing well paid work are lower.
"Statistically they are likely to die younger. And their children are likely to experience the same. This is what it means to grow up in poverty.
"We are unwilling to accept that Salford must always suffer from these problems. We have the vision and scale of ambition to imagine a better future and we have the drive and determination to ensure that together we make that future real."
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Richard Carvath (29/07/2010 at 16:33)
For example, school 'sex education' and the NHS' entire strategy for reducing unwanted teen pregnancies, abortions and PTDs (promiscuity transmitted diseases) are a direct cause of these major social ills; these policies are not the solution but part of the problem.
Unemployment, low paid work and low educational attainment are certainly contributory factors in trapping people in poverty but by far the biggest driver of poverty is family breakdown (or the failure to establish family in the first place).
Until John Merry recognises that the marriage-based family is best and puts his political muscle behind policies which encourage marriage (and discourage cohabitation and single parenthood), John's best efforts in fighting poverty will not yield the improvements he sincerely desires.
I've spent enough time with the poor in central and East Salford to know that the lives of so many of them would be much improved simply by belonging to a stable and functional family - even without any more money to spend.
The poverty of relationships amongst Salford's poor is arguably the most insidious and most destructive element in their lives of poverty. There are far too many people in Salford who are on their own; we need more family (and less State counterfeit).
Lars Hec (30/07/2010 at 08:51)
Also, to leave the teaching/educating of sex, relationships, drugs, self-worth, gainful employment, self-betterment to schools/PCT is like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The remedies for the ills highlighted in the article starts by putting the family right; with schools/PCT supporting not taking the lead.
I have to state though, when I use the word family it is whatever form it takes ... parent(s) and children working together.
Cadishead Rhino, Manchester, UK (03/08/2010 at 07:37)
Ray OfSunshine (08/08/2010 at 09:41)
"Economic Fourth Division"? To my recollection Salford has had a non performing economy for over sixty years; successive administrations have simply failed to address the situation.
From 1997/2007 Britain enjoyed an epoch of unprecedented economic growth, still Salford remained in the doldrums. On all objective measures`New Labour failed Salford and its people; what is required is a strategy to raise the living standards of the bottom 40% of the population.
It's heartening to see Cllr. Merry committing himself to rectifying the situation. From this can we assume that Cllr. Merry and his colleagues will effectively resist tory cuts -- unlike the 1980's /. 1990's when Labour capitulated to Thatcherism!