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Professor Stephen McKinney reflects on how Covid has exacerbated the difficulties faced by children living in poverty.  Justice & Peace Scotland blog.

Covid-19 has had a major impact on school education in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. The lockdowns have resulted in the schools being closed to the majority of children and young people. The schools have remained open for the children of key workers and vulnerable children only. Many children are engaged in home learning which can involve being taught online or being provided with learning resources. 

There has been considerable media attention focussed on the long-term effects of school closures, the reconfiguration of assessment in public examinations and the stresses of home learning for children, teachers and parents.

As schools begin to cautiously reopen, there are indications that increased numbers of young people are suffering from mental and physical health problems. Many children feel isolated and there may be new stresses in the home environment. There may be limited space in the home and insufficient numbers of devices that can access the internet. The restrictions and lockdowns have exacerbated pre-existing problems and there has been an increase in some forms of extreme behaviour. Recent reports, for example, have focussed on the disturbing rise in self harm among young people. 

The pandemic has highlighted the serious plight of those children who are living in poverty. Around a quarter of the children in Scotland live in poverty and this figure is growing. There has been a rise in public and civic awareness of the extent of poverty and child poverty in Scotland in recent years. The proliferation and variety of food banks is a highly visible indicator of poverty in contemporary Scotland. Food banks have recorded a significant rise in uptake over the last five years and have struggled to cope with the demand for food during the pandemic.

There is one group of children which deserves to receive more public attention and understanding: young carers. A young carer is somebody who is under 18 and who has caring responsibilities. The young carer may be as young as five years old and, in some cases, even younger.  Children who live in poverty are more likely to have caring responsibilities. There are over 44,000 young carers in Scotland and the figure is probably higher because some children do not recognise themselves as young carers – they simply see themselves as looking after other people. Caring can be for a parent (or both parents) who is physically or mentally ill or who has a disability or suffers from addiction.  The caring duties can include support in dressing and attending to the domestic chores. It can mean providing emotional support for an adult and often means caring for the daily needs of younger siblings. The caring duties can mean that the young carer is late for school or unable to complete homework in time. The Children’s Society adds that one third of young carers have mental health issues. During periods of restrictions and lockdowns the caring duties of some young carers have become intensified and they feel increasingly isolated and disconnected from their friends. 

Professor Stephen McKinney is the leader of Pedagogy, Praxis and Faith, a Research and Teaching Group, in the School of Education University of Glasgow. He is member of the Archdiocese of Glasgow Commission for Justice and Peace.  Professor Stephen McKinney Is one of the panel members at our online event on Sunday 7th March - 'Poverty & Pandemic' looking at the impact of the pandemic and asking how the church can be ready and prepared in our communities to meet the challenges.   Book your place to join us here Poverty & Pandemic Tickets, Sun 7 Mar 2021 at 16:30 | Eventbrite

Margaret McGowan is the Justice & Peace Scotland rep for the diocese of Motherwell and long term campaigner and supporter for the Fairtrade movement.  Here she reflects on the impact the climate crisis is having on farmers worldwide. Blog.

Fairtrade Fortnight this year runs from the 22nd of February till the 7th of March. During these two weeks each year, people in the UK join to share the stories of the people who grow our food and drinks. These people are often exploited and underpaid. This year the focus is on the climate crisis. Deforestation, changing weather patterns, rising temperatures and lack of water are increasing problems and threaten the livelihoods of farmers and workers. 

Do you remember that around this time last year, many of us stockpiled essential food items and supplies as we thought they were going to run out. It turned out to be unnecessary as the farmers and other essential workers maintained a steady stream food items and supplies. This highlighted how dependent we are on farmers and their work. 

Smallholder famers in developing countries are affected more by climate change despite contributing to it the least. They say it is their biggest challenge right now. These farmers manage over 80 percent of the world’s 500 million farms and rely on this land for their livelihoods. Climate change has increasingly negative effects on land and agricultural production. This coupled with falling commodity prices adds to the challenge.

Fairtrade farmers have seen some devastation of crops. It is predicted that by 2050 as much as fifty percent of land currently used for coffee farming will no longer be suitable. Cocoa growing regions in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire will become too hot to grow the crop.

But there is hope and this hope depends on us acting now. Farmers need to adapt and also develop more sustainable farming methods. However, this comes at a cost that many farmers cannot afford as they do not even earn a living wage.

For these farmers to escape poverty, the prices of our basic foods have to increase so that they are able to pay for the changes they need to make to their farming practices.

This is where Fairtrade helps. 

Fair Trade represents an alternative to this system, one that is rooted in respect for human dignity. The core principles of Fair Trade—fair pricing, direct purchasing and long-term relationships, all reflect a commitment to uphold the human dignity of small-scale producers overseas.  Kwabena Ohmeng-Tinyase is the Managing Director of Kuapa Kokoo, a Fair Trade cocoa cooperative in Ghana. For him, the relationship between Fair Trade and human dignity is simple: “We all have to go shopping. Fair Trade is just shopping with respect.”

This year the Fairtrade Foundation unveils its first-ever virtual festival to highlight the harmful effect of the climate crisis on farmers and food supply.

https://www.fairtrade.org.uk

Or if you are interested in bringing Fairtrade Fortnight to your community, workplace, school, college or university you can find details here on what to do. 

