Hope Starts Here: Let us eat cake!

Do you like cake? I do. Especially anything with buttercream - yum!

Thanks to the cost of living crisis, cake is now a luxury. Many can’t afford ingredients & high energy prices mean home-made is uneconomical. Shop-bought? Out of the question!

So no cake - no crumbs of comfort.

Austerity was a political choice, not economic necessity. Having endured it for 14 years alongside my fellow Changing Realities participants & their families, it’s clear austerity isn’t working. Our children deserve a better future. Just because we live in poverty doesn’t mean we don’t have aspirations. We also deserve cake now & again.

We need a recipe comprising the ingredients we & our children need to thrive & flourish in dignity. But how can we, or rather the Government, make it so?

Thankfully, one already exists - The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ratified by the UK Government in 1991, it comprises 54 articles with particular emphasis on the rights of children & the responsibilities of all governments in ensuring that all children worldwide grow & develop to their fullest potential.

It's clear the government has failed to uphold the Convention.

My child is now 19, legally an adult. They are at college, but have special educational needs - recently diagnosed as autistic with ADHD aged 17. We were very lucky to access the services we needed - many more are still tethered to the waiting list. Granted an Education, Health and Care plan after a successful appeal via mediation means that they can stay in education until 25 if need be.

But child-related benefits stop before 20 years of age, thus I’m wondering how I’ll cope as a disabled lone parent carer in supporting the both of us whilst they are engaged in an unpaid supported internship.

So I hope our Government fully complies with the Convention ensuring children are central to policy (article 4), are seen & heard (article 12), protected from violence, abuse & neglect (article 19), families given practical & financial support to care for their disabled children so they realise their full potential, free from discrimination (article 23) including the right to a decent standard of living incorporating good quality healthcare, decent food, clean water, a healthy environment, safe accommodation & decent education (articles 24 & 27).

And cake!

Now that’s a recipe I could get behind.