shameful levels of poverty in the North East of England.

All of the children we have looked after over the last 20 years have come into care because of poverty. Children had been neglected and abused. Not just poverty of the childrens families but poverty of their parents and grand parents families. It is inherited poverty. They have known nothing else. Domestic abuse can also be inherited. A child who has been abused is likely to be an abuser his/herself because they have seen no different. To them, it is normal behaviour.
I could tell some horrific cases about the children
 
Trug said:
All of the children we have looked after over the last 20 years have come into care because of poverty. Children had been neglected and abused. Not just poverty of the childrens families but poverty of their parents and grand parents families. It is inherited poverty. They have known nothing else. Domestic abuse can also be inherited. A child who has been abused is likely to be an abuser his/herself because they have seen no different. To them, it is normal behaviour.
I could tell some horrific cases about the children
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whilst i wholeheartedly agree with you trug poverty is the root cause of all societal problems , including neglect and abuse, i know from my wife's line of work that abuse is not exclusive to the poor. There are many kids privately educated who are emotionally neglected or abused to the point of requiring secondary services.
 
Glover_elbow said:
whilst i wholeheartedly agree with you trug poverty is the root cause of all societal problems , including neglect and abuse, i know from my wife's line of work that abuse is not exclusive to the poor. There are many kids privately educated who are emotionally neglected or abused to the point of requiring secondary services.
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Absolutely agree . I used to teach in an independant school and saw a surprising amount of this. One particular brother and sister affected were very closely related to a famous TV star, who paid their fees.
 
Glover_elbow said:
whilst i wholeheartedly agree with you trug poverty is the root cause of all societal problems , including neglect and abuse, i know from my wife's line of work that abuse is not exclusive to the poor. There are many kids privately educated who are emotionally neglected or abused to the point of requiring secondary services.
Click to expand...
Totally agree Glovers. I know kids who have come from very well off families who have been placed into care. I was just sharing my and my wife's experiences of caring for children.
 
"I’ve worked in a number of local authorities all over the country, but I’ve never worked anywhere where poverty is as bad and life chances so poor.”

This sentence hit me, because its a senior professional that has been able to do comparisons at the coal face and willing to go public without making a political point.

I see it walking around central Middlesbrough, South Bank, North Ormesby and now even areas that used to be the surburbs like Ormesby and I thought I would never say this Guisborough. Also from stories in the Gazette over many years now, but on an almost daily basis. It is not something that started in 2010 neither. Its certainly become worse to me since around 1979. Austerity cuts have reduced welfare benefits for the poor and disabled, reduced some public services, reduced spending on state schools and colleges, but its much much deeper than that. There has been a lack of interest by all UK governments and many private organisations. So you don't see much investment either private or public, relative to other areas of the UK. Eventually that does affect life chances, opportunities, incomes of everyone in the North East. I know a lot of the board don't like this phrase and some even deny it, but it is (relatively) left behind. What has happend in the last 6 years is that it is getting more recognised as such, which is a start.

One example is on the high street of Guisborough. There is a fairly grand old building called the Town Hall. It is very prominant and central and quite large for the Town. I have seen it rotting and crumbling for at least 30 years, but you can see it was substantial building of historical note. Nothing seem to be happening it had become an eyesore. . Some people have got together to form a group to redevelop it in 2017. This group with R & C have managed to obtain National Lottery funding over £1m to renovate the building. This immediately brings some money into the area. The renovated building will make the Town look more attractive and some businesses may work from the building. It will bring some tourists in, which all in turn brings more money in. This created wealth, jobs and opportunities in a small way. When you get a number of these small projects going it does make a difference to an area.

Little villages around me (not in Teesside) are getting £250,000 to build new village and church halls that are rarely used. I know its not the answer on its own but maybe it needs more people particularly professional people to push and drive new developments.

On a bigger scale we need serious regional development incentives again - all UK Governments since 1979 have seen to development of London and the Golden Triangle of Oxford/Cambridge and London as the way to maximise prosperity for the UK. Then the outer regions to some extent will live off this prosperity through tourism and/or welfare and migration. So UK Government development money has been heavily invested in London, Oxford and Cambridge bounded areas and still is.
 
My sister works a s a school nurse in Redcar and Cleveland, and looks after at risk children, its so sad the stories she has. Before then she was a district nurse around Grangetown/South Bank. Harrowing. Had to havea security guard drive round with her for that one because of the drugs she had.

She has seen it all, don't know how she copes with it tbh. One of the unsung heroes in all of this, just gets on with her job an does the best she can for the kids.
 
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