Poor Kids: Telling it like it is

Today Save the Children releases a new report Telling it like it is, with stories from children about the reality of growing up in poverty in the UK today. It’s been produced alongside a BBC documentary, ‘Poor Kids’, which will be shown on BBC1 at 10.35pm tonight.

Poor housing and cramped living conditions are issues that are frequently raised by the children and young people we work with. Take James, aged nine, who lives in a deprived ward of an inner-London borough.  He lives in a flat with only two bedrooms, and which is home to seven other people. It’s also quite damp.

With so many people living in the flat, James doesn’t have space to play, do his homework or have a good night’s sleep. He feels that if his family had more space he would finally have the privacy he so desperately craves and would have the space to learn and grow up to become a doctor.

Children like James are experts on what it means to be poor and know what things would make a real difference to their lives. Yet too often their voices are left out of debates and discussions about what should be done to end child poverty.

Save the Children is calling on local and national government to place the voices of disadvantaged children at the heart of the drive to end child poverty. The insights of children and the passion they show reinforces our conviction that all children have a valuable contribution to make in all decisions that affect their lives. No child in the UK should have to endure poverty. We know that, with the right support and opportunities, every child can achieve great things.

Telling it like it is was produced alongside a BBC documentary, Poor Kids, which follows the lives of four children hit by poverty. Watch Poor Kids tonight on BBC1 at 10.35pm.