Children Must Be At The Heart Of Our Plans For Recovery

When schools return in September, most children will have been away for almost six months. Away from structured learning, classmates and the watchful eye of their teachers. While some will have enjoyed more time with their families, many others were left in frightening situations at home.

- Mark Russell

At The Children’s Society we work with youngsters who are already facing significant difficulties in their lives: those being groomed by gangs, by sexual predators, those whose parents abuse drugs or alcohol, who are going missing from home or care, and who are struggling with their mental health.

For many of these, school offered stability and a place where teachers could spot behavioural changes. When they were forced to stay at home their problems didn’t disappear – but access to support became much more difficult.

Our face-to-face services have long been the bedrock of how we support young people, enabling us to identify their problems and help give them the tools they need to cope.

BUT lockdown meant that we quickly had to change the way we offered that support. We now make door drops of care packages, offer phone and video chats, and have worked with generous technology companies such as Tesco Mobile and Three to get devices to young people who don’t have their own.

I’m proud of how we’ve risen to the challenge, but our income has fallen off a cliff edge.