By Kiana Greenan
Lockdown has had an impact on everyone in society. No one more so than children. Children’s charity support worker from Irvine, Chelsey Crosbie says that the impact lockdown has had on the most vulnerable children in society is ‘devastating’
“Kids who don’t have the best home life or have parents struggle to provide a life of good structure or a lot of kids don’t have the right home environment to learn in.” Chelsey Crosbie
During the first lockdown only key workers children were allowed into schools, this made the jobs of children support workers like Chelsey extremely hard.
“Each day we had no idea what we were going to face, these vulnerable children rely on routine and they had it taken away from them” Chelsey Crosbie.
The third sector was also hit hard during the pandemic. With the closure of charity shops and people losing their jobs there has been a lack of money put into charities. This has had a knock-on effect to staffing in these charities, a lot of organisations had to stop recruitment during lockdown which left many services short staffed.
“Not only were we worrying about the children during lockdown we also were worried for our jobs” Chelsey Crosbie.
Interview with children’s charity support worker Chelsey Crosbie.
Nursery teacher Cristina Schenini works in one of Glasgow’s most deprived areas. She says that the majority of children in the nursery are from vulnerable homes and for various reasons have social workers involved.
“This lockdown most kids are in because their family lives are hard“ Cristina Schenini
The Scottish Government have introduced free school meals during school closures and holidays. But some of the most vulnerable children do not have access to ‘hot’ meals. Chelsey says that during the first lockdown families struggled to pay for the additional electric caused by being home all the time. This is massive benefit to allowing vulnerable kids in nursery and schools as they are ‘guaranteed’ hot meals.
“Being in nursery lets the most vulnerable children be somewhere safe where they are guaranteed hot meals” Cristina Schenini
Cristina however is now remaining positive about the current situation with vulnerable children as she has noticed a massive difference in early development due to the nursery not working at capacity as well. She says,
“I noticed a massive difference in one child’s speech development because he got a lot more one on one learning. It’s also so important for all children to keep on top of their social skills.” Cristina Schenini.
You can help and support these vulnerable children by donating to the following Scottish charities –
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