Hungry kids and foodbanks could become 'normal'

摘要

Children arriving at school hungry and families queuing up at foodbanks 'could become part of the wallpaper' of everyday life, the president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) has warned. Child poverty is expected to rise by a further 6% by 2023/24, according to the Resolution Foundation. The increase would mark a record high. Writing in The MJ this week, Stuart Gallimore, who is director of children's services at East Sussex CC, said childhood poverty was 'not inevitable' and investing in strategies to reduce it was a 'smart and efficient economic policy'. He said: 'A sustained period of austerity, a 50% reduction in our budgets since 2010 and rising need in our communities has impacted on the range and reach of services we are able to provide to vulnerable children and their families.' But Mr Gallimore added: 'We have reduced poverty before so we can make a choice to do it again. If we do nothing we will look back in shame.'