Fighting Child Poverty in European Cities Lessons from Cities for the EU Child Guarantee

Fighting child poverty in European cities Lessons from cities for the EU Child Guarantee December 2020 2 About this study Authors: Bianca Faragau (Eurocities) Solène Molard (Eurocities) Nerea Heras (Eurocities) Titus Carey (Leeds) Franca Locati (Milan) Denis Wiering (Rotterdam) Editors: Titus Carey (Leeds) Lee Gillette (external editor) Designed by: Hearts&Minds, Brussels Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the members of the Eurocities Working Group Children and Young People for their valuable contribution to this publication. About Eurocities: Eurocities is the network of 190 cities in 39 countries, representing 130 million people, working together to ensure a good quality of life for all people. Through joint work, knowledge-sharing and coordinated Europe-wide activity, the network ensures that cities and people are heard in Europe. Square de Meeûs 1, B-1000 Brussels tel +32-2-552.0888 [email protected] eurocities.eu | @Eurocities Funded by: This publication has received financial support from the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI” (2014-2020). For further information, please consult: http://ec.europa.eu/social/easi. The information contained in this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission. Date of publication: December 2020 3 Contents Executive summary 4 Key findings 6 1. Local situation of child poverty 7 1.1 Overview of child poverty in cities 7 1.2 Disparities within cities 7 1.3 Defining and measuring child poverty in cities 8 1.4 Challenges related to local data on child poverty 9 2. Municipal strategies to fight child poverty 10 2.1 Trends in strategic approaches across cities 10 2.2 Place-based approaches 14 2.3 Prevention and early intervention 15 2.4 Child participation 18 2.5 Cooperation with other cities and levels of government 19 3. Main areas of interventions 20 3.1 Access, quality and affordability of childcare and family support services 21 3.2 Nutrition 21 3.3 Mental and physical health 22 3.4 Safe and adequate housing and living environment 22 3.5 Participation in sports, culture and leisure activities 23 4. Targeted support for children in need 24 4.1 Support for children in precarious families 25 4.2 Support for children from a migrant background 26 4.3 Support for children in or coming from institutional care 27 4.4 Support for children with disabilities or special needs 28 5. Budgeting 29 5.1 Funding sources 29 5.2 Budget allocation for child poverty 30 6. Gaps and challenges 33 7. Cities act to mitigate the COVID-19 impact on children 35 8. Conclusions and recommendations 37 Policy recommendations for the EU Child Guarantee 40 Annex 41 Inspiring practices from cities on reducing child poverty 4 © City of Ljubljana, archive kindergarten Pedenjped Executive Summary Cities play a key role in breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and ensuring equal opportunities for all children. As the COVID-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on children, disrupting their schooling and affecting their well-being, social contacts and even their nutrition, cities have stepped up their actions to support children and their families. Yet, child poverty is on the rise, hitting the poorest hardest. Eurocities conducted a survey to map the situation of child poverty in cities across Europe. Many cities already deliver comprehensive strategies to prevent and mitigate child poverty at local level. However, we found that cities’ efforts are not always recognised or supported at national and EU levels. Cities are investing many resources from their municipal budgets in child and family services and integrating those with other municipal services such as healthcare, housing, employment and social services, but due to the increasing levels of child poverty and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children, these resources are no longer sufficient and need to be complemented by higher social investments in children from national and EU budgets. This research forms part of Eurocities’ broader initiative ‘Inclusive Cities for All’,1 which helps cities deliver the European Pillar of Social Rights at local level. This is the fourth survey conducted by Eurocities, following surveys in 2018 and 2019, which collected evidence from cities on policies relating to the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights. This time the focus of the survey was on principle 11 on childcare and support for children.2 Our aim was to understand what cities are doing to protect children from poverty, what specific measures they put in place to enhance equal opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and what more needs to be done to eradicate child poverty in our cities and in Europe. 1 www.inclusivecities4all.eu. 2 European Pillar of Social Rights principle 11 states, “a. Children have the right to affordable early childhood education and care of good quality. b. Children have the right to protection from poverty. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds have the right to specific measures to enhance equal opportunities” (bit.ly/3ozVoR3). 5 Oulu Tampere Espoo Glasgow Stockholm Gothenburg Riga Leeds Malmo Bristol Hamburg Vilnius Amsterdam Berlin Rotterdam Ghent Utrecht Poznan Dusseldorf Warsaw Brussels Leipzig Frankfurt Brno Vienna Lyon Milan Ljubljana Braga Toulouse Zagreb Porto Rubi Madrid Barcelona Thessaloniki The report covers 35 cities3 in 18 European countries governing over 30 million people. The evidence was gathered directly from city authorities and their relevant administrative departments. The responses were integrated into a comparative analysis to identify trends and map inspiring practices. This report presents the findings on how cities are fighting child poverty. It provides: An overview of the local situation of child poverty in cities in Europe Strategic city approaches to reduce child poverty and targeted measures to support those most in need Good practices of city initiatives including measures to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children Common challenges and gaps in service provision Policy recommendations for the EU Child Guarantee The findings from this report serve as valuable inputs from cities to inform the development and delivery of the EU Child Guarantee to address the real needs of children at local level. 3 Data collected over July - September 2020 in: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Braga, Bristol, Brno, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Espoo, Frankfurt, Ghent, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Leeds, Leipzig, Ljubljana, Lyon, Madrid, Malmo, Milan, Oulu, Porto, Poznan, Riga, Rotterdam, Rubi, Stockholm, Tampere, Thessaloniki, Toulouse, Utrecht, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw and Zagreb. 6 Key findings © KiBue, Jochen Guenther Child poverty in most cities is higher than the national average in Promoting healthy development of children through outreach the given country. Children and their families face specific urban measures such as vaccination programmes, accessible challenges that increase their risk of poverty, such as higher primary care for all children and providing healthy nutrition living costs in cities and lack of affordable housing. (free school lunches) to combat child obesity. Child poverty has a strong territorial dimension. Data from Integrating services (e.g. education, childcare, healthcare and cities show that children living in the most deprived urban welfare services) in a coordinated approach and adapting them areas are at three to ten times higher risk of poverty, as they to meet the specific challenges of families in the local area (e.g. often accumulate multiple risk factors, such as poor housing, flexible childcare hours for parents who work night shifts) . inequality of opportunities, risk of discrimination, violence, and unequal access to services such as childcare, healthcare and Coordinating local partnerships with the private and volunteer education. Tackling this requires a place-based approach that sector to maximise resources. targets deprived areas with a focus on prevention and early intervention and holistic support to families in need. Promoting the right to social and cultural self-development by organising accessible forms of participation and co-creation Many cities already carry out an integrated local strategy to with children, and ensuring their voices are heard. reduce child poverty. They often combine a systemic approach of support to families with targeted measures to tackle the Piloting new approaches to detect children at risk of poverty specific needs of children from particularly vulnerable groups and prevent it, and policy innovations for ‘child proofing’ all (single-parent families, migrants, Roma, special needs). In doing policies that impact children and establishing ‘child friendly’ so, many cities have set up child or youth councils or other budgets. similar participation structures to ensure children’s voices are heard in the policies and decisions that affect them. Fighting child poverty is a priority for many city councils. This is highlighted by the considerable investment that cities make Cities play a crucial role in fighting child poverty and breaking in child poverty prevention and mitigation measures. To date, the cycle of inequality by: 18 cities – nearly a third of all cities that signed pledges to the European Pillar of Social Rights – committed together over Ensuring the right to education and childcare by strengthening €6 billion to reinforce childcare services and provide specific the accessibility and increasing the availability and quality of

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