In a revelation that will shock absolutely no one who has ever met a child, a furniture bank has confirmed that some children are sleeping on floors, piles of clothes, and other makeshift beds. Peterborough-based Care Zone, which operates a warehouse on the edge of the city, plans to spend £80,000 this year on beds and mattresses for local families, because apparently in 2025, 'a bed' is a luxury item.
Ashley Wilcox from Care Zone put it bluntly: 'Many children are sleeping on a pile of clothes, or maybe just on the hard floor. That's not good enough.' A bold stance, but one we can get behind. Peterborough City Council, for its part, said it is working with local charities to reach as many families in crisis as possible, which is nice, but the fact that this needs to be said at all is a bit of a downer.
Care Zone is part of the council's crisis resilience fund, a network that helps people with food parcels, advice, and other services. Its volunteers clean and repair donated furniture and household goods, handing out more than 3,500 larger items last year and 425 smaller items, such as saucepans and tin openers. Because nothing says 'we care' like a gently used tin opener.
Of the 1,900 people who used Care Zone last year, about 845 were children. The warehouse is now piled high with brand new mattresses, which is either heartwarming or a damning indictment of the times, depending on your perspective. Wilcox described families in temporary accommodation: 'There might be a family of five in one single room sharing a few beds, sleeping on the floor, nowhere to cook.' Sounds like a nightmare, but for them it's Tuesday.
Tackling 'bed poverty' is a priority because of its impact on education. Wilcox explained, 'For children in particular, a good night's sleep is really essential. By giving them a bed, they have a much better chance at doing better in school.' Who knew that not sleeping on a pile of laundry could improve academic performance? Next they'll tell us water is wet.
Anyone can donate items to Care Zone, and people get referred through organisations like the council or their GP. Esther Baffa-Isaacs, from the council's poverty prevention team, said there is 'much more we can do' to reach people in crisis. The authority recently wrote letters to 3,200 households identified as being in a 'crisis state' to check they were claiming the correct benefits and knew where to find support. 'That was what it came down to, just saying, 'you have help',' she said. A study by Policy in Practice found Peterborough residents were missing out on £92m from unclaimed benefits - which is a lot of zeroes, even for a city.
Baffa-Isaacs called bed poverty 'significant' and said the authority is 'very keen to do more.' About one-third of children in Peterborough are thought to be living in poverty, according to 2024-2025 data from the Department for Work and Pensions, compared with a UK average of 26%. So Peterborough is beating the national average in all the wrong ways.
Zameer Ali, the council's cabinet member for communities and public safety, said the authority is 'doing everything' to reach people, but language barriers can be a problem. They want information to be easy to understand, especially when a parent might rely on their child to translate. Ali's message to residents: 'We don't want you to go without and we certainly do not want you or your children to fall into any form of hardship. What you need to do is reach back to us and say 'I need help'.' Sound advice, even if it feels a bit like telling someone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they don't have boots.
In related news, shopkeepers say a £3m upgrade hasn't improved their street, villagers are delighted that 3,000 homes were removed from a plan, and there's been a fire at Holme Fen. But let's focus on the kids sleeping on piles of clothes, shall we?