THE North-East - particularly Middlesbrough and Newcastle - figures largely in a national picture of child poverty.

The Barnardos' report, Counting the Cost of Child Poverty, was co-authored by the charity's North-East expert on poverty, Dr Mike Hughes.

It says more than 4m children in the UK live in poverty and, in almost every instance, positive investment in children's lives would be cheaper than dealing with the social consequences of underfunding.

Mr Jonathan Ewen, Barnardos' director in the North-East, said: "The costs and damage caused to children and society by child poverty are shocking.

"This report makes particularly harsh reading, especially when we know that 20 of the 100 most deprived wards in the UK are in the North-East. Newcastle alone has five of them and Middlesbrough has six.

"These costs are entirely preventable and we need a comprehensive strategy to give these children a future. It's not just the right thing to do, it's a sound investment."

Dr Hughes confirmed: "The figures in this report are shameful. Poverty in our midst is a stress to us all and failing our children is actually causing more ill health in the North-East.

"For instance, the stark contrast between wealth and poverty is linked to increasing ill-health - even for the wealthy. If we continue in this vein, the chances are we will all die earlier."

Barnardos looks in detail at the life histories of eight young people who had come into contact with the charity and assessed what could have been done to help them at certain key points in their lives.

These interventions were then costed to see how they compared to the actual experiences which included a youth spent in care, years of drug misuse and time spent in prison.

They could also have led to a more positive future for the child had they been made early enough.

Dr Hughes said: "Even as I was writing the report I received a message from prison from one of the eight people whose stories we used in the case studies. The young man said he hoped what we were doing would help turn others away from the path he'd taken.