As an amber cold-health alert sweeps across England, a stark new study reveals the chilling reality for hundreds of thousands of British families: the struggle to provide basic winter warmth for their children.
A Teenager's Chilling Reality
Seventeen-year-old Scarlet from Plymouth knows this struggle intimately. She lives with her siblings and parents, her mother is disabled and her father acts as a full-time carer. Scarlet shared her poignant memories of facing the cold. "I remember going to school in a thin cardigan shivering," she recalled. For her family, a new winter coat is an annual financial hurdle.
"Every year it's an issue that we don't have winter coats - because we grow, because we're young, and because we don't have many, they get worn constantly, so they get worn out," Scarlet explained. The situation forces reliance on second-hand sources. "The last few years we've had coats from charity shops. We've had loads of hand-me-downs from my older sister."
The consequence of this cycle is a gradual deterioration in the clothing's condition. "My younger sister gets all my hand-me-downs. They get tattier and tattier as they get handed down," she added.
The Wider National Crisis
Scarlet's experience is far from isolated. Research conducted by YouGov for the children's charity Barnardo's paints a worrying national picture. The polling found that one in seven parents in the UK (15%) say they will struggle to buy warm clothing for their children this winter.
This statistic suggests that approximately 300,000 children in the UK could be without a proper winter coat. The survey, which polled 1,132 parents and 1,016 children at the end of October, also found that one in 50 children (2%) aged six to 15 directly report not having a winter coat at all.
Furthermore, the data shows that the problem extends beyond outright lack, with around one in eight children (12%) who do have a coat worrying that it won't keep them warm during the colder months.
Beyond Clothing: A Multifaceted Struggle
For families like Scarlet's, the challenge of staying warm is not limited to outdoor clothing. She described a difficult situation at home, exacerbated by her mother's health. "Last winter was really difficult for heating our home. My mum is disabled and she gets a lot worse in the cold. We had to keep our heating up more than we usually would," Scarlet said.
This is compounded by poor housing conditions. "We have loads of mould in the house - we also have cracks in the loft that are blowing in cold air down," she revealed. The family's financial pressures have also led them to use food banks, a experience that gave Scarlet perspective. "I volunteered at a food bank in 2023 to 2024. If you go to those kinds of places, you realise how much worse it can be."
Barnardo's is providing support to Scarlet, including cooking sessions where she learns to prepare affordable, nutritious meals for her family.
Charity Calls for Public Support
Dame Helen Mirren, actress and Barnardo's ambassador, described the situation facing children this winter as "heartbreaking." She drew parallels to her own post-war childhood, noting, "When families are living from hand to mouth, as so many families are in the UK even today, it just takes one thing to go wrong, and they can be in a crisis."
Lynn Perry, Barnardo's chief executive, emphasised the scale of the need. "It's simply not right that across the UK, too many children are facing a harsh winter without the basics they need to stay warm, healthy and hopeful," she stated. She highlighted that between November 2024 and February 2025, half of the support provided by Barnardo's child poverty fund was related to clothing.
Ms Perry has issued a call to action, urging the public to donate to Barnardo's to enable the charity to continue its vital support for families in need throughout the winter and beyond.
