A national statistic is not a local programme brief. Before a club, sponsor or retailer commits to any hunger-focused initiative, the first job is establishing what the evidence actually shows in that specific catchment, and current, named local data exists to do exactly that, without relying on unverified numbers from an older report.
National averages are not a local programme brief
The previous guide in this series set out the current UK-wide picture: 4.0 million children in relative poverty after housing costs, and 2.0 million children (14%) in food-insecure households, both for 2024/25. Both are national averages. The regional and local spread beneath them is genuinely wide, and launching a public campaign on the assumption that your specific area matches the national picture, rather than checking, is a real reputational risk if a journalist or local councillor looks into it and finds it doesn't.
The regional picture, checked at source
England's regional child poverty rates are not evenly spread. In the most recent release (FYE 2025, published March 2026), London recorded the highest regional child poverty rate, with the West Midlands and North West both at 32% and the North East at 30% (Save the Children UK, first-release commentary on DWP's FYE 2025 data). Scotland has followed a markedly different path: child poverty there has fallen from around 25% to 21% since 2019, a trend widely attributed to the Scottish Child Payment (Action for Children).
Named local-authority figures, not modelled estimates
Below the regional level, DWP's own local-authority child poverty data (most recently available for 2023/24) gives a genuinely current, named picture rather than a modelled percentage from an older third-party report. The local authorities with the highest recorded rates that year included Pendle (44.6%), Bradford (44.2%), Oldham (42.9%), Birmingham (41.7%), Blackburn with Darwen (41.6%) and Manchester (40.7%) (The Health Foundation, citing DWP local authority data). A separate, slightly older analysis (2022/23, from the Resolution Foundation's "Uneven Ground" report) put child poverty in Birmingham, Sandwell, Wolverhampton and Walsall at 46–48%, and identified a "very strong relationship" between an area's child poverty rate and the share of its children affected by the two-child benefit limit (BBC, reporting the Resolution Foundation), a policy that, as covered in the national evidence guide, is being removed from April 2026.
These are real, sourced, local-authority-level figures, worth using precisely because they trace to DWP's own published data, unlike constituency-level percentages circulating in some older reports that this cluster deliberately avoids repeating without independent verification.
Why boundaries matter
Local authority, constituency, ward and a football club's actual supporter catchment are four different geographic units, and they rarely line up neatly. A club's commercial catchment (season-ticket postcodes, retail delivery area) may span several local authorities with genuinely different poverty profiles, a club based in a relatively lower-poverty authority might still draw a meaningful share of its support from a neighbouring authority with a rate well above the regional average. Quoting a single local-authority figure as if it described "the club's community" can misrepresent the actual mix of need across a real catchment. Where possible, look at the range across the relevant local authorities or wards rather than a single headline number.
A practical five-step local-needs assessment
- Define the geography precisely. Decide whether you're assessing a local authority, a set of wards, or a genuine supporter/customer catchment, and be explicit about which one any published figure will describe.
- Pull current DWP local-authority data for that geography, alongside school-level free school meal eligibility data where a finer grain is useful, checking the publication date and reference period against today.
- Cross-check against a second source. Local authority public health or poverty needs assessments, where published, often triangulate income data with food-bank referral data for the same area.
- Talk to a local delivery partner before finalising the number you'll publish. Organisations already working in the area, school family support teams, local food-redistribution charities, council early-help services, often have a more current, on-the-ground read than any published dataset, and are essential to assessing genuine delivery capacity.
- Write down the definition, geography and reference period alongside any figure you plan to publish, so it can be checked and defended later.
How to select and validate a local delivery partner
A credible partner should be able to name the schools, community centres or family hubs they already work with in the target area, describe how they source and store food, particularly fresh produce, which has tighter logistics than tinned goods, and provide a realistic estimate of delivery capacity and lead time. This is also where a hyperlocal sourcing model matters practically, not just conceptually: a delivery partner sourcing surplus and near-date fresh produce from suppliers within the actual local area keeps both the unit cost of each outcome low and the delivery genuinely traceable to named local recipients, rather than funding being pooled and spent somewhere the club's own supporters have no connection to. Ask for a reference from an existing partner club, sponsor or funder if this is the delivery partner's first sports partnership.
Where Zenko fits
Zenko's role at this stage is connecting a defined supporter action, a shirt purchase, a specific retail transaction, to an outcome that's already been evidenced as locally needed, through Shop for Good. Because Zenko's model is built around a named local delivery partner in the club's or brand's own geography, it's designed to keep both the cost per outcome low and the result verifiable at the level of named local hubs, which is exactly the kind of specificity a proper local-needs assessment, done first, makes credible.
FAQs
Can I just use the national child poverty figure for my local campaign? No. National figures describe the UK or England average and can be significantly higher or lower than any specific local area, the regional range alone runs from Scotland's 21% to London, the West Midlands and North West all around 32% or higher. Use current local-authority data from DWP for the specific geography you're addressing.
Which local authorities currently have the highest recorded child poverty rates? Based on DWP's 2023/24 local-authority data, Pendle (44.6%), Bradford (44.2%), Oldham (42.9%), Birmingham (41.7%), Blackburn with Darwen (41.6%) and Manchester (40.7%) were among the highest. Always check the current release before publishing, since these figures update periodically.
What's the difference between a local authority, a constituency and a club catchment? A local authority is an administrative council area; a constituency is a parliamentary boundary; a club catchment is whatever geography the club itself defines (season ticket postcodes, delivery area, membership base). They frequently don't align, so a single percentage from one boundary type shouldn't be presented as describing another.
Why does hyperlocal sourcing matter for a food programme, not just where the money comes from? Because unit cost and traceability both depend on it. A delivery partner sourcing surplus or near-date produce from suppliers in the same area the campaign is funded for can typically deliver each outcome more cheaply than routing funding through a longer, more generic supply chain, and the result stays verifiable down to a named local hub, rather than becoming an abstract global total.
Sources used
- DWP, Households Below Average Income, FYE 1995 to FYE 2025
- Save the Children UK, New data shows 4m children in poverty
- The Health Foundation, Map of child poverty
- BBC, West Midlands one of worst regions for child poverty
- Action for Children, Where is child poverty increasing in the UK?
Next step: once you understand your local evidence, see why football clubs specifically are well placed to act on it.