Addressing poverty: can social work go back to its roots?

Addressing poverty: can social work go back to its roots?

Since 2020, the UK has seen a steady rise in poverty among children. By 2023-24, 4.5m children (or 31%) were in relative poverty, meaning their household’s income was below 60% of the national average after housing costs, up from 3.9m in 2020-21. There is also a well-established link between family poverty and contact with children’s services. This was reflected in a recent Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) research, which f…