Child Poverty
Baroness Nargund Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Nargund (Lab)
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my noble friend Lord Babudu, and I am very grateful to my noble friend Lady Lister for securing this very important debate.
I want to focus my remarks on what I know best: health. Child poverty is not simply a social issue; it is a public health crisis. Unless we address it, we will continue to pay the price for decades to come in poorer health, greater inequality and rising demands on our NHS.
As we have already heard, 31% of children in the UK are living in relative poverty after housing costs. In a classroom of 30 children, that is 10 children whose future health is already being shaped not by their talents, aspirations or potential but by the circumstances into which they were born.
Indeed, the impact of poverty on health begins even before birth. As a doctor, I find the evidence compelling. We know that the intrauterine environment plays a profound role in determining future health. The pioneering work of Professor David Barker of Southampton demonstrated that poor nutrition and deprivation during pregnancy can programme the developing foetus in ways that increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and hypertension in adult life. In other words, poverty leaves a biological imprint before a child has even taken their first breath.
In fact, the first chapter of a child’s health story is written before conception, through the physical and metabolic health of parents. Children born into poverty are more likely to be born with low birth weight. They are less likely to survive their first year of life. As they grow, they face higher rates of asthma, chronic illness, developmental delay and poor mental health. Nearly one in five children are not meeting their expected developmental milestones by the age of two. These outcomes are not inevitable. They are preventable, because they are the predicted consequences of deprivation.
What is striking, both from clinical practice and evidence, is how clearly the pathway runs from wealth to health. When families have sufficient resources, children are healthier. When families are poor, children are sicker. Poverty and ill health reinforce one another. It is a vicious cycle.
The mechanisms are well understood. Housing sits at the top of the list. New data reveals that 104 children in England died between April 2019 and December 2024 with temporary accommodation identified as a contributing factor to their ill health or death, and 76 of those children were under the age of one. These are not simply housing statistics; they are the conditions in which children’s brains and bodies are developing.
I therefore welcome the Government’s commitment to tackling child poverty with their strategy, focusing on economic growth, the expansion of free school meals and breakfast provision, Best Start family hubs, and measures to increase the supply of social housing.
The forthcoming 10-year health plan presents an important opportunity to narrow health inequalities. Community health hubs could become a cornerstone of prevention. But they must be properly staffed, accessible, and equipped not only to diagnose illness but to support well-being, early intervention and family resilience, and they must take the needs of local communities into account.
If we truly wish to build a healthier nation, we must recognise a simple truth: child poverty today becomes adult illness tomorrow. Every child growing up in poverty represents not only a failure of opportunity but a future health inequality waiting to happen. The most effective preventive medicine we can offer is not found in a hospital or clinic, or on a prescription. It is ensuring that every child has enough food to eat, a warm home to live in, and the opportunity to thrive.
Tackling child poverty is not only a moral imperative; it is one of the most powerful health interventions available to us. If today’s child poverty is tomorrow’s adult illness, tackling poverty is one of the most powerful forms of prevention. I therefore ask my noble friend the Minister to urge the Government to place that principle at the heart of their strategy and to work with DHSC.
Welfare Reforms and Youth Unemployment
Baroness Nargund Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Nargund (Lab)
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Evans, for securing this very important debate. I also thank our Government for commissioning the Milburn report. I declare my interest as a former trustee and vice-chair of the British Red Cross.
We face a profound challenge. NEET is not simply a jobs crisis; it is in fact a health crisis with a job problem. Some 44 % of NEET young people report a work-limiting health condition, 24% cite depression and anxiety, and 70% report loneliness.
The review shows these problems often begin long before young people become NEET. Reduced socialisation, weaker support networks and the pandemic have left many young people less confident, less connected and more isolated. We have not got a jobs gap: in my view, we have a jobs readiness gap. Over half of 18 to 24 year-olds say they do not feel prepared when leaving education, despite 84% of NEET young people saying they want a job, education or training.
We need to bridge the gap between education and employment. That is why volunteering matters. Throughout my years in the voluntary sector, which has been decades, including at the British Red Cross, I have seen first-hand how volunteering transforms lives. I know it from my own personal experience: I have been a volunteer and I have spoken to thousands of volunteers across our country. The evidence is compelling. Research shows that one-third of volunteers aged 16 to 19 said volunteering helped them secure their first job. Some 84% of young volunteers report gaining skills and confidence, while 77% say it reduces their feelings of isolation and loneliness.
This matters because poor mental health and unemployment reinforce one another. Volunteering tackles both. It helps young people develop the skills and qualities employers value: reliability, responsibility, communication, resilience and problem-solving. It also provides structure, experience and purpose. Yet, too few young people volunteer. Schools and universities should work with the local voluntary sector so that volunteering becomes part of their education. Jobcentres should actively promote volunteering pathways, backed by the Government’s right to try guarantee, so participation does not risk benefit reassessment.
Without these actions, one in six young people could be NEET by 2030. That is something we cannot afford, economically or socially. As such, I welcome our Government’s youth jobs grant and other initiatives when it comes to hiring apprentices, several of which the DWP has come up with. In fact, it proactively came up with these policies before the Milburn report was published, in order to support NEET young people. If we are serious about tackling youth economic inactivity in our country and getting young people back into work, we must stop seeing volunteering as an optional extra but as a practical, proven tool for tackling youth inactivity, and start recognising it as a vital pathway into work.
For many young people, volunteering is not simply something good to do; it is the bridge to a better future. I ask my noble friend the Minister whether volunteering could be placed at the heart of the strategy for supporting young people into employment and opportunities. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.
Health-related Benefits Assessments
Baroness Nargund Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Sherlock (Lab)
These were long-term contracts and were signed only in late 2023 and took effect shortly after, but we are not simply taking that as meaning that we cannot do anything. We are in close negotiations with all the contractors to look at how we can drive up the proportion of face-to-face assessments. It will take time because, having started with so many being home-based, we have to make sure we can get the numbers back up in time. There are limited numbers and assessors have to be either a registered doctor, a nurse, an occupational therapist or a physiotherapist; they have to be trained in disability assessment medicine; and they have to engage in continuous professional development. We need to make sure they are properly qualified to make those assessments, but we are working to get the numbers up as fast as we can.
Baroness Nargund (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for reassuring us that face-to-face appointments will be increased with trained professionals. I welcome the DWP initiative to reform the fit note system. There are millions of women who are absent from work due to women’s health problems and nearly 60,000 women are leaving work every year due to menopausal symptoms. What conversations has my noble friend the Minister had to ensure workplace adjustments will be made to get these women back to work or into new employment?