Hungry to Learn, Waiting to Smile: Cornwall’s Challenge for Children
Hungry to Learn, Waiting to Smile: Cornwall’s Challenge for Children
Teachers across Cornwall are telling me the same story: children are arriving at school hungry, tired or in pain because their families simply can’t get the support they need.
That’s why the Report on Child Poverty in Cornwall matters so much. Launched during Challenge Poverty Week this month, it’s written by Cornwall Council’s Director of Public Health and his team, and exposes the reality that too many families live with every day. In some Cornish communities as many as three in ten children are growing up in poverty. Behind those figures are parents doing their best, juggling work, childcare and rising costs.
But the report isn’t only a bundle of stark statistics. It’s a call to action, and a challenge to all of us to take practical steps to improve life chances for our children. As the Cabinet member with responsibility for Cornwall’s Children, Families and Schools, I’m pleased that Cabinet has decided to introduce auto-enrolment for Free School Meals.
Right now, nearly a quarter of Cornwall’s pupils qualify for Free School Meals, but around 11% don’t receive them. Auto-enrolment will close that gap. It will cost Cornwall Council around £111,000 a year to manage the systems, but in the first year alone we expect it will unlock as much as £2.9 million in additional central government funding for Cornwall’s children and schools. As Ed Davey said in his recent Liberal Democrat conference speech, government should remove barriers, not entrench them — and auto-enrolment does exactly that.
From the classroom to the dentist’s chair, the challenges are connected. Whether it’s a healthy meal or a routine check-up at the dentist, too many children are missing out on basic services that should be available to all. Just a week before the Child Poverty Report was launched, I was in County Hall debating another report with shocking data: the Healthwatch Cornwall report on dentistry. It found that only around half of Cornwall’s children had seen an NHS dentist in the past year, which is well below the national average. Some children at primary school have never seen a dentist at all.
At Cornwall Council, we’re working to expand oral health programmes so that more children receive early prevention, but only national government can change the framework that holds dentistry back. We need government to introduce flexible, child-focused dental contracts that prioritise children who have never had an NHS appointment, and to ensure dentists are properly rewarded for preventative work as well as treatment. Healthy teeth shouldn’t depend on geography or income.
The truth is that a hungry child can’t concentrate, and a child in pain can’t learn. Challenge Poverty Week and these two reports are reminders that reducing inequality takes sustained effort, clear evidence and political will. It needs focus, not rhetoric, and my priority is to keep that focus sharp until no child’s opportunities are limited by the size of their parents’ payslip or the length of a waiting list.
