Programme summary

Poverty eradication is low down the public’s agenda for government and community action. Public support is necessary to ensure and sustain government and others’ action to address poverty. There is limited understanding of the links between attitudes and what works to build support and engagement. People with experience of poverty are not always included in poverty-related debates. Effective communication will need their input.

There are now opportunities to bring more people into debate about how to address UK poverty. For instance, all main political parties have committed to child poverty eradication targets and this has been reflected in some increased media coverage of child poverty and discussion of it in public arenas. Opportunities exist also at local and regional levels.

JRF will:

• Promote more in-depth knowledge and analysis of attitudes to poverty amongst key communicators and decision-makers. This includes commissioning research into public attitudes to poverty and related subjects such as economic inequality. Research has been commissioned also on media coverage of poverty and its impact on public understanding. JRF also facilitates discussion on the implications of the findings of the research for practical action;
• Develop practical solutions eg support the Society of Editors and Media Trust to develop a resource for journalists on reporting poverty; work with Children in Need to develop new ways to tell the story of children in the UK living in poverty and to share this learning with journalists and broadcasters;
• Broaden the range of groups involved in poverty eradication debate eg bring together groups working on related areas such as human rights, international poverty reduction with anti-poverty communicators in the UK. This also facilitates learning about effective communication from other areas.
• Ensure that people communicating poverty understand the importance of involving people with experience of poverty and know how to do it in a sensitive way eg JRF is working with UK Coalition Against Poverty to explore the views of people on low incomes on how poverty can and should be talked about in public arenas.

Publications

The following reports are relevant to this programme:

• Is Poverty in the UK a denial of people's human rights?
• Understanding attitudes to poverty in the UK: getting the public's attention
• Attitudes to poverty: Findings from the British Social Attitudes survey
• Public attitudes to economic inequality

Contact details

Teresa Hanley: Manager, Public Interest in Poverty Issues

Tel: 020 7263 8841

Email: teresa_hanley@dsl.pipex.com