Pre-school gets praised in ‘Talk PANTS’ NSPCC competition
THE AWARDS ARE BEING PRESENTED THIS WEEK
NORTH Lincolnshire pre-schools have taken part in a new competition to help promote the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children’s (NSPCC) ‘Talk PANTS’ campaign.
The campaign, which involves cartoon dinosaur Pantosaurus, helps professionals, parents and carers talk in an age-appropriate way about sexual abuse and ensure young people know they can speak out to a trusted adult if ever anything worries or upsets them. The competition, ‘Talk PANTS like Pantosaurus,’ invited pre-schools across the region to share their own methods to engage parents and children in conversations about personal safety.
The awards are being presented this week. But one pre-school in Scunthorpe has been singled out already for praise. The Learning Tree in Scunthorpe has been praised for a commitment to promoting child safety by embedding the messages of Talk PANTS into their daily routine, and creating an environment where children feel able to speak out. The competition is part of a partnership between the NSPCC and North Lincolnshire Council to safeguard children and support families.
Emma Hobson, NSPCC schools co-ordinator, said: “We know that being able to have a simple chat with our children can have a huge impact.
“To be able to Talk PANTS allows a positive conversation to begin. We want to arm our teachers and parents with the knowledge and skills to keep children safe from suspected harm.”
She added the NSPCC was delighted by the response from preschool settings in North Lincolnshire: “We felt early years providers would welcome the opportunity to do something practical in their settings and would encourage involvement, and we certainly weren’t disappointed.”
Emma was also heartened to see the initiatives reverberate in communities, saying: “All of the entries were amazing, but The Learning Tree, our winner, demonstrated a culture of children, parents, and staff embedding the messages into the daily routine. It’s a testament to the dedication and creativity of our educators and caregivers in prioritising child safety.”
Sally Barley, owner of The Learning Tree Pre-School, said: “The children have really embraced the campaign, and have started to take action with their new found knowledge by shutting the toilet door when they are in there, and talking about pants being private. The children and staff alike have enjoyed reading and listening to the Pantosauraus book at group time, and dancing around to the pants song in our physical movement area.
“This has become part of our daily routine and the instilling of safety to the children within the setting, now and in the future.”
NEW data reveals thousands more women than men across the northern Lincolnshire area are claiming Universal Credit (UC) to help stretch their household budgets.
A count of claimants has shown that in the area covered by North Lincolnshire Council, 21 per cent of women compared to 15 per cent of men are claiming the benefit, a total of 3,191 more adult females than males.
In North East Lincolnshire, the gender benefit gap is even larger, with 26 per cent of women as opposed to 19 per cent of men drawing UC – equating to 3,672 more women than men.
The situation is mirrored in East Lindsey, with 2,215 more women than men claiming UC, 22 per cent of women compared with 17 per cent of men.
The figures have been revealed as research shows thousands of single mums are caught in a “poverty trap”, with more women than men relying on UC to make ends meet in all council areas of Britain.
Data from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) shows 6.4 million people to be on UC in January. Women make up 58 per cent of people on UC, a proportion that has been growing since May 2020.
There are now a million more female claimants than male. It means that 18 per cent of women aged between 18 and 65 now claim UC – or one in six – compared to 14 per cent of men. In some parts of the country, the proportion of women who rely on UC is far higher. You can see the proportion of women claiming UC, and how it compares to men, using our interactive map below.
The charity Gingerbread believes that the difference between the number of male and female claimants can at least be partially explained by the number of single parents, the vast majority of whom are women.