Thousands of children are living in poverty
Signup for10k Action plan is launched
The countdown has begun to Hamilton town centre’s 10k race.
Hamilten will be held on Saturday, September 21.
And your Advertiser has teamed up with the organisers, Hamilton Business Improvement District, to make sure that it will be a brilliant day.
The run will begin in the town’s Castle Street and head towards Strathclyde Park.
Hamilten is backed by town centre businesses, South Lanarkshire Council, South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture and Police Scotland — and we want you to grab your trainers and sign up now! We’re aiming to get more than 1000 pairs of feet pounding our streets, so let’s put Hamilton on the sporting map and show off our town in all of its glory.
Log onto www. entrycentral.com and click on ‘Hamilten 10k’. Entry costs £15, or £13 if you are a Scottish Athletics member. Runners must be aged 16 or over on the day of the race.
Shocking new figures reveal that almost 14,000 children are living in poverty across South Lanarkshire.
An action plan has now been unveiled by the council to tackle the situation.
Poverty levels are at 24 per cent in the Hamilton and Blantyre areas, while the figure in Clydesdale is 21 per cent.
The local authority’s report outlines not just the work of South Lanarkshire Council and Lanarkshire Health Board to tackle child poverty, but a comprehensive plan involving the wider Community Planning Partnership.
It brings together South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, Skills Development Scotland and a variety of partners from the voluntary sector.
Councillor Maureen Chalmers, chair of the Community Planning Partnership, said: “A concerted approach, working closely with partners who all bring their own particular resources and fields of expertise, allows us to bring to bear an effective set of measures and, in targeting specific aspects of the problem, it will allow us to make real differences to families’ lives.”
And she added: “We already do a great deal of meaningful work in this field and the Action Plan, and the benefits that each partner brings, will enable this blight on our society to be tackled with even greater vigour.”
With almost 14,000 children in South Lanarkshire – more than one in five in the area – now officially living in poverty, the South Lanarkshire Partnership’s plan will focus on three key priorities which are most likely to put more money in the pockets of low-income families.
It will aim to increase income from employment; reduce the costs of living; and increase income from social security and benefits in kind.
Actions to achieve these include increasing the school clothing grant to £130 per child; supporting families to access free early years/ childcare entitlements; providing benefits and money advice to families to support improved financial wellbeing; and supporting young adults and parents into work that pays fairly .
Neena Mahal, chair of NHS Lanarkshire, said: “Child poverty is increasing and can have a negative and long-lasting impact on children’s health, educational achievement and future life chances.
“NHS Lanarkshire is committed to working with its community planning partners to support families to maximise their income from employment and benefits, both as a large local employer and health service provider.”
A family is considered to be living in relative poverty if their household income is below 60 per cent of the average UK household income (currently £28,400). This means just under 14,000 children in South Lanarkshire are living in families that struggle every day to meet ends meet.
Through the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, the Scottish Government placed a new duty on local authorities and health boards to produce annual Local Child Poverty Action reports from this month onwards.