Child Protection, Workless Households, and Child Poverty

Paper co-presented with Carole Cumino, Government Office, at the workshop Children’s Protection & Child Poverty organised by the West Midlands Regional Assembly as part of the European Union's OPEN Programme. The paper introduced discussion of issues relating to child protection in the West Midlands, linking to unemployment and evidence of the impact of worklessness on households in the region. Among other things, the paper identified key issues as the need for better promotion of access to HE, family-friendly employment, and improved support for groups like care leavers, young people with disabilities, and carers. The paper drew on statistics produced by the The West Midlands Regional Observatory and Government Office which estimate that there are now over 420,000 children living in “households in poverty” in the region. One important feature of the analysis highlighted how many of the region’s households in poverty were, in fact, 'working households' - households with at least one adult in employment.

The seminar was organised by the West Midlands Regional Assembly, and funded by the European Union. It is the first in a series of events aiming to bring third sector and other interest groups into EU, national, and regional policy-making processes.

A fuller summary is provided on the Staffordshire University 'New' site: item headed 'Lecturer calls for better interventions to assist region's 'households in poverty', at: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/about_us/news_and_events/lecturer-calls-for-better-interventions-to-assist-regions-households-in-poverty-tcm4226127.jsp