Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Education Costs Parents living on low incomes in Wales are strug-gling to meet increasing and diverse "hidden" costs of sending their children to school.

Utilise the Children in Wales: good practice guide for schools (training available)

Tackling Child Poverty in Wales - A Good Practice Guide for Schools Or Contact anita.myfanwy@childreninwales.org.uk

Vocational Skills The opportunities to work with parents accessing early years provision on improving skills for work are not always maximised.

Review the links between early years provision, voca-tional training, skills development and access to em-ployment.

Ymyriad a chefnogaeth Mae ysgolion llwyddiannus yn gweithio mewn cymunedau o amddifadedd yn gosod targedau uchelgeisiol i ddisgyblion, yn eu holrhain yn rheo-laidd ac yn ymyrryd ar unwaith os oes disgybl yn syrthio nôl

Datblygu dulliau cadarn o olrhain a chefnogi disgyblion sydd mewn perygl o dangyflawni

ncsl.org.uk Report:-narrowing-the-gap reducing in school variation in pupil outcomes

14-19 Network Core Aim—The Early Years (0-7) / Y blynyddoedd cynnar

Income Poverty

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Working with Parents The impact of parental involvement and support on children’s education has been widely acknowledged. Parental engagement in deprived areas is often low-er than in other areas.

Consider doing more outreach work, including out of hours support and working with vulnerable families.

"not too hard to reach: devel-oping a tool to reach the most disadvantaged families" Teaching Expertise atricle

Working with others Schools alone are unable to tackle and overcome the effects of child poverty on education. Effective schools working in deprived areas develop creative methods of working with others.

Develop creative methods for the recruitment and re-tention of staff. Consider recruiting from the local com-munity and ex pupils for all staff positions.

Sustainable Procurement In 2005 it was estimated that 35% of the £4 billion spent each year by the public sector in Wales was won by indigenous business supporting some 70,000 jobs. Every 1% increase to this figure should relate to an increase of some 2,000 jobs.

Develop a common partnership approach to sustaina-ble procurement that ensures opportunities to support the local economy and skills development of young people are secured.

Buy Wales http://www.forumforthefuture.org.uk/node/1413 http://www.s-p-i-n.co.uk/toolkit.asp#Socio-Economic

14-19 Network Education and Learning Opportunities / Addysg

Income Poverty

14-19 Network

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Charging Policies Charging policies and practice that do not fully con-sider concessions can limit the life chances of the poorest.

Develop robust school charging policy and practice that effectively considers the needs of pupils experi-encing poverty and disadvantage.

Oldham Policy on charging for school activities

Travelling to learn/work

Transport is a significant barrier to accessing learn-ing/ employment and training. Learners from less well-off backgrounds are further disadvantaged if they are not funded to travel to work placements.

Review local policy and guidance and develop travel plan to ensure that learners and workers in disadvan-taged areas are able to access learning opportunities in the most efficient way possible. Developing a Transport impact assessment maybe a useful evalua-tive tool.

Sustrans travel planning WAG Funding Advice

Education and Learning Opportunities / Addysg

Income Poverty

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Lack of Awareness There is limited awareness of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Raise awareness of children and young people’s right to participate under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Welsh Assembly Govern-ment policy e.g. Extending Entitlements.

Useful supporting websites on the UNCRC – list some here. Save the Children Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group and Funky Dragon in-formation on website on UNCRC for children and young people. http://www.sccyp.org.uk/participation/resources.php

Being Worse Off Children and young people experiencing poverty should not be worse off as a result of their participa-tion.

Fully review the individual costs of participation and ensure that up front costs are minimised.

Camden documents

Lack of money Monetary issues can often act as a barrier to attend-ing participation activity.

Develop good practice in relation to the reward, remu-neration and recognition of Children and young peo-ple’s participation, ensuring that it takes into account the complexities of the welfare benefits system.

