Council to consider climate change and nature emergency impact on child poverty

Elgan Hearn Local Democracy Reporter

The impact that climate change and the nature emergency will have on the lives of youngsters needs to be considered when combating child poverty, a senior councillor believes.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, July 29, councillors received an update of the work of the Child Poverty Task Force during the last year.

The task force was formed in July 2022 as one of the Liberal Democrat/Labour coalition administration’s priorities.

The group brings together a host of organisations under one banner in Powys which include: The Bevan Foundation, Children in Wales, Child Poverty Action Group, NSPCC Cymru and the Wales Centre for Public Policy.

Deputy council leader and cabinet member for tackling poverty Cllr Matthew Dorrance (Labour) said:  “The task force has a broad range of members from across the council, but it is everybody’s business – we each have a responsibility to tackle this issue.”

“The initial work of the task force was mapping, to see what provision there already was and we’ve now completed that.

“I want to draw attention to the food schemes that are happening now across the county through the school holidays.

“We’ve managed to grow the number of schools participating to 10 and there’s more work to do on this.”

The food for fun initiative provides healthy meals education, physical activity, and enrichment sessions to children during the summer holidays.

The third annual conference was held at the Welfare Hall in Ystradgynlais on June 12 and saw pupils from Ysgol Golwg y Cwm primary school take part.

They discussed the cost of a school day and how poverty impacts education in Powys.

Cllr Dorrance said: “It’s important to hear the young person’s voice in the decisions we are making around poverty.

“That is why we need to focus on what matters to young people in this county to be able to make better decisions.”

He added that the next steps will be to respond to new national policy initiatives and adapt the changing needs of children, young people and their families and ultimately, continue the work to tackle poverty and inequality.

Cabinet member for climate change and environmental matters, Cllr Jackie Charlton (Liberal Democrat) pointed out that no mention had been made in the report on how the climate and nature emergencies would impact children’s lives in the future.

Cllr Charlton said: “Both of these emergencies are going to impact more severely on our children than people from my generation.

“I would suggest that we try and investigate what that will be and that we may be able to do something now to improve that situation.

“Sometimes I think we lose sight of the fact that are our children now are the ones that will feel that impact most severely if we’re not careful.”

She added that it was “fantastic” to see that so many things had been done to combat child poverty in such a brief time.

Cllr Dorrance added that she was “absolutely right”, and it would be considered as party of the group’s future work.

The council’s anti-poverty champion, Cllr Joy Jones (Powys Independents) said that she supported the report.

Cllr Jones said: “It is a clear and urgent call to action; this is not just about policy it’s about making a real difference for families who are struggling right now.”

Cabinet unanimously agreed the report.