The plan has four key themes:
- Income and employment: ensuring the benefits of economic growth are felt be everyone and supporting the Skills for Plymouth plan.
- Health and wellbeing: supporting children’s emotional and physical wellbeing and continuing the oral health improvement programme.
- Education and transitions: improving literacy levels, supporting children in Early Years settings to be ‘school ready’ and giving young people the skills to transition into adulthood.
- Partnerships: working with private and voluntary sector partners to mitigate child poverty.
The previous plan, for 2019 to 2022, focused on similar themes and despite the impact of Covid-19 had a positive impact. Successful outcomes included a 63% increase in the number of eligible children claiming free school meals, which not only ensures they receive a healthy meal each day but also results in schools receiving additional funding to support pupils.
Councillor Rebecca Smith, cabinet member for strategic planning, homes and communities, said: “I’m incredibly proud of our new action plan which clearly outlines the steps that we, together with our partners, will be taking to support local families and children. The plan’s four different themes give us a clear approach to tackling both the causes of child poverty, which includes helping parents into employment, and also the major symptoms.
“We’ll be taking steps to improve the physical and mental wellbeing of children in Plymouth as well as providing opportunities for our children and young people to learn and to be inspired, setting them up for the bright future that every child deserves.”