Targeted support, real impact: Neath Port Talbot’s year of action on child poverty

Neath Port Talbot faces some of the highest levels of deprivation in Wales and the wider UK, a challenge that has been intensified by recent economic change. The closure of the final blast furnace at the Tata Steel site in Port Talbot in 2024 led to the loss of more than 2,000 jobs, with a significant number of affected workers living locally. As a result, unemployment has risen from 3% to 3.7%, while 23.4% of residents are now economically inactive.

Child poverty is a particularly urgent issue in the borough. Currently, 24.5% of children in Neath Port Talbot are living in relative poverty, significantly higher than the national average of 18.9%. These pressures have created an increasing need for targeted, preventative support to help families meet the cost of living, stay connected to essential services, and give children the best possible start in life.

Neath Port Talbot chose to use the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) to gain a clear, data-led view of which households were likely to be eligible for support but not yet claiming it. LIFT enables the council to analyse benefit entitlement data at a household level and to design highly targeted campaigns aimed at increasing take-up and improving financial stability.

By using LIFT, the council is able to move beyond relying on self-referrals or general communications and instead proactively identify and contact families who are most likely to benefit from support. This approach closely aligns with the council’s Early Years Children and Young People’s Plan and the Public Services Board’s Cost of Living and Poverty Prevention Partnership Action Plan, helping to ensure that resources are directed where they will have the greatest impact.

Through the use of LIFT, Neath Port Talbot has delivered a series of targeted campaigns focused on key areas of family support, including the Schools Essential Grant, the Childcare Offer for Wales, and NHS Healthy Start.

Schools Essential Grant

LIFT was used to identify children in households who were eligible for free school meals and therefore likely to qualify for the Schools Essential Grant. Working closely with child and family support teams, the council refined this list to remove households that had already applied and ran a small targeted pilot campaign, writing to those who appeared eligible but not yet claiming. Within just one week, the pilot campaign generated a response rate of over 40%, demonstrating the strong impact of data-led outreach. A second follow-up letter is planned to further increase take-up.

Childcare Offer for Wales

Using LIFT, the council identified 26 households that may qualify for the Welsh Government’s childcare offer, which provides up to 30 hours of funded childcare for eligible 3- and 4-year-olds. Although outcomes are held within Welsh Government systems, the local Family Information Service reported an increase in enquiries outside of typical application windows, indicating that the LIFT-driven activity is helping to raise awareness and prompt engagement.

NHS Healthy Start

LIFT identified 701 households in Neath Port Talbot who could benefit from the Healthy Start scheme. Learning from best practice in Newport, the council collaborated with the NHS communications teams to develop a compliant campaign letter supported by a QR code to track engagement. In the four weeks following the campaign launch, 56 QR code interactions were recorded. Public data also showed participation rising from an average of around 1,080 households per month to 1,105 in the first month and 1,118 in the second month after the campaign began.

Together, these campaigns show how LIFT is enabling Neath Port Talbot to move from broad messaging to precise, targeted engagement that connects families to the support they need.

The council’s ability to build on the success of ongoing Pension Credit work with preventative interventions to tackle child poverty at scale. By using LIFT to identify households eligible for support across multiple schemes, Neath Port Talbot has been able to reach hundreds of children and families who may otherwise have missed out on vital financial help.

The Schools Essential Grant campaign, in particular, demonstrated the power of this approach. By combining LIFT data with local intelligence and family support services, the council was able to rapidly refine eligibility, target the right households, and achieve a strong response within days. Similarly, the Healthy Start and childcare campaigns show how LIFT is enabling ongoing learning and refinement of outreach methods to maximise impact.

Looking ahead, the council will continue to build on this work with further Schools Essential Grant activity, a refreshed Healthy Start postcard campaign, and a new Education Maintenance Allowance campaign developed in partnership with EMA Wales. This is alongside pioneering plans to use the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Tracker (MAST) to further support residents. These next steps reflect a long-term commitment to reducing child poverty, strengthening family resilience, and ensuring no eligible household is left unaware of the support available to them.