Child Poverty

Free School Meals and the Pupil Premium: sign up now!

RBK have launched a Campaign to encourage parents in Kingston to sign-up for Free School Meals. At the moment, 3,500 families are entitled to Free School Meals, but nearly half of this number does not claim them.

If families have a household income of less than £16,160 per year they are likely to be able to claim FSM. the benefits are not only in free food savings of around £500 per year, the claim also triggers the Pupil Premium funding of £430 per pupil which goes directly to the child's school.

RBK are keen to encourage as many parents as possible to claim FSM before January 2012 as this is when the numbers for the Pupil Premium funding will be counted.

There is a Banner link on the front page of the RBK website: http://www.kingston.gov.uk/school_meals.

The Campaign is being run by Eamonn Gilbert at RBK and includes radio and newspaper advertising and distribution. There have also been Strategy events for all the schools in the borough to try and increase take-up in individual schools.

Please ring 020 8547 5004 or email freeschoolmeals@rbk.kingston.gov.uk for more details of the Campaign.Approximately 5,000 children are living in poverty in Kingston. Child poverty is defined as "where household income is below 60% of the median UK income after housing costs have been paid."

Voluntary and community groups are often one of the first contacts for families affected by poverty. Child poverty has a huge impact on every aspect of a child's life. For example:

Education
Of the total number of children not eligible for free school meals, 62.9% achieve 5 GCSEs at A* - C.
Of the total number of children eligible for free school meals,  35.5% achieve 5 GCSEs at A* - C.

Health
Three year olds in households with incomes below £10,000 are 2.5 times more likely to suffer from chronic illness than children in households with incomes above £52,000.

Social Participation
18% of the poorest fifth of the population could not afford to have their children's friends round for tea once a fortnight.

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The Child Poverty Unit states that unless action is taken:

By 2020, 25% of children in the UK will be living in poverty.

As a response to the Child Poverty Act 2010, every local authority has to develop a Child Poverty Strategy identifying priorities from the Child Poverty Needs Assessment. RBK are currently writing their Child Poverty Needs Assessment. The final version will be published in March 2011, but a copy of the latest version is available online or emailing Justine Rego.

At KVA, we are working on this issue as part of the Children and Young People First Project. Our two main initiatives are looking at :

• families not claiming benefits to which they may be entitled
• under-claiming of Free School Meals

We hosted a seminar on Child Poverty on Wednesday 18 May.  You can view the presentations and join in with discussions on issues relating to child poverty arising from the seminar.