Campaign For Kids – Children At Heart

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Natasha in child welfare, Spotlight

Having just come across this wonderful initiative from Children England, which essentially offers people passionate about child welfare a space to discuss issues surrounding children’s rights and the way children are treated, we felt we should share it with you.

Children At Heart is a project designed to incorporate child welfare messages through online and offline platforms, like social media, and existing campaigns on the ground focusing on child wellbeing.

Created by Children England, an organisation which supports children’s charities, you are invited to tweet and chat about children’s issues that you feel are being neglected, and call on the government to place children at the heart of policy and legislation affecting them. The campaign comes complete with a pledge card you can ask your local MP to fill in. We’ve filled our card out and added it below:

As part of this project, Children England are hosting Twitter debates every week on a different child welfare related topics. This week, the theme is Justice.

You are also invited to use the hashtag #ChildrenAtHeart, any time you want to tweet about children’s issues and your views on them. There is also a lovely heart badge you can use, either as a logo on your website (we’ve added one to our side bar with a link to the campaign, and we’ve photoshopped our Twitter banner to add it in!) or on your Twitter banner or as your avatar. You can also add it to any leaflets or brochures you’re publishing on child welfare campaigns you’re working on. If you’d like the heart badge, please feel free to use the one we’ve added below (simply click and save, and you can upload it anywhere).

We think this is a lovely campaign, with a beautiful and powerful message. So why not spread the love, and urge the government to put children at its heart, too.

Joint Committee on Human Rights: Government Is Failing The Nation’s Children

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Natasha in child welfare, Research

≈ 4 Comments

A damning report published today by the Joint Committee on Human Rights criticises the government for its failure to address mounting child welfare concerns in the fields of immigration, legal aid and children in custody.

From appalling conditions children face in immigration centres, to growing obstacles in accessing legal support and poor treatment in custody, the government continues to fail children and place them at the bottom of their agendas, often relegated to nothing more than vote-spinning sound bites.

The report highlights how disadvantaged children have suffered disproportionately during the current austerity measures, that the government must now move to ratify the Optional Protocol to the UNCRC which would allow children in the UK the right to individual petition to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and that child welfare issues should be debated at the highest level. The Committee also noted that the Government’s recent changes to legal aid provision represented a black mark on its children’s rights record.

The Committee now want a full examination of how the government intends to uphold and promote children’s rights. You can access the Committee’s report on the UK’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child here.

There is also an interesting piece from the Children’s Rights Alliance for England on the report, and some thought-provoking statistics which they share from their own research. Some of the stats from their own findings are added below:

31% of children in the UK are living in poverty
Families with children now make up 65% of homeless households
Almost all (96%) of the households affected by the benefits cap are families with children
Services which are supposed to support families and keep children safe are under pressure, with an increase in demand for support but a decline in resources available to offer that support

Documentary: Forced Adoption In Great Britain

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Natasha in forced adoption

≈ 6 Comments

At just over 49 minutes, this thought-provoking documentary which aims to tackle the difficulties forced adoption raises is very much worth a watch. It is a critical look at how forced adoption works in Great Britain and as such it is not terribly sympathetic to the social work profession, or government generally.

What it does do though, is highlight the flaws inside the family justice system and its courts. From a culture which lacks a robust evidence gathering process to politicians who just don’t understand the nuances of this practice, to other problems caused by government adoption targets, it is a good effort in exposing the many issues with what is essentially an inhumane and antiquated system.

Whichever side of the fence you sit on in the forced adoption debate, this is a documentary everyone should watch.