Mumsnet campaigns and alliances

[JustineMumsnet]

Morning Mumsnetters,
Following on from something someone suggested a while back, we want to think about how we might use our MN muscle to campaign on things that matter to us - like miscarriage, breastfeeding support, premature sexualisation of children (toddler thongs) etc and also how we go about building links with voluntary sector organisations to increase that muscle. Policywonk and Onebat, dynamic duo that they are - have rashly agreed to collect our thoughts/help out a bit with organisation - so we'd be very grateful if you could let us have your two penneth worth on any and all of this stuff.
Many thanks.

Hello

Maybe a campaign for sn children in certain areas to have more accessible and "joined up" care.

Have been very lucky with dd with excellent access to services and care but it seems to be a postcode lottery in a lot of areas from reading sn board.

Thanks.

I think that a good and relatively simple thing to campaign for would be for a review on the ridiculous 4 nappy rule that SN kids are allocated . I know there are bigger problems but this always seems something that would be very hard to argue against .

Ah travelling,you saw the prog on beeb 1 and read Riven's posts also?I agree.For a child that needs such input as the child with cp on the programme it is insane.

For dd it isn't so bad a 4 nappies is her usual quota a day but not all children are like dd.I have no idea how they pluck these quotients out of the air.

How about a campaign to get the CRB to recognise that not all women change their name on marriage and the use of the title Ms does not necessarily mean you are divorced/a lesbian/evil

I did indeed Mavis , I just think that all children should be assessed individually . The amount of form filling and reviews that go on with children with disabilities it would be nice if they sometimes actually listened to the answers .

The ridiculous thing is , is that I work in home care and I know of so many elderly people that are allocated pads way over what they need and they have boxes and boxes of the bloody things . Which of course once they are in someones home have to be left there or destroyed . We are not allowed to even pass on sealed bags to someone in need .

I see a lot of home birth threads where the old 'We don't have the staffing for home birth... if we're too busy, we can't attend you, so why not just book into the hospital' argument is wheeled out.

Birth choices are really important. Could Mumsnet help with campaigning for all women to give birth in the place of their choice and making sure there are midwives available to support them?

I like campaigns about apparently "small" things, like Mavis's. An area where something might be achieved, which actually would make an enormous difference, rather than largely vague pro this or anti that publicity campaigns. Something like that is much less glamourous than, say home birth, but can make people's lives so much easier, every day, lots of people, and lots of children.

For example, carers of parents or disabled children need a lot more support, but that's so vague: ideas like Mavis's which are "customer led" (excuse me Mavis) offer a direct and straightforward approach.

Does it have to be about things to do with babies/children or can it be other things that bother us, like educating people as to the real politics of the BNP, or environmental concerns? (Although I assume the latter is covered by 10:10?)

Not mine,stuffit,but Travellings,following on from my broad spec idea.Can't take credit though her idea is very good and would back wholeheartedly

Excuse me not paying attention .

Oh,it wasn't meant to be bitchy,just didn't want to take credit for fab idea that wasn't mine,no offence intended.

I'm all for campaigning, esp when it comes to making things better for our children.

Any campaigns you are doing, count me in.

I know..! I'm not offended in the least, and I hadn't paid attention really ..I'll stop now

aha! Are you a cloth nappy person?Can you get size 6 equivalent nappies?I am wondering if these would be better for dd as she has recently shown signs of relating to feeling of wetness by non verbal communication (totally irrelevant to thread sorry mnhq)

yes, would support the nappies one, good idea

I am so pleased people like the 4 nappy rule idea .
I just think it would be one that all parents could get a grasp on and it should be relatively easy to get changed .

Would be a good one to get the ball rolling with (IMHO)

Girls: if you think this looks too "small" and a bit specialised it could be packaged as part of a wider campaign for carers of disabled children as mavis and travelling and others suggest.

I of course would love you to campaign for more research into comparisons of health outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated children.

Gwan you know it makes sense

Oh what a great idea. Will make sense to have MN fully engaged as a lobby group etc. And of course distinguish us/you more from other groups. I am always thinking of Campaigns. I will think and post again soon.

The miwifery/breastfeeding support one is a must, surely? Carers of SN children and their rights also good.

'Changing the 4 nappies a day rule' campaign is very worthy and I would support this all the way

oooh lots of good ideas already

I would campaign to make childcare a legitimate business expense offsettable against tax at a basic rate for secondary or single-parent earners

this would get more women back to work

I'd like to see salt removed from children's breakfast cereals.

Is there a thread somewhere about the 4 nappies thing?

Things that concern me at present:

Miscarriage
The incredibly varied care that women in the UK receive when they suffer a miscarriage. There have been some absolute horror stories on here. This HAS to be an issue worth fighting for. Since m/c affects 1 in 3 women this is an incredibly important one.

Mental health issues
We need to work towards removing the stigma of MH issues, make it as much of a taboo as racism is to use disabilist abusive language and confront the problem of disabilist abuse/violence.

SN
The support for families bringing up SN children is woeful and from what I have read, very hit and miss depending on which area of the country you are in. The families have to fight for every little bit of assistance.

I think that it would be good to do one big issue, eg. miscarriage that affects many women and work towards getting standards of care in UK to an acceptable level.

Then we could perhaps do mini-campaigns, such as the nappy one. That also highlights the problems that are present in the care of children with SN.

I know there's lots of coverage already, but can MN throw its collective, not insubstantial () weight behind a campaign to save childcare vouchers please? Without meaning to get all political, its one of the very few good things the labour government have done for working families and will have massive consequences for a lot of us if they withdraw them as planned...

Hello Citizens

Thanks for all of these, OBM and I are reading and nodding away. I think Justine means this thread to be an ongoing compendium of ideas so please keep posting anything that you think of. Basically it's all going to go into a big ideas machine that Justine keeps under her desk.

One thing that would be great would be suggestions of any SN organisations that MN could establish relationships with - this isn't an area of expertise for OBM or me.

Power to the people