Every week Sussex Bylines will be publishing articles related to the general election on 4 July, covering both local and national issues. Broadly, our political sympathies are left of centre and, while Sussex Bylines does not endorse any one political party, we are keen to encourage collaboration between progressive parties and reduce tribalism. Published articles will reflect the views and political stance of individual writers and should not be taken as Sussex Bylines’ endorsement of those views.
At Eastbourne’s Grove Theatre for “No Pasarán!” a stimulating and well-supported celebration of Sussex contributions to the Spanish Civil War, I am struck by how people all over the world instinctively respond to threats to the innocent, even when not directly affected themselves.
People across Sussex, in Worthing, Hove, Lancing, Brighton and tiny Blackboys, welcomed and cared for some of the thousands of children evacuated from the civilian-targeted bombing campaign in 1937. (Sussex-resident volunteers joined over 30,000 others from 53 countries in the International Brigades, to defend the Spanish republic.)
There are echoes of this spontaneous international humanity today in the support for desperate refugee families from Syria, Afghanistan, and Ukraine and in the outrage at the killing of the children of Gaza. Individuals of goodwill everywhere respond when innocents are threatened. Unfortunately, threats from those who put wealth and self above humanity may become reality and then children suffer.
Working together to safeguard children
And so to this country: “Nothing is more important than children’s welfare” states HM Government’s Working together to safeguard children of December 2023. The words sound right but are they borne out by policy? By facts? By track record? Not with our current government, whose public sector austerity and diplomatic choices have led to so much damage to children.
How has it happened that children, acknowledged as requiring protection, have become victims of the way this country is being run? Do Conservatives not have children? Do other people’s children simply not matter? Are children, to them, just more ‘others’ to be defunded, like those with disabilities or mental ill-health, the poor and the ‘woke’? Look at just some of the charge sheet:
As if treatment of children’s education during the pandemic had not been damaging enough to a generation’s well-being and future, in 2024 child poverty has risen to the unprecedented height of 4.3 million, 1m technically in destitution.
According to the charity Magic Breakfast, 20% of school children have food insecurity at home. One in three primary school leavers is overweight or living with obesity and almost 25% have tooth decay, with the highest prevalence in the most deprived communities. Even infant mortality rates are climbing, especially among the poorest.
Children’s mental health is spiralling out of control, with thousands trapped in extended waits even for assessment and the same again for treatment. 25% of children are reported to have missed some school last year. The National Association of Head Teachers describes a “crisis” in Special Needs funding and provision, with a current deficit of £1.9bn and rising. The state of repair of school buildings has been neglected for years, affecting teaching quality, safety and attendance. Budget cuts appear to be behind all of these.
How can a government make children victims in a supposedly civilised nation?
Almost 150,000 children are without a place to call home, in temporary and often unsuitable accommodation. Residential care for children has largely been let to the private sector to make money. Unaccompanied minor refugees and asylum seekers have been housed unsupervised whilst in Home Office responsibility, with dozens absconding or disappearing, prey to traffickers and predators.
Knife crime, access to pornography and self-harm are rampant among children in some of our cities, seemingly without government interest. It is estimated there are 80,000 people who present a sexual threat to UK children online. Under-resourced law enforcement agencies struggle even to scratch the surface.
It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to provide for the needs of those in their areas for social care, special needs and homelessness, but councils themselves have been deprived of funds by central Government such that they cannot meet their obligations.
The government has even restricted child benefit to two children for any family, regardless of its size. No rationale or excuse for this wholesale neglect is offered. Diversion of money from public needs to private greed seems all too probable a motive.
A government which has responsibility for the picture above is unworthy of its office or of electoral support.
Across the public sector underfunding is deliberate
It is simply not credible to ascribe occasional incompetence to these failures, when across the public sector underfunding is manifestly deliberate. Nor is it sufficient to glibly list policies or plans to address them, 14 years after assuming the duty of care.
Citizens – voters – are entitled to services for their children which they were led to expect in governing party manifestos, if not through common decency. People all over the world know and demand that children must be protected. Yet again, UK shows itself to be out of step with the consensus of other nations and with people’s priorities. Those failing our children must not be allowed to lead this country beyond the coming general election, especially as they now laughably expect them to be the future of our defence forces.
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