Conclusion
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Perpetuating povertyism is therefore about a lack of knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the impact of poverty on children and families. It is, in short, a poverty-blind approach.
Such a high proportion of the families using children's social care services are poor that poverty can be seen as the 'norm'. Whilst many families are very resilient when living with adversity, practitioners can become desensitised to the way that poverty can undermine some families' capacity to cope on many different levels.
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However, it is more than simply not recognising the impact of poverty on family life. 'Povertyism' means that workers don't consider the implications of their, and their agency's, actions on people's self-esteem - all too often families report being treated without respect, judged on the basis of stereotypes and misinformation, being made to feel grateful for services, and that 'beggars can't be choosers'.
We would like to leave you with a final message from a family member:
'Because most often, people are wage earners, they can afford to live away from deprived areas they have their choices and they have no comprehension or inclination of the pressure mentally and emotionally and the strain to survive on poverty and what it means in real terms to us and to not just, and to bear that in mind not to judge people by stress, anger or mental anguish as aggressive because people just want to be heard and respected and we've got no power to get like that if they are lucky enough to have choices where they live and their wages, please remember that they are lucky and not all of us are that lucky.'
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If you would like to learn more about this area, please visit SCIE's other poverty e-learning resources in the e-learning section of the SCIE web site. http://www.scie.org.uk