PETERBOROUGH — A Peterborough furniture bank says it has been helping families whose children are sleeping on floors, piles of clothes and other makeshift beds. Care Zone, which operates from a warehouse on the edge of the city, plans to spend £80,000 this year on beds and mattresses for local families.
Ashley Wilcox, from the charity, said some children were not getting the sleep they needed because households could not afford proper bedding. He said that was “not good enough”. The organisation says bed poverty is now a major concern for the families it supports.
Care Zone works alongside other local organisations as part of Peterborough City Council’s crisis resilience fund, which connects people to food parcels, advice and wider support.
How Care Zone helps families with furniture and essentials
The charity’s volunteers clean and repair donated furniture and other household goods before passing them on to people in need. Last year, Care Zone gave out more than 3,500 larger items and 425 smaller items, including saucepans and tin openers.
Of the 1,900 people who used the service last year, about 845 were children. This year, the warehouse is stacked with brand new mattresses waiting to go to families who need them.
Wilcox said many of the households it sees have been living in temporary accommodation. In some cases, a family of five may be sharing one room, with a handful of beds between them and others sleeping on the floor. He said some homes have nowhere suitable to cook, which makes daily life even harder.
Council says it is trying to reach more households in crisis
Peterborough City Council said it is working with local charities to reach as many families in crisis as possible. Esther Baffa-Isaacs, from the council’s poverty prevention team, said there was “much more we can do” to identify people who need help.
She said the authority recently wrote to 3,200 households it had identified as being in a crisis state, to check whether they were claiming the correct benefits and knew where to find support. She said the message was often as simple as telling people they had help available.
Baffa-Isaacs said child bed poverty was significant and had an impact on educational attainment. The council says support is being linked with charities so families can be referred through organisations such as the local authority or their GP.
Research suggests many Peterborough families are missing out on support
A recent study by Policy in Practice found people in Peterborough were missing out on £92m in unclaimed benefits. The council says that figure underlines why identifying households in hardship remains so important.
Baffa-Isaacs said bed poverty was a significant issue and one the authority was very keen to do more about. She said a lack of proper sleep can affect how children do at school, adding that helping them get a bed could give them a better chance of learning and achieving.
About one-third of children in Peterborough are thought to be living in poverty, based on Department for Work and Pensions data from 2024 and 2025. That compares with a UK average of 26%, putting the city above the national figure and reinforcing calls from local groups for more families to come forward for support.
Language barriers and stigma can stop families asking for help
Zameer Ali, Peterborough City Council’s cabinet member for communities and public safety, said the authority is doing everything it can to reach people in need. He said language barriers can make it harder for parents to understand what help is available, particularly where children are being asked to translate for adults.
Ali said information needs to be as simple and accessible as possible. He urged families not to go without and said they should contact the council if they need support.
The charity says anyone can donate items to Care Zone, which then distributes them through referral routes. With beds, mattresses and household goods in demand, it says the aim is to make sure families facing hardship have basic comforts as well as practical help.
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