Nearly a third of children in Bradford live in poverty, according to recent figures, and tonight a television programme will offer an insight into the challenges they face. An eight-year-old girl from the Canterbury estate is one of four children featured in BBC1 documentary Poor Kids, looking at life below the poverty line.

Courtney says her friend Holly is “loaded” because her family can afford to go on holiday. She and the other children – including ten-year-old Paige who doesn’t like her friends to see where she lives, and 11-year-old Sam who wears his sister’s hand-me-down uniform to school, where it doesn’t go unnoticed – talk about their circumstances and their thoughts on the future.

The programme is broadcast the same week the Telegraph & Argus reported that the Gingerbread Housing Project, which helps 100 families, is facing closure due to funding cuts. A young mother told the T&A that if it wasn’t for the project she and her two-year-old son would be living on the streets.

Following the disturbing child poverty figures in Bradford and nationally – Britain has one of the worst rates in the industrialised world – comes the news that children’s life chances are set out by the time they turn five.

According to research by the National Childminding Association, revealed today, more than a third of parents said that by the age of five their children showed signs of what they wanted to be when they grew up.

The NCMA is calling on the Government to invest the same proportion of its funding in the early years as it does for primary and secondary education, to help registered childminders boost children’s aspirations in home-based childcare settings.

Susanna Dawson, chairman of NCMA, says: “A strong early years education means children are more likely to perform better at later levels of their education. It’s vital that the Government harnesses the potential of the early years by ensuring this crucial stage gets its fair slice of the budget.”

A report by the Campaign to End Child Poverty recently revealed that 29 per cent of youngsters are blighted by poverty in Bradford, rising to 44 per cent in some areas. The report showed vast differences between urban and rural areas.

Representatives of organisations supporting families say children trapped in poverty are less likely to be aspirational than in more affluent areas.

Family Action, which works with vulnerable and disadvantaged families, says if a child is born into poverty and doesn’t have access to the stability and well-being that comes from a healthy diet, decent housing, early-years education and supportive relationships, they will struggle to contribute to society as fully as they would with such support.

Gerry Hannah, founder of Bradford-based Parenting Together, says poverty can hold children back.

“Many children are surviving on ‘feral values’,” he says. “The values they bring to school are the same values they have at home. If they aspire to anything outside that culture, they will be victimised.”

Nicola Lamond, spokesman for parenting website Netmums, says: “It is shocking that so many children are growing up in severe poverty in the UK. No child should be born without a chance. It is heartbreaking to know that there are children going to bed at night in houses without proper heating, without a proper meal or a school uniform to put on in the morning.

“We know, from hearing from thousands of mums on Netmums, what a difference early intervention and support can make, from places such as Sure Start centres, and we would welcome more Government resources to be targeted at the most vulnerable families to provide vital support during a child’s early years.”

Matt Barlow, chief executive officer with Christians Against Poverty, based in Bradford, says debt is a major contributor to the kind of poverty affecting families and restricting children’s life chances.

“In a study of 1,000 clients, around a third of those with children said they were unable to feed them three meals a day, which is a shocking statistic,” he says.

“Around a quarter of those with children could not adequately feed or clothe their sons and daughters. This is what drives us to do what we do, helping people to get their lives back on track.”