Councils need help to beat child poverty rise

As if to highlight the difficult nature of the task, analysis about what has happened with child poverty in recent years paints a conflicting picture: government figures show the percentage of children living in poverty fell in 2010/11 and 2011/12, while the Institute for Fiscal Studies records a rise over the two years.

The discrepancy could be down to differences in what each measures, but logic suggests the huge slowdown in public sector spending, combined with static economic growth over much of the past four years must have pushed more families onto the breadline. For local authorities working at the sharp end, such prosaic arguments are largely irrelevant. Devoid until recently of an overarching government strategy addressing the issue, they have been working hard to develop new ways of tackling the causes and consequences of poverty for children and families.