These startling facts speak for themselves and point to over a decade of Labour's failure to tackle poverty in Reading:
- Over a quarter of children and young people in Reading live in the 20% most deprived nationally on the Income Deprviation Affecting Children Index (IDACI)
- The wards with most children in poverty are Whitley, Abbey and Church (33-38% of all children in these areas
- Percentage of all children eligible for free school meals was around 17% in 2007 - well above the South East average of 6.8%
- In 2007 (latest figures) more people in Reading were living in the most deprived areas than in 2004
How ironic, then , that child poverty is identified as a 'priority target' within the Reading Children and Young People's Plan (CYPP) and Reading's Local Area Agreement (LAA).
How long have these problems been known about, prioritised and yet in the same period the poverty gap has widened?
Locally, Labour-run Reading Borough Council's Thriving Neighbourhoods Programme was launched earlier this year to try to address inequality. It is well-intentioned but it is chronically underfunded by central government and Labour have brought it in far too late.
And now, thanks to Gordon Brown bailing out the banks there is no money around to help those who need it most.
Nationally, Labour have failed to make any lasting impact on child poverty - as a government they are likely to leave office in 2010 having failed to meet their own child poverty targets:
"Mr Brown, when Chancellor, set targets in 1998 to halve the 3.4 million children at that time living in poverty to 1.7 million by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020"
How depressing that Labour ministers published a Child Poverty Bill half-way through their last year in office - knowing that it was highly unlikely to get through Parliament before a General Election, let alone make any impact.
So what are the health issues that children and young people are suffering in the poorest parts of Reading?
Teenage pregnancy:
Under-18 conception rate in Reading higher than England and SE averages
Wards with high levels of deprivation also have higher teenage conception rates - high rates are seen in Katesgrove, Abey, Whitley, Norcot, Church, Minster and Battle
Oral Health
Reading has twice the decayed, filled and missing teeth (dmf-t) score compared to Wokingham.
Variation within Reading is greater than that found between other PCTs or at a national level.
Other problems we face include higher than average Infant Mortality, childhood obesity and less take up of immunisations and breastfeeding.
We know that deprivation also has a serious impact on children's ability to learn. In Reading, the gap has widened in 2009 between the highest performing children and the lowest 20%.
And when young people in the poorest parts of Reading, as I explained last week, the situation they face is even more difficult.
There is no doubt that the recession will have made the lives of the poorest children here in Reading even more difficult.
In July 2009 we know there were around 8650 children and young people live in households receiving Housing and Council Tax benefits - an increase of 12% since 2009.
This is not a record that any Labour politician either nationally or locally can be proud of.
This information is publicly available here and is the subject of a scrutiny review to be held tomorrow evening at 6.30pm in the Council Chamber in the Civic Offices.
Cllr Mark Ralph, Chair of the Education & Children's Services Scrutiny Panel and I have called for this review to focus on health inequality and more importantly to ask what RBC, Berkshire West PCT and other bodies are doing to close the gap.
Child poverty matters. It affects thousands of children and families in Reading. The failure by Labour to make any significant impact on this problem is a clear failure of political will and of leadership.
As a Party we will continue to raise these inconvenient truths both locally and nationally.I'm proud that Nick Clegg has made it clear it is one of his top priorities for government.
If this stuff bothers you I would urge you to attend the meeting on Wednesday.
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