Good practice Guide www.participationworkerswales.org.uk

Participation and Decision Making / Cymryd rhan yn y broses benderfynu

14-19 Network

Income Poverty

Income Poverty

14-19 Network A Safe Home and Community / Cartrefi a chymunedau diogel

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Preventing Arrears Help to improve tenancy security and transition into stable housing by linking the council’s approach to im-proving financial literacy skills of vulnerable young people and families to Local Housing Allowance agen-da. This could be achieved by developing working ar-rangements between housing departments/housing benefit administrators and financial literacy educators.

Financial Inclusion Briefing (cih)

Economic inactivity In 2005-6 men and women living in social housing in Wales had a lower rate of economic activity and higher unemployment than those living in other ten-ures and of economic inactivity.

Explore ways of working in partnership to join up employment and housing solutions.

Review housing related procurement processes and investigate the potential for social clauses and employment skills development.

Link housing options advice with employment ad-vice

DWP Report on Social Hous-ing and Worklessness

14-19 Network A Safe Home and Community / Cartrefi a chymunedau diogel

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

The new Local Housing Allowance (LHA) scheme aims to increase financial inclusion by paying hous-ing benefit directly to individuals this poses two risks: 1. There is a possibility that more vulnerable fami-lies and young people will put their tenancies at risk through non-payment of rent. 2. Private landlords may face greater risk of non payment if the LHA process is not managed effec-tively and may be less likely to rent to people receiv-ing LHA.

Develop a robust Local Housing Allowance Safe-guards Policy for tenants and landlords that ensures that safeguards are in place to prevent the risk of ten-ants falling into arrears with their rent and losing their home due to eviction and to provide some assurances to landlords about potentially vulnerable tenants and those who are unlikely to pay.

Local Housing Allowance Safeguards for tenants and

Landlords Policy

Sefton Safeguards policy

Income Poverty

14-19 Network Income Maximisation / Employment / Heb fod dan anfantais o achos tlodi

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Unemployment and worklessness in families are major factors in child poverty. Paid work is seen by the government as a route out of poverty, however the ability to achieve higher quality and sustainable jobs is also important.

Develop in partnership a cohesive local approach to reducing worklessness. That co-ordinates local re-source, understanding, data and expertise. Consider the use of outreach services and IT solutions to assist in reducing Worklessness.

Joseph Rowntree Founda-tion : Local initiatives to help workless people find and keep paid work

The nature and degree of partnership working be-tween Job Centre Plus and the local councils varies across Wales. To date only a small percentage of Council’s have signed up to the Job Centre Plus Local Employment Partnerships initiative (which aims to bring together Government and large em-ployers to help 250,000 disadvantaged people into jobs within three years).

Consider the appropriateness of committing the Coun-cil to the Job Centre Plus’s Local Employment Initia-tive (the following public sector bodies have signed up to this Scheme Somerset County Council, Coventry City Council, Glasgow City Council, Middlesbrough City Council, NHS Wales, North Glamorgan NHS Trust, West Lothian Council, Birmingham City Coun-cil). Review HR policies to ensure that recruitment practic-es are inclusive and do not disadvantage vulnerable groups.

Local Employment Partner-ships

Income Poverty

14-19 Network The Early Years (0-7) / Y blynyddoedd cynnar

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Basic Skills Improvement Develop robust approached to improving basic skills. http://www.basic-skills-wales.org/bsastrategy/en/resources/early_years.cfm http://www.basic-skills-wales.org/bsastrategy/en/resources/early_years/family_programmes good_practicepack.cfm http://www.basic-skills-wales.org/bsastrategy/en/cross_phase/finan-cial_literacy_homepage.cfm

Service Poverty

14-19 Network Education and Learning Opportunities / Addysg

Service Poverty

Current Challenges What Can Be Done? Where To Go?

Curriculum and Teaching Extended Schools and out of school activities pro-grammes that provide effective and complementary educational support to vulnerable children play a sig-nificant part in reducing the gaps in educational at-tainment.

Priorities community schooling in schools with high populations of pupils entitled to free school meals.

Literacytrust.org.uk/socialinclusion nfer extended schools

Basic Skills Lack of basic skills limit the ability of pupils to par-take in educational and skills based activities.

Work with the Basic Skills Cymru to develop a robust approach to developing Basic skills attainment at sec-ondary level.

Basic Skills Agency