Challenge Poverty Week 2017

Challenge Poverty Week, led by the Poverty Alliance, is centred around the United Nations International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which takes place on 17th October. 

The main aims of Challenge Poverty Week are to:

• highlight the reality of poverty and challenge the stereotypes that exist about it
• demonstrate what is being done across Scotland to address poverty
• increase public support for more action to combat poverty. 

Poverty is the biggest driver of poor health in our society, and so is central to our work here at the GCPH. We were pleased to be involved with Challenge Poverty Week for another year to turn the spotlight on the wide ranging consequences of poverty and to highlight some of the important work going on to alleviate the effects and improve health and wellbeing. 

Below we have highlighted different aspects of our work specifically focussed on poverty – some statistics describing the extent and distribution of poverty and deprivation research on the changing experience of poverty such as in relation to food, fuel and in-work poverty; and effective ways of working to address poverty. 

Poverty in numbers

Poverty is a complex and dynamic phenomenon that can be defined in many different ways. However, most definitions mention the contribution of a range of inter-related elements such as low income, unemployment, lack of opportunity, social exclusion and deprivation – both relative and absolute. 

Glasgow remains the most deprived city and local authority area in Scotland. Access the data on our Understanding Glasgow website.

Different aspects of poverty

Food poverty

The growth of food banks within the UK has been a very high profile issue over the past few years. This briefing paper from the GoWell research programme provides the first known analysis of a self-reported measure of food bank use in the UK and details the scale of food bank use among residents of Glasgow’s deprived neighbourhoods. It also outlines the experiences of people using them and the perceived stigma attached to them. 

Fuel poverty

This academic article from GoWell discusses fuel poverty, looking at its associated mental health impacts, and goes on to examine whether warmth improvements to people’s homes impact upon their experience of fuel poverty.

In-work poverty

An important new trend we are researching the relationship between poverty and employment has been the increasing rates of 'in-work poverty'. Although the proportion of the population experiencing poverty has been reducing in Scotland in recent years, the percentage of families living in poverty, where at least one family member works, has increased substantially. Our research report on ‘the rise of in-work poverty’ provides an overview of the changing relationship between poverty and work, the rise of in-work poverty and outlines the population health implications. 

Action to address poverty

Alongside our research we collaborate with a range of partners working to tackle and alleviate poverty.  Collaborations have  included the NHS-led Healthier, Wealthier Children project to tackle child poverty through income maximisation, the ‘Cost of the School Day’ initiative that is working with schools to identify poverty-related barriers to learning and participation, and most recently an evaluation of the Deep End Advice Worker pilot project which resulted in positive outcomes for both patients and GPs. 

We contributed to the online conversation on Twitter – follow us @theGCPH and search for relevant content using #CPW17