Live webchat with Esther Rantzen, Tues, 19 Jan, 2-3pm

[GeraldineMumsnet]

We're very pleased to welcome Esther Rantzen as our next webchat guest on Tues 19 Jan at 2pm.

Esther is chair of The Family Commission, the national inquiry into the extended family and the support it needs in the 21st century, in partnership with 4Children.

She became a household name as the presenter of That's Life, and has presented other series such as How to Have a Good Death about palliative care, as well as appearing on I'm a Celebrity and Strictly.

She is the president of ChildLine, has a CBE for services to children and is standing as an Independent candidate for Luton South in the general election.

As usual, please post any advance questions here if you can't make it on the day. And, last but not least, please abide by our webchat rules.

Ooh, I have thought of a question!

What is your opinion of the muddling of monitoring of home education with child protection issues in the recent review by Graham Badman?

On a completely different note.....I would like to thank you for the awareness you have given to the pain of being a widow. My mum was recently widowed and the pain of grief was so unexpected and horrific. And unfortunately it is one of those things that people are not talking about.

You are one of the only people who do talk about the pain. So, thank you for that. It does help other people immensely.

Good luck with your campaign

Hello Essie, just want to say thought you were Fab in the jungle, and looking fab and sexy for your age

Who was your favorite jungle buddy? and more importantly who was your worst? (go on you can tell us, David Van dog? or Nicola (i love me) get me Tits out whatever her name was?)

Yes I thought you were great in the jungle as well.

As a veteran campaigner how do you suggest I make early intervention for children with autism an election issue? Despite international research supporting that young children getting intensive (25+ hours a week) specialist intervention make great progress and overcome many of the difficulties presented with their autism; the vast majority of our children get no specialist teaching at all, although their mainstream teaching assistants might be lucky enough to get a few hours a year from a local authority team of teachers who will give some basic awareness training. Children up and down the country are being failed and it will end up costing the country more in residential places / income benefits than if intervention were given at 2-4 years to allow children to fulfill their potential. As autism now affects 1% of the population (more if you include our families and friends) do you think we are a big enough % to be counted as swing voters? Do you know what the autism provision is like in your back yard?

Hi Esther,

Which are your views on bullying in the playground and at work?

Many thanks,

I'm having a 2 year career break while I bring up my two young children. I have thought about volunteering for childline, but I'm not sure how it would fit with my husband working away a lot and so not being able to commit to set times/days.

Any advice?

Nigglewiggle am happy to give you indepth advice on this is you like.

Thanks i'm at wilson _ vic @ hotmail . com

Will email Sorry for hijack Esther and MNHQ

yes flamingobongo i completely agree. I home tutored for the odd year or so. usually when my children were being bullied by teachers. (I know this goes on 'cos i was a supply teacher).

Oh how I love Esther .

Hi Esther, Following the serious case review into the case of the two boys in Doncaster, where do you think we are going wrong?

Are social services really making improvements?

Why do they KEEP missing such serious problems?

Hi Esther.

I would like to say thank you for all the work you have done with childline.

Unfortunately bullying still goes on, however these days most of it happens via the internet or txt messages outside of school hours. How much pressure has this put on schools, as they now have to monitor pupils behaviour almost 24 hours a day..?

Cyber bullying...what are your views? Do you think schools need to have the power to intervene more?

Hi Esther

You truly are inspirational

What do you think has spurred you on to champion so many causes and create something as enduring as ChildLine? And then to keep going with more and more life changing campaigns.. Where do you get your energy from!

If you weren't doing what you do, what do you think you would be doing,what did you want to be when you grew up?

Hi Esther
Ijust wanted to say thank you for Childline,
I called them for support when I was 11, I lived away from home and had been raped, I phoned so many times from a cold phone box but always recieved such warm response, If it hadn't been freephone I wouldn't have been able to call and it was my only opportunity for support.
The only thing that went wrong was I was advised I needed an adult to go with me to the police and the person I asked told me that these things that happen are "gods will" so it has festered for the last 25 years.
I still remember however the warmth and kindness offered by your team at childline.
THANK YOU!

grumpyoldeeyore do you want my notes from last night's MA ASD lecture on early intervention? there's a good reference list, you might find a few useful things in there. CAT me if you want it.

Nearly time

If elected do you really believe that an independent MP is of any real use in parliament, as they have no real chance of changing anything or influencing policy, would the people of Luton then be better voting for an established party?

Hello, Esther's just about to start. So welcome to her and thanks to everyone who has posted.

Esther this is my second question so please only answer if you have time.

My dream one day is to set up a charity offering mentoring toparents of autistic children for the first year post diagnosis, using a homestart type model.My background is as a parent of 4 boys, 2 with asd, a former Organiser with HomeStart, fundraiser for Macmillan, and I am studying for an MA in ASD.

Apart from say goodbye to your life(!), do you have any advie for me?

Hello mumsnet world,Esther Rantzen here, I'm fascinated by your questions and comments, and will do my best to answer as many as I can. First of all I want to thank everyone who has talked about the reasons why they rang, or did not ring ChildLine. It is so valuable to have your feed-back, and of course really inspirational when you tell me how much our counsellors supported you during the toughest times. So thank you so much for taking the trouble to let me know.

Esther - what are you most proud of with all your achievements?

Would you consider being my children's honourary grandma as I don't have a mum to give them a nana.

Waves to Esther, frankly she's tv royalty

VeryHappyIMadeThisTiggaxx