Councillor Rebecca Smith (Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Homes and Communities) presented the report and highlighted –

a)    Plymouth’s Future was launched in July 2022, a delivery plan with a focus on ensuring that everybody living in Plymouth had access to decent education, a well-paid job and a good home, as well as first-class health and care;

b)    Every child in the city should be inspired and get the same chances and opportunities, and where relevant, get the support to break the cycle of poverty;

c)    The Child Poverty Action Plan 2022-25 set out how the Council hoped to achieve the aims with Partners across the city in commercial and voluntary sectors;

d)    It was the culmination of cross-party working via the Cabinet Advisory Group and had been scrutinised, and recommendations acknowledged;

e)    Some of the outcomes and measures would be looked into further by the working group, and results brought in front of Cabinet in the future.

In response to questions it was explained -

f)     The impact of the cost of living crisis was taken into consideration for the action plan and tested with Partners and it was from that, that the Cost of Living Taskforce had come;

g)    There are pillars in the plan designed to break the cycle of poverty for families who had already been experiencing poverty, but the Cost of Living Taskforce would link in to the Child Poverty Working Group;

Cabinet agreed to approve the structure, content and outcomes of the DRAFT Child Poverty Action Plan 2022-25 so that the Cabinet Advisory working Group can continue to strengthen, provide leadership to and challenge, the city’s performance and response to child poverty over the next three years.