If I were Prime Minister...

As my 6 year old daughter pointed out, sometimes children have the best ideas. She's not wrong.  Think of Suvir Mirchandani, the 14 year old boy who pointed out to the US government that they could save up to £400 million a year simply by changing the font they use on documents they print by way of savings on ink.

Sometime it needs fresh eyes to come up with solutions to long-term problems, and this is why Save the Children have launched their initiative 'If I were Prime Minister' in association with Debate Mate to coincide with the launch of the UK poverty report - 'A Fair Start For Every Child'. 

The report shows that, despite a cross party commitment to end child poverty in the UK by 2020, new projections show that five million children in the UK could be trapped in poverty by 2020 - the highest number on record.  Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children says:

"Millions of children in the UK are being left behind - sentenced to a lifetime of poverty. Far too many of our children are living in cold and damp homes, without healthy food, with parents who can see no end to their situation. If we ignore the rising toll of poverty we are blighting the future of a further 1.4million children.  In one of the world’s richest countries there is simply no excuse.”

The report sets out the damaging effects of poverty on childhood, but also how this affects a child’s longterm future increasing the chances of low attainment with only a third of the poorest children going on to achieve five good GCSE’s.  In 2011, there were more than double the amount of obese children in the poorest households, compared to the richest.

Save the Children have teamed up with Debate Mate, who work with children in deprived schools, and enabled groups of young people to make short films to be entered into a nation-wide competition pitching their ideas for what should be done to end child poverty.  Take a look on the Facebook page where you can see them all and vote for your favourite and to sign the UK Poverty petition. The debate squads who have made the winning film entries will be invited to a finale event - a ‘Children’s Question Time’ – on 25^th June at Central Hall Westminster.

Some of the ideas actually are brilliant, (you can see them all here) they make me wonder why we're paying government ministers, advisers and think tanks when some of our youth seem to have sussed the solutions right here.

My daughter is only 6 and may not have the vocabulary or thought processes that some of the older children do, but we had a great debate about how she thought we could address child poverty.  I was struck by the simplistic way she approached the issue.  She quite rightly said that healthy food is more expensive than healthier fresh food and fruit and vegetables.  Instead of going down the route that politicians are currently debating of taxing cheap processed food and sugar-laden products, she simply thinks that large supermarkets should be made to sell healthier foods cheaper - could that work?  They already have loss leaders in store.  They can sell alcohol cheaper than water in some instances so why not?

She grasped the link between lack of food and nutrition and lower achievement in school, and felt that the most important things for a child to have were a home and food. Well, the rise of child homelessness and the increasing uptake of food bank services makes it all the more vital that we support Save the Children's work and sign the petition to end child poverty.