Challenge Poverty Week: Behind every statistic is a child

Moazzam Malik, Chief Executive, Save the Children UK

More than 200,000 children in Wales live in relative poverty. Wales has the highest child poverty rate in the UK, with the proportion equivalent to ten pupils in every classroom.

Behind every one of those statistics is a child. A family making choices about what they can afford and what they go without. And the daily struggle to create a better future for children.

I know what it feels like to experience the constraints of poverty on family life. I grew up in northwest London knowing there were times when there simply was not enough money to go round and overhearing my parents discussing the choices they faced. My journey was shaped by education, social support at key moments, and opportunities that took me to university and eventually into the public service. A future I couldn’t even imagine as a child.

A child’s future should not be determined by the circumstances of their birth. No one chooses to be poor.

This week, during Challenge Poverty Week, I visited Wales to meet with families, communities and partners, to hear their stories about the impact of child poverty and to see how Save the Children’s work is helping to create change.

The mothers I met underlined that poverty is about money, services and power.

Money matters because families need enough income to provide for the essentials and opportunities for their children. Services matter because good schools, childcare, housing, health services and community support stop families falling into crisis and help children thrive. And power matters because children and families know what’s holding them back and have the right to shape the decisions that affect their lives.

During my visit, I saw examples of what can happen when we take all three seriously.

In Cardiff, I met Hanna*, a mother who had been supported through Save the Children’s local partner. She told me how her advice worker was always there for her, to help navigate the bureaucracy of local authorities, and to connect her with a small grant so that she and her three children could buy food and essentials when things became hard.

What struck me was not simply what a relatively small grant had enabled her to do. It was the breathing space it created: a little more choice, a little less anxiety, and the ability to put her children first at a time when money was tight. Hanna’s story was deeply personal. But it is not unusual.

In the community of Bettws in Newport, one of the most deprived areas of the UK, I met parents who were not waiting for someone else to solve their problems. Building on more than eight years of partnership with Save the Children, they are already supporting other families, creating opportunities for children and finding practical responses to the challenges around them.

In all that we do, we seek to build partnerships and coalitions for change, because we know that Save the Children can’t change things alone or at the scale needed to change the future for all Welsh children.

Our partnership with Admiral Group is one example of how organisations can work together. As part of a £1 million investment over three years, we are working in communities across Wales, supporting children and families through programmes to mitigate the impacts of climate change and poverty on children.

Energy insecurity

Climate-related emergencies are hitting low-income families the hardest, with food and energy insecurity driving up costs. Children living in poor-quality housing are also most likely to be exposed to the effects of flooding, damp, extreme heat and air pollution due to wildfires. Access to nature and safe play areas, which is vital for wellbeing, is also out of reach for many.

Through two flagship child-led programmes called Voice and Light and Seedlings of Change, our partnership with Admiral Group will help children and families living in areas with high levels of poverty in Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Neath Port Talbot. Our collaboration is already helping children to access practical information and guidance to navigate emergencies, such as flooding and wildfires, and will enable children to design and secure better access to safe green spaces in their communities to play and learn.

But the ambition is not simply to deliver projects. Political action is vital to bring about meaningful change. Those mothers in Bettws are demanding that politicians hear them and act.

Important commitments

The Welsh Government has made important commitments. A child poverty strategy with targets and indicators will be a major step forward. And the government’s commitment to pilot Cynnal, a weekly payment of £10 for up to 15,000 young children in low-income households, will make a huge difference to vulnerable families. The learning from this pilot must act as a stepping stone towards a full Welsh Child Payment scheme covering every child in low-income families.

And given the threat that climate change poses, it’s vital that actions to tackle child poverty also help address the current and future impact of the climate and nature emergencies on children’s lives. With one in three children in Wales still experiencing poverty, and with the impacts of climate change intensifying, we cannot become complacent.

My own life reminds me that circumstances can change. Every child deserves that possibility.

That is why I left Wales with a stronger conviction that we must never treat child poverty as an inevitable fact of life.

Hanna’s name has been changed.

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