Fairtrade Fortnight 2021 - Scottish Fair Trade Forum

Martin Johnstone is an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland spending all his time alongside organisations and individuals struggling for justice and Martin is clear that the only way that things will really change is if people who struggle against poverty are at the heart of that change process. 

“Some things are so urgent that we can’t afford to do them quickly.” There is an inherent contradiction in this statement but also a deep truth.

At times quick decisions need to be made and procrastinating costs lives. Other times our immediate, short term responses – natural though they may be – do not serve us well in the longer term. We will doubtless have experienced both during the COVID19 pandemic and we are likely to see both again in our attempts to recover from it.

Over recent months it has been encouraging how much consensus there has been, at least in terms of rhetoric, about the need to Build Back Better. There is a broad recognition that the trajectory we were on was failing too many, driving inequality and destroying the planet.

One of the challenges which those enabling and leading the build back better movement face is the requirement to both respond quickly and to take time and to act deliberatively. There is no doubt that an ‘Overton’ policy window has opened to make the case for radical economic and social change – e.g. building a green economy, creating universally accessible and affordable superfast broadband, recalibrating social care – but also that it could close rapidly. There is also a perceived need to act now before more damage is done. However, there is also a risk that by moving too quickly many of those whose interests were not represented (or even acknowledged) previously will continue to be overlooked.

This is one of the perennial problems of policy development, implementation, and evaluation. Put simply, those whose lives have been most harshly impacted by policy and practice remain largely excluded from the development of the very policy and practice supposedly designed to tackle current injustices. There is, therefore, a need not just to build back better but, to build back WITH.

Over the last few years, a growing number of Poverty Truth Commissions have emerged in different parts of the UK. The commissions bring people with direct, lived experience of poverty together with civic and business leaders in a shared task to address the symptoms and causes of poverty. The commissions always begin with those who experience poverty – they meet as a group for several months before others are invited to join them. It is their struggle that substantially sets the agenda. This is slow work. It is about building understanding and relationships – empathy across and between different spaces – before a commission is capable to move on to developing solutions. One of the people who has helped to develop the Poverty Truth Network says it often feels more like cooking a Sunday roast than a microwave dinner. You can’t rush it.

Recently a small group that has been involved in different Poverty Truth Commissions came together to discuss how to build back with. One person pointed out that it has taken coronavirus for many of us to realise what had been obvious to her and others for many years: things were not working the way they should for people like her and for millions of others. We spoke of digital inequality; poor mental health; isolation for some and overcrowding for others; escalating levels of food insecurity; the struggle to look after our kids. We recognised that for those able to work from home during the pandemic, fewer opportunities to spend money may well mean that savings have increased in recent months whereas for others increased household costs have thrown people even further into debt.

Unless people who bear the scars of failed policy and practice are there when decisions about the future are being considered, there is the overwhelming likelihood that past mistakes will be repeated.

We do not underestimate how challenging this way of working is. But it seems to us inconceivable that it is possible to create a just asylum system without the involvement of asylum seekers and people who are fearful of losing their jobs to them. We won’t successfully create a society where young people can flourish if they are excluded from the design of that society. We won’t develop a sustainable benefits system without the insights of people who require its support.

These things are obvious but, in our experience, it is astonishing how often they are overlooked or paid lip service to. We have lost count of the number of times that we have heard it said: “It would have been good to involve more people with lived experience but there simply wasn’t the time.” However, if we are honest, we need to recognise that for too many of us who hold positions of power, there was not the time because we did not believe that the insights of others were as worthwhile as our own.

Time clearly matters. For some now is the time to really listen rather than jumping to inadequate and incomplete solutions. This is about slowly, and with others, growing in confidence, finding our voice, and sharing our expertise. One of us spoke about how, through the course of the pandemic, he had played a regular part in advising the local authority on how homeless people could be more effectively supported, knowing the issues from the inside. This was only possible because, as part of a Poverty Truth Commission, he had begun to recognise his own worth.

These stories are not unique. The Poverty Truth Network is one of a range of groups that nurture such wisdom and help it to inform policy and practice. But such groups are still a  minority, even amongst progressive organisations who are often understandably impatient for change.  

The model for establishing a Poverty Truth Commission is about designing a system, not just a one-off policy programme. Systems thinking is deliberately slow and iterative, enabling friendships, insights, policy and practice to grow sustainably over time. We recognise that this way of working is also joyful, and that joy is an essential element in what will be the long, ongoing journey towards a sustainable and better future. The arc of history may well bend towards justice, but it is a long arc.

“Some things are so urgent that we cannot afford to do them quickly.”

Martin Johnstone will be one of the panel members at our next online event  on Sunday 7th March - 'Poverty & Pandemic' looking at the impact of the pandemic and asking how the church can be ready and prepared in our communities to meet the challenges.   Book your place to join us here Poverty & Pandemic Tickets, Sun 7 Mar 2021 at 16:30 | Eventbrite

This blog was originally published by Involve as part of their series of blogs looking at “democratic responses to COVID19. You can find out about what Martin gets up to – and what he thinks and feels – at www.attheedge.co.uk.