COUNCILLORS are trying to improve the lives of Oxfordshire children affected by poverty.

A report produced by Oxford City Council’s child poverty review group has suggested 42 changes to help the authority become an “anti-poverty” council.

Some of the recommendations include influencing housing developers to provide social rent, producing a poverty strategy in the next 18 months, appointing a living wage champion and a child poverty champion, and providing money for those receiving poverty-related support as opposed to vouchers.

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Another recommendation also includes the council publishing the stories of young people and their experience living in the city.

Oxford Mail: Councillor Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini speaking at the meeting on Zoom Councillor Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini speaking at the meeting on Zoom

The recommendations were approved for full cabinet at a scrutiny meeting on Wednesday last week after Councillor Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, who chairs the child poverty review group, summarised the report.

She said: “Poverty is the result of political choice and that means national and local choices. It's really important that we put this at the heart of everything that we do.

“Oxford [is one of] the most unequal cities in England. Nine children out of 30, in 2019, were living in poverty and that's 3.9 million children in the UK.

“Children should be valued and cared for as beings rather than becoming’s. It's not about what they can contribute in the future, it's about who they are now.

“They're suffering and they are in poverty [which] is causing a huge amount of unhappiness which requires intervention in the present.

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“We need to change and we need to hear the voices of those in poverty. Some [recommendations are] easy wins like reinstating the living wage champion and supporting initiatives such as 'cash first food first' because they maintain [people's] dignity and they empower people and explicitly address food poverty, rather than just food waste.”

Oxford Mail: Oxford City CouncilOxford City Council

Sue Tanner, who chairs the Oxford and District Action on Child Poverty (ODACP), welcomed the “impressive” report and encouraged councillors to approve it.

She said: “We as a group are very aware already of the city council's existing policies which support households living in poverty and congratulate you all on maintaining them despite budget cuts.

“We welcome the suggestion that you should hear from young people about their experience of living in poverty, there is nothing like a lived experience for informing policy recommendation.

“We also welcome that instead of vouchers, people in need should be given cash wherever possible.

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“Other good suggestions are, for example, working with market traders to make surplus food available to those in need and working with the university colleges to make recreational facilities available to local residents.”

The report was unanimously approved and will next be discussed at the next full cabinet meeting.

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Read more from this author

This story was written by Gee Harland, she joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Wallingford and Didcot.

Get in touch with her by emailing: Gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @Geeharland

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