Poverty help for pregnant women

New help for mums-to-be and a push to find young people with huge sums of unclaimed savings will be among the next moves in the North East’s fight against child poverty, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.

Leaders from across the region gathered in Newcastle on Thursday for a second Child Poverty Summit, aimed at shaping the next steps of a mission to end the crippling deprivation faced by thousands of families.

North East mayor Kim McGuinness told the conference, attended by more than 200 people including former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner at the Newcastle Eagles’ Vertu Motors Arena, that her office would soon be rolling out a new grant scheme to help prevent pregnant women falling into financial hardship during their third trimester.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We know poverty starts for a lot of children before they are even born. The idea that in your last trimester of pregnancy you are faced with not being able to afford the things you need and are looking at other mums who can… that is not the best start for mum or baby.

“Giving a grant in that third trimester means they are not having to ask for help, we are solving that problem and taking the pressure away.”

The mayor said a local programme was also being launched to claim the North East’s share of unclaimed Child Trust Funds.

It comes after the Government announced the creation of a taskforce to reunite more than 750,000 young people with unclaimed accounts worth £2,200 on average, totalling more than £1.6 billion.

Around 6.3 million Child Trust Fund accounts were opened for children born between September 2002 and January 2011, but around £65 million worth of savings remain unclaimed in the North East alone.

Ms McGuinness added: “We know a lot of children out there were gifted a Child Trust Fund from the Government and there is around £65 million of unclaimed money out there – literally in accounts in those children’s names. We are helping them track that down because it is their money. £65 million for our economy can only be a good thing.” 

Ms McGuinness has made ending child poverty in the North East the top priority of her administration since she was elected in 2024.

She told Thursday’s summit that her mayoral authority had handed out more than 3,000 baby boxes, would be extended a childcare grant scheme following an initial trial, and had a target of giving 16,000 families financial and benefits advice.

But she said there were still too many households that simply do not have enough money in the bank. 

Ms Rayner told the LDRS she was proud of Labour’s record on child poverty since coming to power, including through the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap, but that work would need to “continue at speed” as Andy Burnham prepares to take over from Keir Starmer in Downing Street.

The MP added: “I have skin in the game with this because I was one of the kids who needed [support]. I have seen the success of supporting people when they need it most and what it can do to transform people’s lives.

“It is not just about individuals in the North East or those children, this is about the future of our economy and our country. Every child needs to be able to reach their full potential.”

Gemma Chappell, who campaigns for stronger safeguarding laws to protect children, was among the attendees at the summit.

Her great niece, two-year-old Maya Chappell, died after being violently shaken by her mother’s boyfriend at her home in Shotton Colliery in 2022.

Gemma told the LDRS that the event had been a “real eye opener” on the scale of work taking place to combat child poverty.

She added: “I think things are moving in the right direction, [but] Andy Burnham has to keep up with it. He has to keep this going.”