Coalition cuts are robbing our children

8:10am Tuesday 12th June 2012 in Letters

NEW figures show that four in 10 of our children fail to master the basic skills expected of them at the age of five.

Britain has fallen behind Poland, Hungary, Denmark, and Finland in this regard.

If five year olds have reached a good level of development they can dress themselves, take turns in a conversation, know some of the alphabet, read simple sentences, or count to 10.

3,600 Sure Start Centres were opened by Labour to provide childcare and early years education services, as well as health and parenting advice to disadvantaged families.

Coalition funding cuts have led to the closure of 124 Sure Start Children’s Centres.

Early life inequalities usually follow through to teenage years. That is, more teenagers classified as NEETS (those not in Employment, Education, or Training).

The Sure Start Centres need to be expanded, not cut.

Surely the £10 billion, which it is proposed the UK sends to the IMF (International Monetary Fund) to provide even more bail-outs (Spain, Greece, Portugal) in the EU, could be spent better on saving and expanding these centres?

Apparently Mr Osborne the coalition chancellor does not intend to pursue a vote on this matter in the House of Commons.

Yet again their hands in your pockets, without asking you!

JAMES ASHINGTON

UKIP candidate for Lymm Parish and Lymm ward borough elections Lymm

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Comments(12)

nextdoor says...
2:16pm Tue 12 Jun 12

Surely it is the parents job to help raise their child? Yes you may be disadvantaged but charity shops are full of books these days.

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Nick Tessla says...
3:44pm Tue 12 Jun 12

In the unlikely event of UKIP coming to power the cuts would be even more savage - they are far more right wing than the tories.

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frank100 says...
3:54pm Tue 12 Jun 12

oh oh,,,its a political piece...cue Nick Tessla......

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pognoogle says...
9:49am Wed 13 Jun 12

Completely agree with nextdoor. It is a parents responsibilityto install the basics before a child starts school. A lot of these disadvantaged families are disadvantage because of the choices they make (like to spend money on cigs and flash tvs rather than their kids).

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Cleopatra says...
11:55pm Wed 13 Jun 12

How much does it cost a parent to teach his/her child how to dress itself? Nothing. How much does it cost to teach their child to count from 1 to10? Nothing. How much does it cost to teach their child ABC.... Nothing. How much does it cost them to teach their child to speak and converse? Nothing. How much does it cost to teach their child to read simple sentences like 'This is my dog.' The price of a pencil and a bit of scrap paper to write on.
Even disadvantaged families can teach their own children the basics for next to no cost.
Truth is some parents just can't be r sed to teach their child the basics so let someone else do it for them at a cost to everyone else.

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LJ says...
11:41am Thu 14 Jun 12

Quite right Cleopatra. Too many young parents think its their god given right to sit and watch Jeremy Kyle while someone else teaches their children to dress themselves. Some of us taught our children the basics and had full time jobs as well, without feeling we deserved a gold star for doing it!

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Rowdie says...
9:25am Fri 15 Jun 12

Too many politicians as ever trying to gain power by trying to appeal to those of us who prefer to "have life easy". "We'll give you everything you need",they say.Just vote for us and put us in power. See what is happening in Greece now.
All these groups saying vote for us;we won't have 'austerity',everythi
ng will be as it was,we won't make you pay back what the country owes.Then when they get in power you get the 'real world'.
Same as Labour in this Country.They know many people will not accept that we all have to pay our way and can live life by borrowing all the time.The problem is you borrow;then you have to pay back plus interest. The moral is "live within your means".

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old-codger says...
8:28pm Fri 15 Jun 12

Cleopatra says...
11:55pm Wed 13 Jun 12 ......
Even disadvantaged families can teach their own children the basics for next to no cost.
Truth is some parents just can't be r sed to teach their child the basics so let someone else do it for them at a cost to everyone else.”..
Well said cleopatra I agree.. But a lot of what Nick Tessla said is correct as well.

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biginthesticks says...
9:43pm Fri 15 Jun 12

Most disadvantaged families are disadvantaged from many reasons mainly outside their control.
It would be unfair for you all to speculate and be uninformed there are just to many variables on who uses this service.

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Cleopatra says...
9:46am Sat 16 Jun 12

biginthesticks wrote:
Most disadvantaged families are disadvantaged from many reasons mainly outside their control. It would be unfair for you all to speculate and be uninformed there are just to many variables on who uses this service.
Such as.....? biginthesticks.

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choperado says...
9:05pm Sat 16 Jun 12

If they are that disadvantaged that they can't properly raise a child, the child should be taken into care.

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SickAndTired2 says...
11:32pm Sat 16 Jun 12

biginthesticks wrote:
Most disadvantaged families are disadvantaged from many reasons mainly outside their control.
It would be unfair for you all to speculate and be uninformed there are just to many variables on who uses this service.
Welcome to the Warrington Guardian website, where the locals like to play judge and jury to anyone facing any sort of plight that they feel could be avoided...

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