United Kingdom

More than one child in four in the UK lives in poverty. Many do not have access to warm winter clothing, nutritious food, proper healthcare, housing or education. We’ve been working in the UK since the 1920s, and today our focus is on ending child poverty and fighting for the rights of disadvantaged children.

  • We’re building a mass campaign to end child poverty. 
  • We successfully lobbied to get asylum-seekers the same rights as other children. 
  • We’ve worked to stop discrimination against young travellers.  
  • Overall, in 2008/09, we reached 450,000 children through our work in the UK.

We're fighting to end child poverty

Despite the government’s promises, nearly 4 million children in the UK currently live in poverty. We’re working to ensure that by 2015 this will no longer be acceptable.

In Northern Ireland, our report into the health affects of fuel poverty helped 130,000 families receive one-off fuel payments, and influenced the Executive to commit to ending severe child poverty by 2012.
 
We worked with the Scottish government to ensure that its energy-assistance package will provide help to low-income households with children.
 
In Wales, we persuaded politicians to recognise ending child poverty as a key target and to make its eradication their statutory duty.

Read Why Money Matters: Family income, poverty and children’s lives

We're helping children get an education

By the time they take their GCSEs, just one in three children living on or below the poverty line stand a chance of good grades.
 
Across the UK we’re building relationships between children, families, schools, communities and policy-makers so the gap between rich and poor children can be closed and to ensure all children get access to a quality education.
 
In Northern Ireland, we’re working to stop children underachieving in school because of bullying. While in England we’re campaigning for all vulnerable children to be supported should they decide to appeal against exclusion from school.

We're campaigning for children's rights

Our work has helped make child poverty and education significant parts of the Welsh Assembly government’s five-year commitment to children’s rights.
 
We commissioned a review of children’s rights in Northern Ireland and helped produce a report based on the experiences of children in communities most affected by conflict and poverty.
 
In Scotland our lobbying persuaded the government to produce an action plan for eradicating child poverty.
 
Working with young Travellers, we produced educational resources challenging discrimination in Scottish schools, and we persuaded the Welsh Assembly Government to allocate £1.5 million to refurbishing Traveller sites.
 
And, after long years of campaigning, we finally got the UK government to remove the reservation denying asylum-seekers the same rights as other children. Read Future Scots: Pre-five services for asylum seekers and refugees in Glasgow

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