Further education

The further education policy of the UK government is in a shambles. It has been decreed that as many students as possible should attend University for the sake of the reputation of the Country! There is no regard here for the many students who would be better served  by going to a Technical College.

The Government has no right to force a child to go to a particular type of college of further education just for the Country to be able to boast that a higher proportion of UK children are going down a University route, when compared with other cultures or countries.

A child has the right to be offered encouragement to undertake training, in whatever sphere that might be, either physically or intellectually, in an environment of their choice, for their future benefit when an adult, provided that those interests are not in conflict with civilisation generally. A child has that right.

A further problem has evolved in persuading a student to go to a University. The costs cannot be borne by the country funding their attendance, and in many cases neither can their parents, so a scheme has been set up to make it easier for the students to borrow the funds with a view to paying the money back when they are earning more than a specific salary when finally at work, this being related to the average wage at that time. This is perceived by many to be a sensible approach, but an unreasonable number of the students see this as an excuse to borrow more than they actually need with a view to being able to have a good social life whilst in attendance. They view the paying back when earning, if they earn enough, as not a problem, and this is quite acceptable.

Then the organisation supposed to be providing the funding gets into a position where they can't supply the monies, even though the Government had promised that the funding would be available, the result of this in some instances being that the students cannot afford to continue on their university route and they drop out!

A child has the right to be treated by the Authorities with honesty, and if a promise is made, that should be kept. What signal does this behaviour give to the students for when they are adults? And how will it affect how they treat other members of society? This is not something that should be experienced by youngsters whilst in their training years.

The child has the right to be treated with honesty, and if a promise is made to them by an adult, then they have the right to expect that promise to be upheld.

Babysitting between friends

Two women are undertaking part time work. They both have a child of about the same age. They organise their work time so that neither is at work at the same time. They are friends. They know each other well. They know how the other child has been brought up, and each would be happy for their own child to be looked after by the other mother should the need arise. The children have played together in the past and get on well.

The parents would not, after all, be in favour of the two children being forced to play together if they didn’t get on. The parents would not be interested in the children getting together if it was bad for their child. It would just cause each parent grief if the result of such a get-together was for their child to emerge with hassle and upset.

These parents have organised their working life so that they can each look after the other child, in rota, to allow the mothers to go to work. This is the logical way of dealing with the problem. The ‘powers that be’ have determined that this is not acceptable and that mothers should be thoroughly checked before being allowed to look after another child on a regular basis such as this.

Ofsted have apparently decreed that caring for another person’s child ‘for reward’ should be classed as childminding, and therefore both mothers must be registered with Ofsted and follow the same regulations as normal childminders, their financial ‘reward’ being that they receive free care for their children. There is, of course, a financial cost to registering with Ofsted, together with various checks being made to ensure that they are ‘proper’ persons to be undertaking the task.

Why don’t the ‘powers that be’ think sensibly? Most of child abuse occurs within the child’s own family unit – not with persons from outside. The risk of abuse from friends is minimal, and therefore to target that freely offered help such that there will be a deterrent to such a gesture with cost implications is absurd, especially when the more likely threat from the families themselves is ignored. We will discuss the threat from the child’s own family another time.

Children have a right to expect the general public to be properly interested in their wellbeing, and in this respect they have a right to know that their mothers are able to organise their lives such they can earn money effectively for their own benefit, without costly enforced legislation being applied that can only deter them from doing so, especially when the friends’ involvement is the best approach for their safety. The children have that right!