Lib Dems: Govt must step up provision for vulnerable children
The IFS have today published a report revealing that children from better-off households are spending 30% more time each day on educational activities than are children from the poorest fifth of households.
Responding to the widening disadvantage gap between children during the coronavirus crisis, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Layla Moran said:
The Liberal Democrats have been clear that we cannot fix the disadvantage gap without also addressing the looming crisis amongst our vulnerable children. The Government must set up an emergency taskforce to coordinate its response, and for out-of-work supply teachers and recently retired teachers to be recruited to help identify and help the kids most in need.
Too many children still do not have access to the internet and their own devices, and there is huge variation in practice. To halt an ever growing disadvantage gap, the Government should also provide all disadvantaged students with the tools they need and set a minimum requirement for online school provision.
We all want schools to reopen to more pupils, but it has to be safe for them first. We need to see the full scientific advice that the Government has based its strategy on, and to have a grown-up conversation in this country about the risks and rewards. It must be safety first, and our primary goal has to be making sure the most disadvantaged kids are safe and able to learn.
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4 Comments
The primary goal should be making sure that ALL children are safe and able to learn.
http://aberavonneathlibdems.blogspot.com/2020/05/lib-dems-call-for-permanent-remote.html
Yes. This should have been much earlier, as recommended by a green MP.
Layla is right to call for this for all disadvantaged children. I know asylum families that are really struggling to help their children with home schooling when they have no access to the internet and it is expensive to try to do so on phones where there is no wifi available. It will be the same for all low income families who do not have wifi access, and will only lead to the gap widening for children from these low income families.
Why oh why are not all press releases released? There has been a really good one, picked on this morning’s briefing. But no press release found anywhere ( unless someone here has a link). I’ve looked on the twitter sites for Lib Dems, Lib Dem Press, and Christine’s own site.
so I spend time searching the web, copy into a word document, make it into a JPEG, condense some words myself and post on our twitter.
A lot of thought and effort goes into writing statements like this, and it is good. why make it difficult to get it out to a wider audience?
Whilst I have been writing this the twitter posting I have done has been retweeted twice, including a non lib dem.
The posting on Morning Briefing, so more can see is here:
Government’s policy on detaining victims of human trafficking should be simple – don’t do it
Responding to reports that the Home Office is reviewing its policy on locking up vulnerable people in immigration detention, after being forced to admit that it unlawfully detained a trafficking victim for 24 days, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Christine Jardine said:
“Detaining people for months on end – without giving them any idea how long they’ll be there – is clearly inhumane. When those people are victims of human trafficking and modern slavery, it’s especially abhorrent.
“It’s a scandal that it took legal action to get the Conservative Government to release a trafficking victim who’d been unlawfully detained. This shows how important judicial review is for upholding people’s rights, and why Liberal Democrats are right to resist Tory plans to restrict it.
“The Government’s policy on detaining victims of human trafficking should be simple: do not do it.
“This Home Office review must result in real change, unlike the false hope offered by Priti Patel on the £400-a-year Immigration Health Surcharge paid even by doctors, nurses and others working in our NHS.
“Liberal Democrats are continuing to fight for an end to indefinite detention and for detention itself to be an absolute last resort. That will save taxpayers millions and ensure people are treated with more dignity.”