The Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield wants to see retired social workers and a range of school, nursery and care staff who have been furloughed as a result of the crisis join forces to help keep at-risk children safe.
She says that a potential 1 million vulnerable children in England are just being forgotten during all of this. ‘
“Those might be children who have or have had a social worker in the past couple of years, in households which are not stable, where there are things like domestic violence, addiction to drugs and alcohol and severe mental health issues. That’s a lot of children, those who are on the edge of services which are going to be under ever greater pressure. That’s a lot of children, those who are on the edge of services which are going to be under ever greater pressure. School for them is a real protective factor. They get a couple of hot meals a day, they get that structure, that support – and that will be lost.”
Her hope is to ‘get this army of people who are all DBS checked, all there for children and families and actually be able to harness that locally around a school as community hub to make sure they can reach out and get to families. I don’t want any child to be be harmed because of coronavirus. I don’t want any child to go hungry because of coronavirus. I don’t think we can let children pay the price for this terrible health emergency.’
Read the Guardian article here.
