97 charities warn the government that children's rights have worsened in the UK. Here's what you can do to help change that.

It is a sad fact that 38% of children in the North East live in poverty, surpassing London for the first time since records began. And with child poverty comes daily hardships and harsh living conditions that can steal away their childhood. There's no money to eat or heat the home, never-mind luxuries, designer gear, activities or holidays.

It may shock you to read here that some children have never left their town of birth or had a trip to the beach to feel the sand under their toes or to splash in the sea, something many of us take for granted as a standard childhood experience. Newsflash - its not.

The unrelenting stress of poverty can hinder a child’s brain development with long-term consequences on physical and mental well-being, poorer educational attainment; it limits social mobility, and it increases the risk of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and trauma, leading to lifelong effects that follow them into adulthood.

Faced with the consequences of this everyday in my charity , it is therefore no surprise to me that this new report from the Children's Rights Alliance for England on the UK Implementation of the UN Convention of the Rights of a Child highlights that 'there?has been severe regression in relation to child poverty since 2016'.

I ask you "What will it take for our government to commit to take action to tackle child poverty?"

What does surprise me is that no matter how stark the statistics and misery, no matter how many children and families suffer, and no matter how many people and agencies stand up and demand action - 97 charities have put their names to this report, and they aren't the first, others have gone before them - yet still there is still no national strategy to tackle child poverty. Why?

I for one, will be writing to the Prime Minister and to my MP to demand the government implements the recommendations in this report, which includes re-establishing a cross-government national strategy to address child poverty in line with the Child Poverty Act 2010 and increasing children’s social security benefits to enable all households to have an adequate standard of living, something my local authority and many Citizens Advice across the land have been passionately campaigning about for some time.

Further, the report calls for the the abolition of the Two-Child Limit and Benefit Cap, something which is has caused immense pain and hardship and in my view its abolition is long overdue. The third recommendation is to review all childcare funding to work towards a system that enables parents to work and narrows the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers because poverty isn't just about having a miserable life, experiencing the trauma of stigma, using foodbanks, living in cold homes and all the associated health issues that come from these things (which are bad enough), its about life itself and that's no exaggeration.

Can we accept a child dying 10 years prematurely simply because they are poor and live in deprived circumstances?

Alice Wiseman, Gateshead Director for Public Health's annual report for 2020, "It's raining, it's pouring ", highlights an unacceptable pattern of disadvantage within local communities. Entitled "It never rains but it pours", it reveals that the life expectancy of two babies born on the same day in Gateshead could vary by up to 10 years depending on the circumstances into which they are born. In some areas of the country this discrepancy is ever larger.

It may be a cliche to say "children are our future" - and I promise you I'm not blissfully singing this tune as I'm writing, I'm deadly serious. As a society we will not come out of this well, the consequences of the choices we make around child poverty will stay with us for generations. Our government must act to turn this around, it can be done.

If you are motivated to add your voice to the 97 charities behind this report and the call for the UK government to implement the recommendations set out in this report then please consider writing to the Prime Minister and to your MP. You can find their details here . If your not sure what to say, send me a DM and I'll give you an outline you can make your own.