Gateshead Tackling Poverty Partnership Statement of Intent

The Gateshead Tackling Poverty Partnership acknowledges that poverty and financial hardship are caused by complex and deep-rooted issues. These issues require a coordinated, collaborative and long-term approach across the public, private and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VSCE) sectors in Gateshead.

Acknowledging the problem

We recognise that financial hardship and poverty are challenges faced by many residents and households in Gateshead.

The Government's measure of the poverty line is when household income is less than 60% of the median UK household income. The median income currently stands at around £42,000 (based on 2023/24 CACI Household income data), and therefore the UK poverty line is around £25,000.

In Gateshead there are 32,899 households (36.6% of all households) with a household income of less than £25,000, and therefore below the poverty line. 74% of these households (24,321/ 27.1% of all households) have an income of less than £20,000 and are in deep poverty. This is when household income is less than 50% of the median income.

We know that there are concentrations of poverty in certain neighbourhoods, and higher levels amongst certain groups of residents. These include those from:

black and minoritised communities
those with disabilities
older people
workless households
larger families and those with children under 5
lone parent families and carers

We also recognise the rural dimension of poverty for some of our communities, especially related to access to services, education and skills development, adequate public transport and transport costs.

We recognise that the experience of people in poverty is multi-dimensional and includes:

Disempowering systems, structures and policies - institutional maltreatment, judgement and disproportional negative impact of policies, services and complex systems.
Financial insecurity, financial exclusion and debt - not being able to meet essential needs. Reliance on benefits and changes to the social security system. Insufficient and insecure income from work, lack of savings, and levels of debt.
Damaged health and wellbeing - poverty is bad for health and can shorten life and healthy life expectancy. It has a negative impact on physical, emotional, mental and social well-being.
Stigma, blame and judgement - misrepresentation about poverty in the UK and a lack of understanding leads to negative judgement, stigma and blame. This is deeply destructive to individuals and families. Prejudice and discrimination result in people in poverty feeling they are treated like lesser human beings.
Lack of control over choices - Poverty means a lack of control over choices and opportunities. Over time this can lead to increased social isolation and risk. This can also restrict people's social, educational and cultural potential. The lack of good options reduces people's control over their lives, and traps people in repetitive cycles of hardship, disappointment and powerlessness.
Unrecognised struggles, skills and contributions - The wealth of experience and life skills people in poverty have is not recognised enough, acknowledged or valued. Often, people experiencing poverty are wrongly presumed to be incompetent. Their contributions to society and their communities whilst facing the daily impacts of poverty are often overlooked.

Poverty is well documented across academia and public health as detrimental to individuals and to our society. It worsens inequalities and increases the risk of diseases such as obesity, hypertension and cardio-vascular disease. Children who are born into poverty are more likely to experience a wide range of health problems. These include poor nutrition, chronic disease, toxic stress, developmental delay and mental health problems.

The well documented stigmatisation of people who experience poverty disempowers them, deprives them of dignity and choice, and forces them to make difficult decisions that can negatively impact their civic participation, health, and relationships. The unrelenting financial struggles cause significant stress and strain on individuals, and impact their ability to achieve a healthy standard of living and fulfil their potential.

People of all ages and walks of life can experience poverty. Many households in Gateshead are just coping, and don't have the security of savings to cushion the impacts of unexpected costs or life events. We need to take action to stop people falling into poverty by addressing the root causes and consequences of poverty, as well as continuing to support people currently in poverty.

Specific goals

Seeking a collaborative approach to tackle poverty, we aim to directly address inequality and disadvantage. We aim to improve people's standard of living, health and wellbeing, increase engagement in services, education and society, and support the local economy.

Purpose of the partnership

We need the partnership to ensure collective ownership and accountability by:

tackling poverty as strategic priority and supported by strong leadership for the long-term
developing a strategy focusing on economic drivers, financial wellbeing and the multi-dimensions of the experience of poverty; an outcomes framework and adaptive action plans that support coordination and collaboration
developing longer term approaches to address the root causes of poverty. Including, but not limited to, increased and improved data collection and sharing, more targeted research, campaigns and lobbying
maintaining and developing existing, and medium-term actions to support people now. These include food provision, access to advice and support, and Warm Welcome spaces
collective messaging, increased participation and lobbying to influence funding programmes, strategies and policies of national government. Regionally, through the North East Combined Authority to fight for a better future for Gateshead

Collaborative approach

The development of the strategy and action plan will be facilitated by Gateshead Council. It will be responding to, and informed by, data and evidence as well as insights and intelligence shared by experts by experience. We will also hear the voices of experts by profession, our strategic partners and the wider Gateshead partnership of VCSE organisations, businesses, education providers and local employers.

Our approach will ensure that:

Tackling poverty is a strategic priority across Gateshead. It is fundamental to delivering Thrive and the Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Strategy. It links to wider local, regional, and national policy drivers. The links between poverty, income, standard of living, education and people's ability to achieve good health, wellbeing and to thrive, are identified and understood across the Gateshead system. Action on poverty is embedded as part of a borough-wide and partnership-driven prevention approach.
Poverty is taken into consideration in all aspects of decision-making, policy development and service design as part of the Health in All Policies approach. This is to tackle existing disadvantage and inequality, avoid further socio-economic and health inequalities, and to address the root causes and drivers of poverty to reduce and prevent it.
We are aligned as far as possible with the activity and policy development occurring at regional and national level around child poverty reduction.

Commitment to action

We recognise we cannot do everything that needs to be done, but as a partnership we will do all we can, and we will do it well.

We will do it not just because it is right, but because it makes financial and economic sense.

As we begin developing our strategic approach, the members of the Gateshead Tackling Poverty Partnership commit to:

organisational leadership and commitment to tackle poverty as a strategic priority - working collaboratively as part of a borough-wide and partnership-driven prevention approach
share information on existing activities, knowledge, insights, data, research and learning on what has and hasn't worked before to address financial hardship - this will feed into a comprehensive Poverty Evidence Base for Gateshead to inform the strategic approach and action plan.
support the engagement of residents, employees, community organisations and faith organisations - this will enable people with lived experience of financial hardship to have their voices heard, to understand what would make a difference for them, and to work with them on devising effective solutions
actively engage in workshops, events, and meetings to bring people and organisations together - this will co-create the strategic framework, agree our priorities, and develop our future actions
align future strategies, work programmes, internal policies and approaches to support the objectives of Gateshead's anti-poverty strategy - to apply a poverty lens to all areas of our work, and to deliver or support the delivery of coordinated and collaborative approaches set out in the Tackling Poverty action plans

The Gateshead Tackling Poverty Partnership will produce a coordinated, collaborative, strategic approach to tackling financial hardship across Gateshead. This will enable long-term and lasting change for our residents, our communities and our economy.