Poverty, Anxiety And Cuts How Government Failings Left A Generation Behind

How austerity and the pandemic have affected childhood, across four key areas of policy:

- Patrick Butler

Child poverty

About 4.2 million children are in relative poverty in the UK, while the number of young people experiencing destitution or extreme poverty - meaning their families cannot afford to clothe them, clean them or keep them warm-has tripled over the past three years.

Rising material hardship has multiple effects: kids going without proper clothes or having to share a bed with siblings. But it also means exclusion - missing out on family outings, holidays and school trips, and social isolation.

Many children's life chances and opportunities have also been dented by the loss, through council cuts, of local public amenities, including hundreds of children's centres, youth clubs, libraries, parks and leisure facilities.

Schools and early years

Accounts of so-called "Covid babies" reaching school age still wearing nappies and unable to use a knife and fork have focused on lockdown's impact on early years development, as well as the shrinking availability of early years services.