Living wage week
“Low paid workers are not asking for a great deal, simply the means to pay for the aspirations that anyone could reasonably expect of life in the UK in 2013.” Jeremy Cripps tells the story of Jon to illustrate the need for a national living wage.
School dinners
A government-commissioned school food review has recommended Headteachers insist everyone has school dinners, that means banning packed lunches which the report says are often less healthy than school meals because they frequently include crisps, sugary drinks and sweets or chocolate. Headteachers are also encouraged to ban children from leaving school at lunchtime to buy food […]
Absolute poverty
Last weekend an 80 year old man told me about growing up in Middlebrough in the 1930s. He was one of 8 children, his father worked but was often unwell. If his father could not work the family had no money, there was no social security to fall back on, they had to go without. […]
Children’s rights in the UK
Children North East is a member of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE). This week we received their annual ‘State of Children’s Rights In England’ report. The UK is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and as such our government is required to report every 5 years to the […]
Breadline Britain
You may have seen ‘Breadline Britian’ on ITV last night, or watch it here if you missed it: ITV programme ‘Breadline Britain’ The programme discussed a report by the Poverty and Social Exclusion (PSE) Unit at Bristol University (and others) published yesterday (see: www.poverty.ac.uk). It repeats research originally conducted in 1983 and repeated several times since, most […]