As pupils return to schools for the new academic year, we look at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on children in West Devon and across the UK.

This story is the first of a three-part series, looking at children in poverty. It will be followed by pieces investigating children's health and development, and children's performance in education, all of which have deteriorated nationally following the pandemic.

Children in poverty

A report from several charities said children are being failed in "dual crises of poverty and mental health", adding poverty is a "critical risk factor" that has surged in recent years.

Latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show a record number of children across the UK lived in households earning less than 60% of the median income in 2022-23.

Some 2.5 million children now live in relative low-income households before housing costs, up from 2.3 million in 2018-19, before the coronavirus pandemic.

This includes 1,613 children in West Devon, equivalent to 18.5% of under-18s in the area – up from 15.4% in 2018-19, and the highest figure since comparable records began in 2014-15.

Meanwhile, further figures from the Office for National Statistics show 79,611 children in the South West lived in a long-term workless household in 2022, equivalent to 7.5% of young people.

The report, from the Centre for Mental Health, Save the Children UK and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, called on Labour to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.

Several Labour MPs have criticised the cap, calling for it to be scrapped, but Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has resisted pressure to do so.

Rosie Duffield described the limit as a "heinous piece of legislation", while John McDonnell called the policy an "attack on the poorest" and said his party should plan to abolish it within weeks.

But Sir Keir said there is no "silver bullet" and there was a "complicated set of factors" including pay, benefits, work, housing, education and health at play.

Priya Edwards, policy and advocacy adviser at Save the Children UK, said: "A childhood blighted by poverty and poor mental health leads to dreadful outcomes for young people that sadly impacts them for the rest of their life.

"Families deserve better than constant anxiety about making ends meet."

Children facing homelessness

Meanwhile, separate figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show a record number of homeless children across England were living in temporary accommodation as of the end of March.

The number of children housed in temporary accommodation such as hotels and bed and breakfasts has risen by 17% since 2020, surpassing 150,000 and reaching the highest figure since records began in 2004.

This includes seven in West Devon.

The areas with the highest rates of children living in temporary accommodation are mostly in London, with some areas seeing more one in 20 children living in short-term housing.

Labour described the homelessness crisis as a "national scandal", while Big Issue founder and crossbench peer Lord Bird, who has spoken out about his experience of growing up in poverty, described the latest figures as "appalling".

He warned "another winter looms and there’s little being done to turn this terrible tide".

The figures also show seven households with children in West Devon were assessed as needing a prevention duty in the three months to March, with a further seven assessed as needing a relief duty.

A prevention duty must be issued if the household has been threatened with homelessness and is eligible for local council support, while a relief duty is needed when the applicant is already homeless.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "This Government inherited a housing crisis which has left families stuck living in temporary accommodation, and we know this is having a knock-on effect of increasing pressure on council finances.

"We have laid out clear plans in the short and long-term about how we will deliver our target of 1.5 million homes.

"We will prevent homelessness before it occurs by banning Section 21 evictions, and deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.

"We will also give councils more stability through multi-year funding settlements."