Overview

• Unicef UK’s analysis of all 151 upper-tier authorities found 1.2 million children under five – 35% of that cohort – live in poverty in England.
• The charity will present a 105,000-signature petition to Number 10 on Tuesday, pressing for the two-child benefit cap to be repealed.
• Children in the most deprived areas face 55% higher A&E attendance, nearly double obesity rates and three times the tooth extraction rates by age five compared with affluent communities.
• Local authorities with the highest deprivation levels are more than twice as far from meeting the government’s 75% good-level early development target as the least deprived areas.
• The government has set up a child poverty taskforce, extended free school meals to Universal Credit families and is drafting a wider poverty reduction strategy.