Child poverty and financial inclusion project
Pauline Craig, Public Health Programme Manager, Glasgow
Centre for Population Health
September 2010
Healthier, Wealthier Children aims to establish better
links between health services and financial inclusion services in
order to address child poverty. It runs for 15 months from
September 2010. Income maximisation advisors and development
workers are being employed in Community Health (and Care)
Partnerships (CH/CPs) across NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC)
during the project. Together, they will develop expertise in child
poverty within NHS and financial inclusion services and demonstrate
the most effective methods of integrating action on child poverty
within their respective organisations. The focus of the project is
on improving knowledge about the support mechanisms and services
that can contribute to dealing with and preventing child poverty in
local areas, and disseminating learning about ways in which
mainstream services can contribute in the longer term. The project
will be evaluated by Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
The project builds on previous actions by NHSGGC to increase
uptake of Healthy Start which provides vitamins and
vouchers for healthy foods for pregnant women, infants and children
up to four years where parents are eligible for basic welfare
benefits. It has been developed by a collaboration between NHSGGC,
Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Centre for Population Health.
Becoming a parent has been demonstrated in academic studies as
being a stage in life where vulnerability to falling into poverty
increases[1], and poverty is well known as
being an important determinant of child health[2].
Healthier, Wealthier Children therefore targets health and
early years staff who work closely with pregnant women or families
with young children. It encourages them to offer financial support
by referring them on to income maximisation advisers. The
Healthier, Wealthier Children income maximisation services
will work exclusively with pregnant women and families with young
children in order to develop expertise in dealing with and
preventing child poverty and to build new relationships with child
health services and other early years service providers. The
locality base for project staff will enable families to make good
use of local resources, for example, in accessing longer-term
financial help, if required, or referral to other local financial
inclusion opportunities such as childcare, employment or
education.
Staff targeted by Healthier, Wealthier Children will
include midwives and others working in antenatal services, health
visitors, oral health workers, breastfeeding advisors, parenting
support workers and other early years service providers. Parents
will be eligible for referral if they receive out-of-work or
in-work benefits and have:
- children under five or
- older children if they are acting as a kinship carer or
- a child with a disability
Learning from the project will influence future commissioning of
financial inclusion services and contribute to sustainable
information and referral pathways for addressing child poverty
between health and early years services and financial inclusion
services.
For more details contact: pauline.craig@glasgow.gov.uk
[1] McQuaid R, Fuertes V, Richard A
(2010) How can parents escape from recurrent poverty?
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, www.jrf.org.uk
[2] Spencer N, Health Consequences
of Poverty for Children. End Child Poverty
http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/files/Health_consequences_of_Poverty_for_children.pdf