You may be having a sense of deja-vu because, yes, I’ve written about Kids Company’s ‘See the Child. Change the System‘ campaign before. That post is here.
There are now over 23,500 signatures on the See the Child petition. However, as the campaign gathers speed, it needs more signatures than ever to have any real impact. You can add yours at the seethechild.org website.
The aim of ‘See the Child. Change the System‘ campaign is to see the social services system redesigned so that it more effectively cares for and protects the UK’s 3.5 million children who are living in poverty, and the 1.5 million who are being neglected. Kids Company has taken on some new key people to the Advisory Board of its independent Children’s Taskforce, including Javed Khan, CEO of Barnardo’s and Lord Victor Adebowale, CEO of Turning Point. Things are happening.
Meantime, just last week, Kids Company released a new video (above) which was created by its own key workers. It visualises the cycle of deprivation, and how abused and neglected children fall through the gaps and have to survive alone.
There is also a survey that takes all of a minute to complete, which Kids Company and Netmums have joined forces to create. This is to measure public opinion on the government’s approach to vulnerable children – and its influence on voting preferences. It could really be something politicians listen to in the lead up to the General Election.
The survey can be found here.
Meantime, if you haven’t managed to sign the petition yet at seethechild.org, please head over there now. Otherwise text ‘I SEE’ to 63000. This is not a call for donations, it’s just a call for support.
Thank you.
P.S. I recently signed up to run the Brighton 10K next April to raise money for Kids Company. I will be seeking sponsorship nearer to the time and of course hope that you’ll support me! I have never run 10K before – let’s hope I can do it…
Little Lewes 
No wonder it’s so hard to recruit and retain good Social Workers, It makes such depressing reading! While I’m not arguing with it, (it’s under funded and resourced and constantly being redesigned), however some balance and some positive press would be lovely, just for a change! The children that are kept safe and families that are helped by committed and passionate social workers don’t appear to feature. Good stuff does go on despite the challenges, honest!
It must be really hard Donna, to work hard within the system and see all the negative stats that are up on See the Child from the various children’s charities. I guess for there to be real, widespread and lasting change, they feel the need to highlight where the problems lie in order to engage Joe Public and get people to put their signatures on the petition. We are all so desensitised to things now and there are so many campaigns for so many different causes – we’re asked to sponsor, sign for and support things all the time and people start to not care the way they should. Because of that I’m not surprised that Kids Company have to highlight the negative for their See the Child campaign. It’s really sad to say, but it’s what gets to people and although there are many children who are seen by wonderful and dedicated social workers such as you – and I know there must be so many more like you out there – the statistics that they are publishing are still true, despite all your hard work. I think the charity’s heart is in the right place – they just want wider spread and more lasting change for children who need it. But really, what do I know? I just feel affected by that Facebook video I saw all those months ago, and I feel spurred to support See the Child. It’s just a personal choice and doesn’t mean – I promise – that I in any way don’t see and understand that there are people out there who do amazing things for neglected children every day. x
Just for clarity I have no beef with Little Lewes at all, it’s a worthy cause, but just one the is focused on the negative from the websites involved. Maybe I should write something to offer a different perspective?!
Such an important campaign, thank you for highlighting it and good luck with the 10k! Having heard Camila at Kids Company introduce See The Child at BritMums Live earlier this year, as I understand it, the focus of blame is most certainly not on the individuals working within the social care system but advocating changes to the structure in which they work that prohibits better progress being made to protect children. This is not about demonising social care professionals, in fact if I recall, the basis of this campaign is in response to complaints being made from social workers themselves, voicing frustrations about the systems failings that undermine their efforts to protect vulnerable kids.
There certainly are some amazing social workers out there, but this is about a SYSTEM in need of overhaul. We will still need those amazing social workers, but with a system overhaul it will be better for everyone; the social workers, the children, and the communities in which vulnerable children live. With a better, more robust, social care system in place perhaps it won’t take such heroic efforts to ensure children are protected from neglect, perhaps the system will be there to highlight things before heroics are needed…at least in some of the cases.
Little Lewes, I’m really glad you posted this information about Kids Company and See the child. Change the system. Ive just spent 2 hours watching the videos, reading some of the articles, and realising what a worthwhile campagin it is – and one I’m going to get behind, promote an share as widely as possible.
Thank you Sarah, lovely comment and very well put. Everyone feels strongly about neglected children and we would all like to help them in whatever way we can – that’s the main thing that’s connecting everyone on this comment thread. x