I think the children of this generation...

[TheDailyCarbuncle]

Will, in future years, legitimately ask us why we let them down so badly. Why we allowed them/their peers to be left at home for months with abusive/neglectful/drug addicted/alcoholic parents, with no outside contact, no adult help, relief or respite whatsoever. Why some of those children disappeared, never to be seen again, or were so badly hurt as to have years and years of horrendous struggle ahead of them.

It's only now beginning to be talked about, months too late: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52876226

When everyone is talking about 'protecting' children, where is their concern for those children for whom home is a dangerous place? For whom school is their only sanctuary?

Do you genuinely think every abused child has been identified and brought to school?

And it's different now because?
Children who attend school regularly died under the noses of the teachers, they have no idea and aren't trained SS as well as being teachers.

I prefer the Welsh government they seem to be following the science, not helping their mates out who should have been fired, weeks ago.

I feel very angry that my kid's education is being sacrificed so that the Welsh government can score political points.
Or alternatively, you have a government that is doing its absolute best to try and keep children, their families and school staff safe.
Time will tell eh?

The blme for child abuse lies solely with the abuser. Society has a massive roll to play in spotting abuse and ending it where possible. Ss, dr, hospitals, schools, neighbours, families all have a roll to play in stopping it. Most people will never know that they have flags raised about their kids or that they are on a register to watch and be aware. Schools are aware of these flags and often know far more than most people think. But no one is perfect and we wish we could ensure no children are bullied or abused.

Schools are massively underfunded and they have had to take in more and more responsibility for vulnerable children and families. So many are quick to all out teachers, rather than schools or education bodies 🤔, for not doing enough but rarely offer more support than sending in a few tins when food is gathered for the food bank.

Teachers and heads were slated on a post here where the head phoned parents to arrange a timebtobsee every child from a safe distance, too many emails, too few, phone calls are stressful, parent mental health needs, child's needs. We will never do right for all due to too many conflucting wants on a system at breaking point.

There was a reason schools were closed for most, science is still out on bringing tjem back but very few are saying return to normal now. So perhaps thisbis our chance to look at how we, as a society, want to support our kids, what we expect from arents, neighbours, schools, medical staff etc and how we can make it work. Perhaps parent rights can be ignored more often? Home schooled children checked on weekly, those who bully at school dealt with better so a child in school doesn't feel unsafe. Let's have a conversation without resorting to the easy answer of schools should do it. No, they can't aleays do it and all our children, SEN, bullied, abused, neglected, scared, happy etc all deserve to have chances and prospects for the future.

So in answer to op question I don't think we will be judged on abused children not in school but on the bigger picture of how we dealt with this and what we did with the chanves for change after.

Here Here Each

You still havent really said what you want to happen OP. Do you want there to be lockdown or not?

There is not enough evidence to suggest either way whether children spread the virus or not. There have been a couple of studies which suggest they potentially dont, but there have also been studies which suggest they do. Either way there is not overwhelming evidence.

Even if it does turn out that children cant transmit the virus, this was not information we had at the time of lockdown. The decision was made based on the information we had at the time. All decisions should be based on the science available at the time.

Of course there are negative consequences of lockdown. Lockdown is a fairly extreme measure for an extraordinary situation, however the majority of the world thought lockdown was appropriate to deal with the pandemic.

It is appalling that there are many children reliant on school in the UK in this way. However this is not the fault of the pandemic. To me it seems lockdown has highlighted this issue to so many, along with the abuse of women and mental health. Maybe it will result in drastic changes to social care, which will be positive in the long run.

My DC have a social worker and are hence 'vulnerable'. The eldest is home-educated whilst the younger goes to school. I was told there is a school place for her but she would be safest at home. Her and I decided to keep her at home but use the space if needed for respite. The school head of pastoral care phones me every week. Since the lockdown the SW has been round twice (didn't come in - just a chat on the doorstep and she brought some games for the children) and has done a video call once. We have been looked after very well. But it is easy to see how children could fall through the cracks with the sad state of funding for schools and social services.

[quote endlesswashingbaskets]@MarginalGain it really doesn't www.independentsage.org/government-failing-to-follow-own-school-advice-review-by-independent-sage/

No country had reopened schools with our numbers.[/quote]
It's telling that the lockdown proponents have been beating everyone up with the SAGE stick at every turn (despite the fact that epidemiologists could never be accused of having an overarching view of the situation- they have a laser-like focus on reducing immediate covid19 deaths at all costs).

How amenable would you have been had an 'independent SAGE' body had sprung up comprising of Tory activists and made all sorts of 'return to work' recommendations? This is not a rhetorical question, by the way, I am interested in your answer.

Johnson's legacy will be his abdication of leadership to 'the science' (which at once neglects 98% of the population and delivers the youth of the nation to a medium-term of indentured servitude). He obviously intends on blaming this entire debacle on SAGE in the inquiry.

Well we're OK now then Marginal as we're not 'following the science' any more.
'Indentured servitude' - WOW! They've been at home for two months FFS.

@TheDailyCarbuncle you are so right. So many children living in homes where they are being neglected, assaulted, sexually assaulted, not fed properly, emotionally abused. All this is going on with them having no safe way of confiding in anyone. These children are totally under the radar now.

