It's that time of year again: Christmas carollers are on our street corners, shopping centres are open longer and later, and Santa is in annual residency in the High Street shops. For many parents in Austerity Britain however, Christmas will be a time of worry and stress.

Christmas time brings home the difference between the priorities and experiences of rich and poor kids. In Austerity Britain today we know that most families are struggling - both those in the squeezed middle and the low income and disadvantaged and vulnerable families we work with here at

The troubled families programme is a major government initiative and one of its most prominent aims is to tackle problems with truancy and exclusion children of troubled families often have.

As Family Action's new report shows these problems are indicators for more complex problems at home that very...

Are children who don't attend school really troubled as the government would have us believe? Or is there more going on behind closed doors which impacts on their ability to do well in school?

At Family Action we support a very important but often hidden group of children and young...

We know from our work with disadvantaged and vulnerable families that there are certain key pinch points when there is even more pressure that usual on tight family budgets. Family Action's Breaking the Bank series investigates these key moments throughout the year and the problems that families experience as a...

Today sees the launch of UNICEF's Report Card 10: Measuring Child Poverty. I am a great fan of UNICEF's report cards because they have helped push child poverty up the agenda. They really show the difference that governments can make to children and families when they invest in...

Frank Field has hit the headlines again this week talking about how we measure poverty and improve life chances for children.

We agree with his basic premise and his focus on early intervention. Services matter for families and children. That's why we launched our

With the Budget now just days away the families that we work with are waiting with baited breath to see if the Chancellor will throw their finances a lifeline or push them further beneath the waves.

There's been lots of noise from the children and family sector...

The current row about child benefit coming just weeks before the budget on 21 March has again concentrated minds on the impact of austerity and government cuts on family finances.

Family Action this week produced a new report Breaking the Bank: Family Fortunes...

I'm delighted to be blogging for the launch of the new Impact section of the Huffington Post UK - a new part of the site dedicated to charities and campaigns. It's fitting that this launch ties in with Children In Need - another great charity supporting young people.

We...

For many of the disadvantaged and vulnerable families we work with, CPI and RPI are just random abbreviations which they might never have heard of.

They're about to learn to their distress that these abbreviations could have profound impacts on their family finances and their ability to support their...