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06 September 2010
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Release Date: 21 June 2010
Good Childhood Advisor, Jim Davis of the Children's Society, addressed an audience of over 40 charity workers and childcare professionals at the offices of leading family solicitors, Anthony Collins, last week on the thought-provoking subject of "A Good Childhood". Research commissioned by the Children's Society has found that British society has become too individualistic in the last 50 years. Adults are no longer willing to assume collective responsibility for other people's children, fearful of intruding on the privacy of others or worried that their intervention might be misinterpreted in a sinister light. Children face a range of problems from family break-up and associated low academic achievement and mental ill-health, to commercial and social pressures pushing them towards premature sexualisation and unhealthy eating trends. All this has impoverished children's lives and left them increasingly isolated, vulnerable and alienated. Mr Davis challenged the meeting to consider to what extent childcare workers could or should show love towards the children in their care and what values adults should model for children to help them develop into happy, integrated members of a caring society. Mr Davis said, "I do not expect the necessary changes in society to come about through government or its policies. What is needed is a real change of attitude towards children at grassroots level. The Children's Society is seeking to promote this change by holding Good Childhood Conversations with community groups across the country." Liz Wyatt, Head of Family Law at Anthony Collins Solicitors added: "It is up to all of us working with children to show them that they are respected and valued as individuals. This is particularly crucial for children within the care system."
