Joining the dots

There is no shortage of evidence that children, their families and their communities in England and the UK are experiencing hardship not of their making which negatively impacts their well-being and safety.

There is inspiring work by those speaking up about the ways in which specific issues impact children, families and their communities and who are fighting for change. Yet again and again we see a vicious cycle of growing awareness of individual issues leading to more surveillance and policing of the struggling rather than understanding and support. 

That children and their families are being harmed by these responses is well researched. However this evidence is not always easily accessible to those who are most impacted nor does the evidence necessarily lead to the change that it should.

Reclaim Rights for Children aims to join these dots and show the thread running through the individual issues experienced by different groups. We reject the close-up focus on children and their families as problems to be solved. The system is broken and it is there that we must focus in demanding equality, an end to ‘austerity’ and fulfilment of our ‘everyday rights’.

Children, their families and their communities know what they need and – in line with human rights – should have agency in their own lives, be active in asking for what they need and in shaping the solutions.