Neck fan time in Canada!

I’m back from Canada (with heat exhaustion!) and hugging the CN Tower has got me thinking about our aspirations for children and young people.

Forgive the dramatics (there’s more to come) but wow, you know that feeling just before a Scottish thunderstorm when it’s so humid and the air needs cleared?  Well, max on that feeling.  In fact, max on it a thousand times!

No joke, the humidity levels whilst out there reached feels like temps of 47⁰ and had me diving head first into the sanctuary of the air conditioned shops and begging – I mean, pure down on my knees style begging - for tables in the equally cool spaces of the busy local cafes.  We even spotted Canadians wearing neck fans this year!

Our latest Canadian adventure also included yellow skies and smoke filled air from the wildfires further down Southern Ontario, periodic rain that can only be described as God pulling the plug from his mighty big bath tub, and emergency tornado warning texts from the government, advising us to head to our basements if the weather approaches! 

We’re an international family.  Our eldest son lives in Canada so we’ve regularly travelled out there.  I’d recommend the winters though, where it's fun lying in the 6 feet snow and flapping out snow angels! Or is that just me? Our youngest son is also abroad, in Belgium to be precise - so another familiar country.

As fellow international parents will empathise, between those visits we miss them much and it’s in those times that I recall the words of my Belgian son, “Mother, you should be proud.  You gave us the confidence to fly.”

I thought of those figurative words as I stood at the foot of the CN Tower, in awe at how it stretched high into the sky.  No peering down any glass floor for this acrophobic!  I thought too of the greater aspiration we should have for all children and young people, whatever their background, and the importance of communicating our belief in their potential through action.

Such a task involves us all…and certainly the policy making world.

When the new Scottish Parliament gets properly underway after the summer recess, every MSP has the opportunity to be a brave, independent and aspirational thinker for children and young people, challenging at times their own party lines and working much more maturely across parties to ensure the action we all know is needed.

In their still newly elected roles, they have the opportunity to genuinely question the status quo that all who directly support children and young people are calling out, and to consider new ideas and fresh perspectives that deliver actual solutions and change.

You know, we can bubble talk policy until the cows come home with those same familiar faces but the reality is that there are still too many children left at the bottom of the tower without hope about their potential and future.

I think of the children and young people who still await a quality (or indeed any) education, aspirational positive destinations that maximise on their diverse abilities and dreams, or extra-curricular activities and greater opportunities in life. 

I think too of the children and young people who need a care experience that actually realises The Promise, those who have been failed by a child protection system that is crying out for change, and the many others who need freed from poverty to access a home, healthy food and their most basic children’s rights.

And most of all, whatever the issue, we need sufficient and sustainable resourcing that shouts “We believe in you!” rather than costly gimmicks to score political points.

Sadly and too often, the children and young people’s policy making world feels like a talking shop with an endless production line of inquiries and reports that leave a trail of exhausted consultees.  Instead, tangible action and change is vitally needed.

The new Education Committee has already suggested that some of these issues form part of their forward work and there will be other relevant proposals across the committees and parliament.

The key question is…will this 7^th parliament deliver real action and change for children? Or just more aspirational-less (Is that even a word?) talk?

We all have the opportunity to hold policy makers to account but even more so, we have the opportunity to ramp up the people power! Why not start being more aspirational about our own potential to effect change for children and young people?  Instead of just waiting on the politicians to act, we can increasingly explore new, independent and different ways to make a difference for all.

Every child has the right to experience their glass floor!