Frank Field's report on Child Poverty - is MN really for one 'class'?

[LilyBolero]

The report on child poverty includes a suggestion for a 'working class version of Mumsnet'.

Discuss!

I think Fields suggestion are on the whole pretty good and hope the coalition adopts the vast majority of them. Its a shame the previous Government didn't listen to him as he seems pretty clued up on the subject.

LitChick - I hate the use of the term "disadvantaged" in the way that you have used it to describe your upbringing...just as I hate it when people use "deprived" and "alienated".

Such terms seek to create the impression that someone somewhere has wilfully sought to make your life worse through active measures on their part.

It also suggests that the only way to measure one's life is through the crude measure of material wealth. Your heartening account of your Mother's determination to be a responsible parent shows that such facile and lazy assumptions are exactly that.

People from certain backgrounds are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged...they are just people, who make the best of their lives with what that have available.

Some people are just rubbish though and should never be parents. It's a shame we have a system that encourages such people to re-produce, thereby perpetuating the problem.

I agree with you Guardian Reader about people choosing to have childen when they can't afford to support them without any State help, however unfortunately sometimes people have their family when they are able to be entirely self sufficient, but then circumstances change through divorce/redundancy and those children can't be given back.

I think that the state telling people how to parent their kids is bloody patronising and insulting.

I would like to see more money put into basic health and promoting mental welbeing. If you look after the mother then she can look after her children. For example psychologial theraphies are not easily availalbe to mothers with postnatal depression. Problems are worse for second time mothers who have more than one child.

Surestart has wasted millions of pounds on services which aren't suitable for their target audience. For example what is the point of a remedial literacy class without a creche? Why does the baby singing group have to be run between 2.30 and 3.30? It makes it impossible for mums with school age kids to go.

I did raise this with the surestart centre manager but her head is too far up her arse to care. My local surestart centre is run for the convience of its staff rather than the convience of families.

mumblechum - agreed...in which case, support should only be available once one's circumstances have changed. If you start off on benefits, you should receive no CB, for example.

reallytired - "My local surestart centre is run for the convience of its staff rather than the convience of families."

Of course it is, it is a pubicly-run organisation - like schools and hospitals and so forth.

Private-sector comapnies are more likely to listen to the customer because, thanks to competition, they risk losing business if they do not.

Sure Start should be privatised.

"Sure Start should be privatised."

Could not agree more. Eight years ago when there was no surestart many activites were provided by enprenering mothers. For example if you wanted baby massaage or baby music it cost you a fiver.

With all these things being provided by surestart the private sector just could not compete.

Certain services need to be provided publically. For example a crap mother might not want to be pestered by a social worker/ health visitor. The sad thing was that funding has been taken from the health visiting service to pay for crapstart surestart.

totally agree with Litchick,sounds like we had the same sort of upbringing,poor butnot neglected or abused,shown right from wrong,encouraged to do well at school and improve our chances and hey know what,it worked.