Poverty and crisis in northern cities

The picture painted by report statistics ‘stark and concerning’.

Northern cities are home to Britain’s highest numbers of families in crisis with poor and vulnerable children, a new analysis revealed recently.

A study for child poverty charity Buttle UK entitled Crisis Points used information gathered over 10 years on grant applications received and grants awarded to identify Wales, Yorkshire and the Humber, Scotland and the north-east of England as the worst-afflicted areas.

Cities including Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Bradford were shown to have the highest numbers of families in crisis — with ‘in crisis’ defined as being on a very low income and dealing with complex social issues.

The picture painted by the statistics should be both stark and concerning to those outside Buttle UK too.

It illustrates the many families and children currently at crisis point; people who have exhausted all other routes to help.

Moreover, it also highlights those who are potentially falling under the radar, living in unreported poverty.

The main findings in the report are:

Cities in the North of England, Midlands and Scotland, including Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow and Bradford are home to the most vulnerable children and families in the UK, based on the volume of applications we have received.

While revealing that Buttle UK’s distribution is largely in line with expected levels of need, critically it also identified gaps, indicating risks of ‘hidden poverty’.

Some of these are based in unexpected areas such as Southern counties including Berkshire and Hampshire, as well as coastal areas.

Over 62 per cent of cases survive on less than £10,000 a year and that lone parents account for nearly two thirds of cases.

Five principal drivers of family crisis have been established: parental inability to cope, children’s health and development problems, estrangement and isolation, child emotional and behavioural problems and abuse/neglect.

Application numbers are consistently high during summer months, where we expect families are feeling the pressure of not having school support and free meals

As well as helping raise awareness of the circumstances that the families and young people live in, the analysis has provided Buttle UK internally with its most comprehensive set of data to be able to allow the charity to focus its efforts on areas of unexpected crisis.

The hope is that it will become a useful tool for local authorities and other organisations to plan for and improve services too.

Buttle UKs chief executive, Gerri McAndrew, writing about the report, said: ‘Despite having worked in social services for a great deal of my career, and having led Buttle UK for over twelve years, I can ensure you that the desperate conditions that some of the UK’s most vulnerable children grow up in never fails to shock.

‘We decided to launch our Crisis Points report because we wanted to raise awareness around the issues that some of the most disadvantaged children, young people and their families face every day in the UK.

‘The data behind the report, composed of 125,000 grant applications made to us from 10,000 referral agencies over a ten year period, gives us unmatched insight into the lives of these people – insight that we felt needed to be shared.

‘The report shows that there are many families and children across the UK at crisis point; people who have exhausted all other routes to help.

‘But it also highlights those who are potentially going undetected – living in unreported poverty.’

To read the full report, click here