Child poverty action plan 2022-25

Breaking the cycle of Child Poverty – equipping Plymouth to deliver

Income and employment

Health and wellbeing

Education and transitions

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Income and Employment

Plymouth City Council lead:

• Anna Peachey
• Tina Brinkworth

Tackling economic deprivation so that the benefits of growth are felt by everyone

Proposed actions:

• Support and offer more opportunities to ‘low income working families’ on Universal Credit to better paid work with an emphasis
• on female employment
• Support and offer more opportunities to ‘low income non-working families’ on Universal Credit to seek employment particularly females.
• Run a campaign to raise awareness across businesses of the barriers to economic participation that are faced by groups with protected characteristics and experience of economic deprivation
• Work with influencers across the city to ensure that policy is assessed for the impact on the lowest earners (Aligned with the Plymouth Plan ‘Growing City’)
• Encourage clustering of businesses to increase skills, enable career progression and increase average wages
• Support the Cost of living Taskforce achieve their objectives as required

Proposed Outcomes/Targets: Increase opportunities for ‘low income families’ into work and into better paid jobs

Support the delivery of the Skills for Plymouth Plan

Proposed actions:

• Support the City’s SEETS and NEET program
• Provide priority access to schools in deprived wards to high profile events such as STEM GP, MediFest, Skills Launchpad live etc
• Ensure young people, their teachers parents/carers are aware of the highly skilled, highly paid jobs in the city, pathways and career progression routes
• Develop and test a work readiness programme (for wider roll out) working with disadvantaged students in the city
• Work with employers to support the Skills for Plymouth Plan so that every child has regular contact with local employers and inspiring role models

Proposed outcomes: Every child in the city had 4 interactions from early years to post 16 with inspiring role models and industry ambassadors

Promote inclusive employment practices which also encourage families’ access and take up Early Years settings

• Employers are helped to improve work accessibility resulting from mental and physical health limitations and caring responsibilities including becoming trauma informed in their recruitment practice
• Work with employers to provide the opportunities for paid employment for Children and Young People from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Monitor childcare places, particularly in areas of deprivation by implementing a new method for monitoring occupancy.
• Put support in place to support childcare providers to grow and develop their business increasing childcare places, where required
• Encourage new providers into the market and new childcare staff by supporting the sector with the national recruitment and retention crisis
• Revise and embed the way we promote 2, 3 and 4 year old childcare funding to parents, especially in disadvantaged areas
• Use new methods to publicise to families all associated childcare support and benefits available
• Provide more opportunities of accessing Childcare through partnership working

Proposed outcomes: Increase and retain the number of childcare places available in areas of deprivation and increase the take up for all eligible children, especially 2 year olds.

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Health and Wellbeing

Plymouth City Council lead:

• Rob Nelder

Support and improve disadvantaged children’s emotional Health and Wellbeing (with a focus on disadvantaged children)

Proposed actions:

• Integrate loneliness into Children and Young People’s training offers across City
• Pilot (test) social prescribing offer connecting Children and Young people (identified as being lonely) to community / social network / services
• Based on learning from Pilot; develop service across timeline of current CPAP 2022-2025
• Every state funded school should have at least one response in place to address loneliness

Proposed outcomes: 90% of all schools in the city have at least one intervention in place by 2025

Ensure children from disadvantaged households get access to Healthy Lifestyle opportunities

Proposed actions:

• Increase access to and take up of health promoting activities – including access to setting / travel / support (connecting)
• Promote healthy food options across city in line with Plymouth’s ‘Best Food Forward’ award scheme and “Grow Share Cook”
• Support development of cookery ‘classes’ for students and parents in areas of high child poverty (sustainable / locally grown / supply chains / affordable)

Proposed outcomes: Reduce the prevalence of obesity in the most deprived areas of the city in Reception and Year 6 compared to baseline NCMP data (2021 / 2022 academic year)

Continue the Oral Health improvement programme with a focus on disadvantaged children

Proposed actions:

