Levelling up.
It takes a village to raise a child
Education! Education! Education!
Yes.
However, I live in a deprived shit hole, with poverty and dysfunctional family set ups all across the area.
There are many children with chronic conditions whose family set up means they are missing essential hospital appointments.
Crucial scans and diagnostic tests have had to be rescheduled because the parent or guardian cannot believe the child is that ill (even if the condition is hereditary, they've seen it kill and/or they have complications from it themselves), they went on holiday at the last minute, knowing full well that the appointment was pending and thought they could rebook after the appointment had passed, a sibling is playing up or they can't afford the bus fare.
Children are missing out on consultant, dentist or eye appointments because mum is phobic and can't gather herself to bring the child and there is no one else she can rely on.
There are children who aren't into their teens, already suffering life limiting effects of health conditions and whose prospects of employment are lowered as a result.
Children missing out on scholarships or extracurricular classes because the family can't afford the uniforms, kit, instruments, books or can't get their act together to get them to classes.
Children not progressing because the family are dependent on short term lets, B&B, private landlords and are moving on a biannual or more basis.
Children who have a talent but who can't practice, because there's no space, it's too noisy or time consuming for someone to get them to practice.
What if there was a 'collective' of volunteers?
DBS checked volunteers, who could spare a couple of hours a day/week/weekend, who could help out.
Some with resources, some with cars and free time, some with experience of teaching, mentoring, coaching and some with maybe £5 a month to spare.
What if there was an organisation which could coordinate these volunteers?
Send an email to the volunteers each month asking when they were free and what resources they could make available.
People could make referrals to this organisation.
Teachers, social workers, parents, grandparents and a child's needs assessed as a whole.
So a child who needed to practice an instrument, could be paired up with someone in a detached house or who had a piano that they could practice on for an hour a day.
A child who needed space, peace and quiet to study could be paired up with someone who had a dining table and wifi out of library hours
A child who needed someone to pick them up and take them to appointments could be paired up with someone with the right car seat who could take them - I can see that would require patient confidentiality - so social worker? Nurse? The child and a trusted relative?
Applications could be made to the organisation for funds.
For educational, psychiatric and medical assessments, instruments, kit, supplement a scholarship, books, uniform etc.
Anything and everything required to intervene as early as possible and give any child as much help as possible.
The Tories brought in Student Loans
Labour brought in tuition fees
Both of these hit students from the poorest backgrounds disproportionately.
Clearly, there's no government or legislation that can be relied upon to help the least academically able, the disadvantaged and the victims of dysfunctional and abusive parenting.
A collective fund, a central hub of second hand uniforms, with volunteers to mend, clean and iron them, an organising committee, a fundraising committee and a squadron of volunteers across the area, committed to helping the next generation level up and better than the last.
Is this being done already?
Am I talking out of my arse?
Is this a good idea?