Buttle UK has published a new report, The State of Child Poverty 2021, which focuses on the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable children and young people.
With first-hand insight from frontline services that support an estimated 36,000 young people, the third annual publication of this report showed that many are dealing with trauma brought on by a range of adverse childhood experiences that have been worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mental health issues were shown to be the most common adverse childhood experience, with 63 per cent of those reported related to mental health.
Level with mental health was parental separation, while 61 per cent included verbal abuse and 59 per cent included domestic abuse.
Buttle UK, a charity dedicated to helping children and young people in crisis in the UK, advise that mental health teams be provided to all schools, while also proposing that the curriculum be altered to balance the time spent on academic pursuits and on enrichment.
"The Government’s response to year of disrupted schooling seems to have been created with children’s stability in the home as a given, and that all is needed is more time to catch up on what was previously lost academically," said Buttle UK CEO Joseph Howes.
"This is simply the worst way of looking at it for the most vulnerable children, who will need a different kind of support to get back to the starting line. These children have faced traumatic episodes compounded by the events of the last 18 months. So, if the assumption is that they can put all of that aside, and just focus on academic achievement, it’s asking for the impossible. The result will be that catch up programmes are pushing the mainstream forward and leaving the vulnerable even further behind."
Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School has taken action to engage parents in their children's learning and develop meaningful relationships that benefit student wellbeing.
Writing in The Parliamentary Review, headteacher Carolyn Baker explained how the school's welfare lead and parental engagement coordinator played a key role.
"All staff support the work of our pastoral team, including a parental engagement coordinator and a child and family welfare lead," she said.
"There are many opportunities for parents to come into school. We used the Families and Schools Together project for three consecutive years. During the project, families were invited to the school once a week. It required whole staff involvement and we learnt a lot from the experience.
"The apparent loneliness of some parents was addressed, as they were able to form friendships and networks of support. Data from the project also highlighted significant improvements in pupil self-esteem and behaviour. Parent and child relationships were developed, and families became more involved in school life generally."
Meanwhile, Prospect Vale Primary School headteacher Paul McDowell discussed how staff have taught children that "it is OK not to be OK".
"Resilience is a concept taught and explored and is linked to our work on hope and a focus on positivity," he wrote in The Parliamentary Review.
"We actively encourage dialogue, emphasising that it’s OK not to be OK. The phrase mental fitness is used repeatedly by our team. Mindfulness lessons take place with children in upper Key Stage 2, enhanced by visits to a local donkey sanctuary in order to explore relationships between humans and donkeys, which can be beneficial to relaxation."