[quote icansmellburningleaves]@TheDailyCarbuncle you are so right. So many children living in homes where they are being neglected, assaulted, sexually assaulted, not fed properly, emotionally abused. All this is going on with them having no safe way of confiding in anyone. These children are totally under the radar now.[/quote]
Some of them are, some of them always will be. Most of them most certainly are not.

@Myothercarisalsoshit

Well we're OK now then Marginal as we're not 'following the science' any more. 'Indentured servitude' - WOW! They've been at home for two months FFS.

We're coasting on printed money at the moment.

Come August, people will feel less sanguine about their prospects.

I don’t think realistically much education is being scarificed. It’s surviveable.

When l was at school we had 3 day weeks, endless strikes, freezing winters where the school heating broke and we couldn’t go in. So much disruption all the time.

I still managed to get a degree

Aaaah so it's about the money. Rightio.

I grew up as one of these children, was homeless at 15. School was my sanctuary. But they didn't know that. Without free school meals, there was no food to be had. But, schools, even social services often can't know as children, like myself, worry more about going to a children's home than they do being abused in every way by their parents. Other than what can be imagined, I was stabbed twice, nose broken, all sorts, but I just made up excuses. I bode time and left home as soon as I could. But without school, that would have been impossible and i might not have been selected to have attended if it were now. My brother would have as he responded to his lesser abuse by being involved in crime, so all the help was focused on him. So yes, it's difficult and I've worried about children in these situations from day 1. But chances are you'll never know about all of them. Those known about will be helped as best as possible, I'm sure. People are caring and the issue is being considered strongly. Just a couple of weeks ago, the education secretary emphasised this a lot. Not everything is twisted by the newspapers, thankfully.

My school is constantly in touch with the types of children ^

All I've read and heard is about the vulnerable children. It is sad that school hasn't been there for every child and many will be off till September but the schools had to close to protect the NHs and I'm hoping many of the children that needed to be in school were there.
Many children are abused , sadly, but schools are shut for many weeks during the year and not open all day. Wrap around care is voluntarily too if the parents need this so potentially they are still at home from 3 .30 and weekends and all the holidays.

I'm not sure what people wanted. Keep them all open and the R rate goes sky high and many more deaths , or protect others and have the children home for 2 or 6 months. It's an impossible situation. All I remember is many threads about shutting the school and when they did do this it seems that was wrong too.
I'm not on the government's side about a lot of the handling of this pandemic but where schools are concerned it was impossible.
The media wanted them shut too it went on and on.
I'm sorry for children who will suffer but many more also would have done if they hadn't done this.
The grooming gangs that were around in the 00s were known and left to carry on ; I am so sad about that too but that was all brushed under the carpet along with Saville etc.lets get upset about that as well.
Children will always be let down sadly including my own mum in the 1930s.

Yep, Brexit, Covid, climate change. The world is made for a certain type of baby boomer, fuck everyone else.

@MarginalGain yes thankfully they are in a minority.

This is not a school issue, it's a social care and family support issue. Those two things in turn, are a government funding cut issue. So many families who really struggle, don't meet the thresholds for family support or early intervention. And that has reduced in the time that I've worked in this stuff (so almost exactly the amount of time the Tories have been in power).

This is on the Tories. The end.

These children are totally under the radar now.

No they are not, they are under YOUR radar. Different.

"And there are two types of people who are now very concerned about vulnerable children^

Those who are genuinely concerned.

And those who are using 'WILL NOBODY THINK OF THE POOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN!' as some kind of get back to work trump card."

I've been posting for weeks that imo UK schools should return and the econmoy should be restarted properly

• I live in germany , where schools started back 4 weeks ago, without any upsurge in deaths

However, I don't try to leverage my views with sudden concern for abused kids

Lockdown was necessary:
the CMO Chris Whitty warned of 500,000 dead in his "reasonable worst case",
so no responsible government could ignore that in the face of a novel virus about which we knew so little.
Any internet random can gamble without responsibility, but the CMO and government are responsible for a country of 67 million people
Most other governments also chose not to gamble.

However, lockdown was a temporary pause button and it has served its purpose:

to squash down infections and regain control
to build up health services and public health tracking
to learn how to better treat this novel virus
to learn which social distancing measures are actually necessary

Time now imo to restart schools and the economy in stages, asap.

@Myothercarisalsoshit

Aaaah so it's about the money. Rightio.

Setting aside for a moment the small matter of how the taxpayer is supposed to manage without work - how is the taxpayer supposed to fund public services, if not through a tax base?

I have read your posts on risk, @BigChocFrenzy, and they have directed me towards a different attitude towards personal risk. What they have not done is reassure me that we are anywhere near Germany's position or that we are not risking our health service being inundated if we relax controls before having a proper tracing system in place. We do not have sufficient evidence to compare risk within a functioning health system to risk within an overrun health system.

Regarding your four reasons for lockdown:

to squash down infections and regain control - not far enough yet and now stalling

to build up health services and public health tracking - the first has been done reasonably well, the second is not in place

to learn how to better treat this novel virus - very little progress made

to learn which social distancing measures are actually necessary - impossible when several things are released at once

to build up health services

We didn't build up the health services. We shut down the NHS for 2 months. The fact that ICU wasn't full wasn't a good thing - people were calling for help from 111 and not getting it. People died at home, rather than getting treatment and perhaps not dying.

People who had other things wrong, also didn't go into hospital.

The messaging has been crap.