Diaper rationing, children without beds

Babies are being left scarred as desperate parents are forced to ration nappies in the UK’s worsening “shameful” child poverty crisis, experts have warned.

One in eight babies born in Sunderland this year will be referred to Love, Amelia, a charity that supports new parents who would otherwise struggle to afford essentials such as clothes and nappies.

This equates to approximately 40 babies a month born in one of the richest economies in the world and yet facing unimaginable levels of poverty.

“It’s scary,” charity chief executive Steph Capewell said I. “People who are referred have come to the hospital or are getting ready to have a child and there is no place for that child to sleep, they sleep on the floor, on the sofa – out of necessity rather than choice. .

“We see them having to ration diapers, where they only have enough diapers at night and during the day (the babies) stay at home without diapers; This means they cannot access appointments. I’ll go out and play, get some fresh air in the park.

“Or we’ve seen children develop pressure sores because (parents) reuse dirty diapers or go too long between changes.

“These are real challenges families face every day.”

Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing calls from some within his party to do more to tackle child poverty, but has so far resisted repealing the legislation. Two-child limit on benefitsIt’s a move that, by some estimates, would instantly lift up to 300,000 children across the UK out of poverty.

Former Chancellor Gordon Brown also added his voice to these. calling for change in an interview with I In November. The move risks putting him at odds with other influential figures, particularly mayors in northern England.

Nearly a third of all children in the North East are growing up in poverty, and this figure has been getting worse over the last decade.

Labour’s mayor in the area, Kim McGuinness, was elected in May on a promise to take action. Last week, it organized a Child Poverty Summit to generate ideas, attended by hundreds of experts from the public, private and voluntary sectors.

Although Starmer and Reeves have not yet taken action on child benefit, McGuinness is among those who want this practice to be canceled.

“I want to see it removed, if not now I want it done as soon as possible, in fact I think that’s what (the Government) is doing,” he said.

In his opening remarks at the summit, McGuinness acknowledged the current figures were “embarrassing” and the challenges ahead were “huge” but stressed he was committed to tackling the problem in the long term.

The newly created North East Combined Authority (NECA) is putting more than £50 million into a support package to help people get back to work, providing free after-school clubs and £1 bus fares for under-22s.

McGuiness says further devolution would allow him to go further, including a pilot that would see the authority offer childcare grants to help make work more affordable for new parents.

However, most of the policy tools that will make the biggest difference lie with the Government, and some of the decisions Labor has taken in its first six months in power appear to have made the task even more difficult.

Childcare providers demand increase in National Insurance contributions (NICs) announced in Budget It will result in an increase of up to 20 percent in nursery fees being transferred to parents. At the same time, the £2 bus fare cap will rise by 50 per cent to £3 at the beginning of next year.

Hannah Davies, chief executive of the Northern Health Science Alliance, a research partnership between NHS trusts and universities, said Labor needed to understand how welfare cuts had been felt disproportionately during the period of austerity introduced by successive Conservative governments.

“Gateshead lost more than £900 per head compared to Cambridge, which had £190 per head,” Ms Davies said.

“The biggest impact has been in communities that are already struggling; you can see it in the child poverty figures in the North of England, but it’s the North East that’s worst, it’s dire.”

Behind these figures are the people she sees every day at Love, Amelia, the charity Ms Capewell set up in 2018 in honor of her daughter, who sadly died just 12 minutes ago in the Sunderland maternity unit.

While still dealing with the pain in the hospital, he met a young mother who unexpectedly gave birth to a baby and had no belongings.

The nurses told Ms Capewell they could find spare baby nurseries in their cupboards, but there were no formal services to support such mothers.

He decided to donate some of Amelia’s belongings to the young family and since then the charity has gone on to help nearly 20,000 children across the North East.

“I think poverty is more entrenched than ever,” Ms. Capewell said.

“I was always aware that this was a major concern here, I used to be a social worker, I was very aware of the challenges and challenges.

“My experiences growing up in poverty were very different from the experiences children face now. We see people who are in very, very deep poverty and are having to travel distances that no family should ever have to do.

“One of my concerns is that it’s starting to normalize, we say ‘people are struggling because of Covid, people are struggling because of the cost of living crisis’, actually some people feel it very differently.

“Food banks should be shocking, we should be shocked that teachers are buying washing machines for their school uniforms. “One quarter of our families work,” he said.

‘We should be surprised that working families are in poverty, but we’re not’

From the charity’s work with schools, Ms Capewell found that children were sharing shoes and PE kits and hiding letters about school trips from their parents because they knew they couldn’t afford to go. Some were detained because they did not do their homework even though they did not have the materials to do their homework at home, or because there was no lighting because their parents could not afford the energy bills.

“They are hungry, they have no bed to sleep in, they are literally sleeping on the floor – we have children sitting on beds made of wooden pallets – how are you expected to achieve what you need to achieve? Is all this happening at home? he said.

Despite facing such despair, McGuinness doesn’t want to fall into the trap of believing the task is too great.

“We don’t have the time or luxury to be afraid, we just have to keep at it,” he said. I.

At the election Labor won all the seats in the North East, as well as gaining control of the combined authority and an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons. This means leaders are under pressure to deliver the change they promised.

“There’s definitely a sense of urgency; generational change is what we’re committed to,” McGuinness said.

“We are not saying that this problem will be solved in one year and one Budget term, nor are we saying that this will be solved in the mayoral or parliamentary term. to ensure that this is a home of opportunity for every child here, regardless of their background.

“This is not something that lives alone. We’re not supporting businesses ‘here’, attracting investment, creating growth and fixing the transport system, and then tackling poverty ‘over there’ in a different area; they are all one and the same.

Read Next

“This Government is very focused on growth, we want to see our region grow, we know what we’re good at, but if we want to get it right we can never get it right when a third of our children are growing up. Those who can’t access these well-paid, high-skilled jobs will remain in poverty.”

The consequences of failing to tackle long-standing problems such as child poverty and present a positive alternative vision for the future have already been witnessed in Sunderland.

The city voted 61 per cent in favor of Brexit in 2016 and has seen some of its most serious violence this summer. A crowd of around 700 people attacked police officers, burned the Citizens Advice building and looted shops.

Reform finished second in the general election in 18 constituencies in the North East.

“I’m concerned about some of the extreme political narratives; we had riots here over the summer and that’s something we really need to take seriously to understand why this is happening,” McGuinness said.

“But none of what I do is because I think that’s what we need to do to forestall the Reformation, I do it because it’s a moral imperative.

“As a kid going to the youth club was normal, SureStart was absolutely transformative.

“There’s been investment in the right things, provision, showing young people what opportunities look like, ensuring they have the right advice, the right mentors, allowing working-class kids to be the first in their families to go to university.

“In 14 years (under the Conservative government) this has all fallen apart and you end up with a situation where only some children are receiving youth benefits, a third of children are growing up in poverty, and that’s a really bad cocktail for society.

“Our job now is to start creating that opportunity and rebuilding. “We have control of a really significant amount of money to invest in this region, and people who want to access that money need to be able to tell us what they’re doing to move the dial.”

A Government spokesman said: “No child should be in poverty; That’s why our Ministerial Working Group is developing an ambitious strategy to tackle child poverty to give every child the best start in life.

“Alongside this, we are re-expanding the Household Support Fund, increasing benefits and helping more than a million households by introducing the Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit cuts to support struggling families.”