• Ensure all early eligible years settings are invited to take part in the (free) supervised toothbrushing scheme, are aware of the offer, and are supported to participate
• Invite businesses to sponsor a school(s) to enable the Fluoride Varnish Scheme to be expanded.
• Ensure the First Dental Steps project is supported to continue and that oral health is permanently embedded into the Healthy Child Programme in Plymouth
• Invite businesses to support delivery of the ‘Open Wide and Step Inside’ project across all primary schools
• Work with dental commissioners and dental service providers to increase the capacity of and access to paediatric dental care and reduce the number of children on the NHS dental waiting list

Proposed outcomes: Reduce the number of children (<16 years) on the NHS dental waiting list year-on-year from 2022-2025

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Education and Transitions

Plymouth City Council lead:

• Jin Barnicott
• Tina Brinkworth

Boost child and parental literacy in the city

Proposed actions:

• Deliver annual Oracy and Early Language Learning training for teachers working in schools with high proportions of new arrivals learning EAL
• Support the teaching of literacy through subject leader hubs, training opportunities and school to school support, and work closely in partnership with them
• Help ensure that Schools, both maintained and Academies, prioritise working with parents to support adult literacy and promote the sharing
• of good practice

Proposed outcomes: Reduce the literacy gap in achievement between children in low incomes and children from more affluent families

Provide additional support to children in Early Years settings for school readiness

Proposed actions:

• Implement the ‘Setting of Concern Process’ challenges which supports and monitors childcare settings judged less than Good by Ofsted and/or are in breach of the Providers Agreement
• Ensure that interventions are put in place to deliver additional support for children with communication difficulties
• Work with the Library Service to deliver Book Start packs to children living in deprived areas and those living in households in receipt of benefits

Proposed outcomes: Increase the percentage of Plymouth children under five attend Good and above childcare settings

Build young peoples’ skills and capabilities

Proposed actions:

• Implement the Skills 4 Plymouth Education Work Stream to raise aspirations and broaden horizons, work readiness programme to support the smooth transition into work, FE or HE, work experience and mentoring from early years through to post 16
• Actively seek funding to provide additional support which will narrow the attainment gap
• Develop an annual programme of events to showcase the amazing career opportunities across the city, with priority access to disadvantaged young people i.e. MediFest, STEM GP, Skills Launchpad Live Career showcase etc

Proposed outcomes: Increase in the number of young people making the transition from school/college to further career paths and destinations by 2025

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Partnerships

Plymouth City Council lead:

• To be confirmed

Debt advice and finance awareness

Proposed actions:

• Deliver financial life skills training to schools (year6) (Business sector going into schools)
• Encourage partners to sign up to the national Stop Loan Sharks Recognition Programme
• Promote the work of the Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) in communities
• Encourage early referral to city partners eg: Money Advice Plymouth; Citizens advice Plymouth and Plymouth Energy Community.
• Early signposting opportunities to Citizens Advice and others
• Promotion of after school opportunities that are supported by child tax credits
• Target information to low income families to help make the next step

Proposed outcomes: More debt advice and finance awareness offered and accepted

Address the impact of digital poverty on disadvantaged families and children

Proposed actions:

• Support the work of the Digital Inclusion Network to help reduce digital exclusion in the city, offering support and opportunities to increase access to devices, training and connectivity
• Support combined learning offers to recognise knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
• Continued recognition as a City of Learning, utilising digital credentials (badges) to recognise informal learning and skills
• Increase the number of digital champion volunteers with a standardised level of training in basic digital skills and soft skills
• Supply families in poverty with broadband/data
• Donate ‘refurbished’ laptops to families. Fund Borrowdontbuy to refurb these laptops so that families can benefit from them (Currently working with Nudge, Timebank and UHP)

Proposed outcomes: Improve digital inclusion in disadvantaged families across the city

Work in partnership with the private and voluntary sector to mitigate child poverty in the city

Proposed actions:

• Deliver the PCiP roadmap.
• - Inspiration - opportunities for children to achieve their fill potential
• - Aspiration – helping children to believe they can!
• - Education – the toolkit of life from nursery to adulthood
• Maximise partnership engagement
• Engage city partners with Plymouth Argyle’s P35 campaign/initiative.
• Support the National Citizen Service
• Explore ways to ensure the environment children live in is appropriate

Proposed outcomes: Create a network and share information with all city organisations trying to make a difference and eradicate child poverty from Plymouth