How to Manage: Childhood Poverty

Poverty has a significant impact on communities across the country, with over 14 million people affected by poverty including 71% of working households and 42% of families with three or more children particularly affected. With increasing healthcare inequalities experienced by those living in poverty, it is imperative that as healthcare providers we can ensure that our services meet everyone’s needs. This one-day course looks at the causes and consequences of child poverty as well as the link between poverty and health inequalities. You will hear from clinicians whose service has been ‘poverty proofed’ and the impact it has had.

What is the course about?

This one-day online course is delivered by Children North East (CNE), a large regional children’s charity with work extending across England, Wales and Scotland. CNE deliver services, support and initiatives that provide a platform for children, young people and families to work through issues, take action and provide them with the tools to reach their full potential. This includes their UK wide Poverty Proofing© initiative. During the course, you will focus on the causes and consequences of child poverty, the link between poverty and health inequalities, the principles of Poverty Proofing© and how it works in practice, common themes and impact as well as hearing from clinicians who have ‘poverty proofed’ their service.

This course supports the NHSE focus on the Core20+5 framework, specifically supporting individuals and families living in the most deprived circumstances. Poverty Proofing© Healthcare has already proven to have impact within different departments across the NHS, and we are building on this work developed in the North East of England by developing a delivery partner model so local people can inform and influence service delivery in the years to come.

Poverty Proofing© Principles

The Poverty Proofing© delivery model is founded on three core principles that underpin all Poverty Proofing interventions:

  1. VOICE – To see real social change it is imperative that the voice of those affected by poverty are central to understanding and overcoming the barriers that they face.
  2. PLACE – We need to understand the context of the community and place which we seek to Poverty Proof. We recognise that poverty impacts places differently, and so understanding place is vital in our response. Organisationally we also need to be clear about why and how decisions are made. This understanding of context is essential.
  3. STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES – While tackling poverty can feel like an impossible and unachievable goal, the knowledge that the root causes of poverty are structural give us reason for hope. If poverty can be addressed or at least alleviated by making structural changes within society, then what structural changes can we make at an organisational level to eliminate the barriers that those in poverty may face.

Target Audience

  • Tier 3 senior trainees
  • Consultants
  • Senior therapists and nurse specialists; particularly those healthcare professionals with responsibility for managing asthma locally or those wanting to establish an asthma network.

Learning Aims, Objectives and Outcomes:

Aim:

To help clinicians understand and have empathy for young people and their families suffering the effects of poverty, enabling them to start unpicking the impact poverty may have on the accessibility of their work and the work of their team. There will be the opportunity during the day for reflective practice and considering what can be done immediately in healthcare settings to implement change.

Learning outcomes:

  • To have an overview of who CNE are and why this work matters
  • To understand definitions of poverty
  • To have an awareness of the extent of poverty and how that plays out nationally and regionally and look at some of the drivers behind this
  • To understand and identify what the consequences of poverty are
  • To have explored the root causes of poverty
  • To understand the impact of poverty on health
  • To gain insights into the development of Poverty Proofing© and where is sits within a health context and see a case study from Poverty Proofing Paediatric Diabetes
  • There will be a chance for reflective practice and for clinicians to explore their current role and identify some of the barriers they identify for individuals living in poverty within their own practice and that of their healthcare setting.

Faculty Lead

Emma Leggott

Poverty Proofing Healthcare Team Manager

Dr Ian Sinha

Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician


 

Expression of interest

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