PRAN NEWSLETTER ISSUE 30: September 2026
Dear PRAN MEMBERS
We hope this newsletter finds you well and that you're enjoying the unseasonably warm September weather! After our traditional August break, it feels like a while since we last caught up, and there's plenty to share.
Exciting News
Picture This comes to the Museum of Liverpool
Throughout September, Picture This: A Visual Perspective on Poverty and Inequality in the UK is on display in the entrance atrium of the Museum of Liverpool. With around 12,000 visitors passing through every week, it's a wonderful opportunity to bring PRAN's work, and the urgent issues of poverty and inequality, to a much wider audience.
We also hear that one of this month's visitors was none other than Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who was photographed standing right next to one of our images. We very much hope he stopped to take a proper look!
A new collaboration with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
We're delighted to announce a new collaboration with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Insight Infrastructure team, who will start sharing regular updates with PRAN members. The team works to make poverty data, research and lived experience easier to find, share and use, including through its Grounded Voices programme. We're confident this partnership will bring valuable information and insight to our network. You can read more in our latest blog.
OTHER NEWS
August Blog
Hero by Day, Invisible by Night: The Paradox of Invisible Poverty and the Need for Government Action
By Sally Kah, Ming Lim, Dave Cliffe, Navajyoti Samata and Chris Hill
Invisible poverty, the hidden hardship experienced by working households, affects millions of people across the UK. In this blog, the authors share findings from a pilot study in Leicestershire and Rutland that surveyed 40 residents. The results reveal educated, employed people routinely forced to choose between eating and heating, and going without healthcare and a social life. The authors make a compelling case for urgent government action to make invisible poverty visible.
Podcast: Music and Social Change
In August, we recorded a podcast at a truly extraordinary gathering in Liverpool, where bands and musicians came together to record songs about equity, childhood, system failures and human dignity.
The event was organised by Dr Ian Sinha, Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, and living proof of what can happen when medical expertise, creativity and advocacy come together. Ian regularly uses lyrics from these songs in his public lectures to illustrate the multiple, cumulative and long-lasting effects of poverty on children, in a way that statistics alone never could.
The podcast features interviews with some inspiring attendees about why they came and what the event meant to them, including Fiona Ashcroft (CEO, Alder Hey Children's Charity), Ian Byrne (MP for Liverpool West Derby), Mark Mon-Williams (Director, Centre for Immersive Technologies, University of Leeds), Dr Patrick Aiken (GP), Dean Yhnell (aka Beat Technique) and Dr Ben Leinster. Listen to the podcast here.
We were also pleased to showcase our Picture This exhibition at the event.
Research Call: University of Warwick
📢 Parents across the UK wanted for a research study
Wen Chi, a student researcher at the University of Warwick, is exploring how parents from different income backgrounds understand money and pass on financial habits to their children.
📝 What's involved:
A 5-minute screening questionnaire
An optional one-hour online interview
🎯 Who can take part: Parents or guardians aged 18 or over who are currently living and working in the UK.
For more information, please contact Wen Chi directly at u5734178@warwick.ac.uk.
Your experiences could help improve our understanding of financial education within families, so please share this with anyone who might be interested!
This is just the beginning of what promises to be a busy and exciting few months for PRAN. We have more events, new collaborations and fresh opportunities in the pipeline for the rest of the year, all aimed at strengthening our network and amplifying the voices of those most affected by poverty and inequality.
If you would like to share any information in our upcoming newsletter, or engage more fully in PRAN's work, please get in touch by emailing us at info@pran.org.uk.
As always, thank you for your continued support, energy and commitment. PRAN's work is only possible because of the passion and expertise of our members, and we're grateful to have you with us.
In solidarity,
PRAN Team
