Campaign toolkit

MPs could:

• Launch or sign up as sponsors of a local end child poverty campaign;
• Approach local media to back the campaign – local papers and radio stations could get behind it.

Local authorities could:

• Declare that they aim to be a ‘child-poverty-free zone’;
• Pledge to audit services for children and families and increase provision if needed;
• Launch a ‘Families First’ hotline where parents could get information on issues like health, childcare, education, benefits and tax credits;
• Sponsor a ‘Families First’ day in their community – when there could be events for families; sponsored clean-ups of local parks/places where kids play, children’s services in local libraries, etc;
• Run ‘Claim It’ campaigns for Working Families’ Tax Credit, Children’s Tax Credit and Childcare Tax Credit;
• Pledge to ensure safe play spaces for children in poor neighbourhoods to reduce accident levels;
• Promote their local Children’s Fund.

Trade unions and CLP members could:

• Encourage employers to set up payroll giving schemes to raise money for local children’s charities;
• Encourage employers to give staff time off to volunteer in community-based family projects.

Local businesses could:

• Donate money to their local Children’s Fund;
• Support mentoring programmes like Big Brothers and Sisters to help local kids by providing funds and staff members to be mentors.

Faith organisations could:

• Promote a concern with child poverty at home as well as abroad; 
•  Encourage members to give to children’s causes;
• Run family support services e.g. mums and toddler groups.

Under the Tories:

• One in three children lived in poverty;
• The number of children living in low-income households more than doubled;
• The UK had the highest rate of relative child poverty in the EU.

Labour’s goal is to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it within a generation. Our strategy involves:

• Decent family incomes – work for those who can, support for those who can’t;
• High quality public services for all – extra targeted measures for those with additional needs;
• Support for parents to provide better support for their children;
• Empowering and working with the voluntary and community sectors; Labour’s measures:
• A record rise in Child Benefit – up from £11.05 to £15.50 for the first child;
• Children’s Tax Credit (CTC) – up to £10 a week for around 5 million families;
• From April 2002, the CTC will be worth up to £20 a week in the year of a child’s birth;
• he Working Families’ Tax Credit – 1.3 million families on average £35 a week better off;
• Allowances in Income Support for children under 11 up 80% in real terms;
• A new tax credit for families with children – the Child Tax Credit in 2003;
• New Sure Start programme with a budget of £500 million covering around a third of poor children by 2004;
• Investment in education is rising by over 5% a year; 
•  A new £900m Neighbourhood Renewal Fund for the most deprived areas;
• A new £450 million Children’s Fund to improve services;
•  Health Action Zones to improve health in the poorest communities;
• Tough targets and £7.3 billion over three years to improve sub-standard social housing; Achievements so far:
• 1.2 million fewer children in poverty than there would otherwise have been;
• 300,000 fewer children in households where no-one works;
• Families with children an average £1,000 a year better off;
• The poorest families with children on average £1,700 a year better off;
• A family with two young children on half average earnings is £3,000 a year better off.