Discussing poverty in families with babies and toddlers

In partnership with Barnardo’s Cymru, the Bevan Foundation held a round-table discussion on child poverty on 19^th June.

Children in families with a 0-4 year old are amongst the hardest hit by poverty in Wales, with more than half of all children in poverty living in a family where there is a baby or toddler. Alongside Bardnardo’s Cymru, we invited colleagues to a round-table discussion to explore the reasons for this and what steps should be taken to ease the grip of poverty on families with young children.

The roundtable provided people from a variety of organisations with an opportunity to share their thoughts. We were pleased to be joined by representatives from the Welsh Government, the Senedd Research Service, Race Council Cymru, Home-Start Cymru, Clybiau Plant Cymru Kids Clubs, Oxfam Cymru and Children in Wales.

Barnardo’s Director for Children’s Services (Wales & South West England), Sarah Crawley, opened the event, providing context and insights drawing on Barnardo’s Cymru’s child poverty data. Bevan Foundation Director, Victoria Winckler, then shared emerging findings from the Bevan Foundation’s own research into poverty in families with young children.

Among the topics discussed were the key drivers of poverty in 0-4 year-olds and the difficulties parents face in in accessing help. We are looking forward to taking these insights and ideas into our ongoing work on ending child poverty, and will be publishing our initial findings on poverty in families with young children in the autumn.