Sheffield’s ‘Tackling Poverty – creating an anti-poverty city’ report’s call to action is clear: “In Sheffield we will not accept things as they are – it's time to act.”
It will be discussed at today’s Sheffield Health and Wellbeing Board, a partnership made up of organisations across the NHS, Voluntary, Community and Higher Education sectors and, South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield City Council.
The report considers the current direction of anti-poverty efforts in the city, emphasises that poverty is not inevitable and recognises that no single body currently holds responsibility for city-wide poverty action.
There is a lot of work to do to bring together our efforts to end poverty across the city. Poverty is bad for everyone. It impacts on levels of trust, mental health, loneliness, imprisonment, and ultimately life expectancy across society, with serious implications for social cohesion.
This work is a long-term journey, and we have much more to do within and across our organisations and sectors. This anti-poverty work is vital, and we must recognise that small actions taken by everyone will make more impact than waiting for someone else to solve poverty.
One of the things we have agreed to do is to experiment with alternative approaches that can hold individual organisations to account on their anti-poverty progress and promote collaboration and innovation on shared priorities, building on the learning and relationships we have in the city.
Greg Fell, Director of Public Health and Integrated Commissioning for Sheffield
The board will be asked to agree to key recommendations to tackle poverty in Sheffield which would see each organisation represented on the board:
- identify a lead for poverty and to explore how current ways of working are making poverty better or worse and how to address this
- commit to listen to people with lived experience of poverty when designing and delivering services
- work together to act on shared priorities to end poverty
The Poverty Truth Commissioners have prioritised actions which include reframing poverty as an issue of economic injustice and in relation to wealth inequality, combating rising in-work poverty by challenging the stigmatisation of low-paid work as 'low skilled', and by campaigning for real living wages, pay equity and maximum wage ratios, and rejecting the stigmatising classification of disabled people and those with unpaid caring responsibilities as ‘economically inactive’.
Whilst it’s widely accepted that there are many reasons why there is poverty both here and up and down the country, and it needs tackling at all levels, as an individual it’s worth remembering that there are ways you can act if you are not already.
You can challenge your employer about what they are doing to be part of ending poverty in Sheffield, join a network of professionals in Sheffield working together to make a difference, speak with your local councillor, connect with your local community or your local area committee. You can bring ideas, ask questions, and make suggestions to the Sheffield Health and Wellbeing Board, which meets four times a year.
Greg Fell
The starting point is imagining a future without poverty and refusing to accept things as they are. The main message really is that we must do what needs to be done together. We will only be successful if we take this approach.
Already there is excellent work taking place in our communities and we must build on that. I would urge people to get involved with the work of the Board, it is there for you to attend and engage with it and we know that doing things together will mean that we do things much better.Councillor Angela Argenzio, Co-Chair of The Sheffield Joint Health and Wellbeing Board
Today’s report provides an update on Sheffield’s ‘Taking Action on Poverty’ summit held in March, which was a response to the Director of Public Health Report 2024 – “Foundations for a Healthy Future: Ending Poverty Together.”