New ways of tackling South Tyneside child poverty after unwanted title as one of country's most deprived areas

It comes as data shows South Tyneside has the unwanted title of one of the most deprived communities in the country. One third of neighbourhoods are in the top 10% of most deprived areas nationally.

The strategy will see South Tyneside take a system wide approach targeted at mitigating, preventing, and alleviating child poverty in the borough.

Development of the document comes after the council held a child poverty summit in October 2024.

This brought together partners from across the North East to build up a comprehensive picture of the situation in South Tyneside and to help identify actions as detailed in the proposed new strategy.

The four main priorities of the document are maximising family income, making a route out of poverty, focusing on ensuring the best start in life and making all decisions through a “poverty lens.”

Councillor Tracey Dixon, leader of South Tyneside Council, said: “There are devastating levels of child poverty within our borough and the region.

“We know that almost a third of young people in South Tyneside are living in poverty and the impact of that on children’s lives and childhoods can be linked to low birth weight in babies, poor physical and mental health and much more.

“Our child poverty strategy directly tackles those burning issues.

“While it’s important that we do everything we can to improve the lives and life chances of children now, we need to address the root causes to stop people being in poverty in the first place.”

Labour’s Cllr Dixon is also deputy chair of the North East Combined Authority’s Child Poverty Reduction Unit and noted the new document has been five years in the making.

She added: “The key aim for the strategy is to mitigate, reduce and prevent child poverty here in South Tyneside.

“There was an appetite, five years ago, seeing that poverty was coming through as a key challenge for us in South Tyneside, there was a political appetite to lead on change.

“That work has actually evolved and developed into something of such a great scale, we’re leading on it from a regional point of view.”

The priorities of the strategy will aim to improve access to financial support, extending the ‘reducing the cost of the school day’ programme and increasing free school meals support.

It also includes engaging with employers to explore the Real Living Wage and its roll-out to support in-work poverty adults, and a “commitment to ensure the voice of lived experience drives forward change” in regards to child poverty.

Additionally the strategy aims to boost the work of family hubs in the borough, increasing the uptake of Healthy Start vouchers and rolling out more baby boxes to new parents.

Cllr Dixon added: “From our perspective here in South Tyneside we can’t do this on our own, it’s about working in partnership with various organisations because the magnitude is massive here.

“It’s all about partnership working and they’ve helped us shape our child poverty strategy.”

Council officers explained how the strategy will include short, medium and long term goals which will be monitored on a monthly basis, with a five year action plan initially in place.

Cllr Dixon noted that “most of the levers to action real change are still in the control of central government” and they hope the strategy will “directly influence the work of the national Child Poverty Taskforce in developing its National Child Poverty Strategy due to be published later this year.”

She added: “They [the Labour government] understand the issue of child poverty and obviously they are trying to put things in place to reduce child poverty, equally I feel it will be one of their key missions.

“They’ve only been in power a number of months, so obviously lots of work to do, but highlighting this through national policy framework is something that they’ve taken extremely seriously.”

Actions involved in the proposed South Tyneside strategy are targeted to meet the needs and address the barriers and challenges that specific groups are facing.

Council chiefs said this approach ensures resources are focused and interventions can have the biggest impact in alleviating child poverty across the borough.

Cllr Paul Dean, lead member for voluntary sector, partnerships and equalities, said: “We’ve got a strong community and the idea of helping people, I think that’s just bread into people in South Tyneside and I think that’s what really does come through.

“We’re ahead of the game as such, we’re the first, it’s something to be proud of.”

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness is endorsing the proposed new strategy for South Tyneside.

She said: “South Tyneside Council and Cllr Dixon have led the way on this agenda, showing that it is possible to tackle poverty and create opportunity with political will, leadership and a clear and comprehensive plan.

“That’s the approach I want to take across the North East, so no more of our young people are held back and can fulfil their potential.

“Tackling child poverty is the biggest challenge we face in the North East and my number one priority as Mayor. That’s why the Child Poverty Reduction Unit was established.”

As a result of last October’s child poverty summit, the council has committed to enhancing support to schools to reduce the cost of the school day and supporting parents just above the free school meal threshold.

Other work has included encouraging the take-up of free school meals, providing further welfare support within family hubs and expanding advice on money matters and help on sustainable cooking to parents within school settings.

The strategy is directly informed by evidence, insight and calls for urgent action from the North East Child Poverty Commission’s report ‘No time to wait; An ambitious blueprint for tackling child poverty in the North East’, published in February 2024.

The strategy will be considered for formal adoption at an authority-wide meeting of the council on Thursday, March 20.