Media Community Network Limited (“MCNL^td”) has been appointed by Barrie O’Shea, Head of Duncombe Primary School in Islington and Schools representative on Islington’s Children’s Safeguarding Board, to work with a group of Duncombe’s pupils to explore “Home Alone” issues.   

The project is funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s “Awards for All” programme and features St. John’s Ambulance who are concerned about accidents to or caused by children being left on their own at home.  

According to Barrie O’Shea, “Proposed legislative changes and in particular the [interaction] of:

·       the reduction in the age of children at which single parents are expected to seek work from 12 to 7; and

·       the new Ofsted registration requirements for carers of children,

mean that the number of grey areas in [relation to] this aspect of parenting is bound to increase, to the detriment of parents and especially children.  [Islington] are interested in the impact on pupils in its schools and wanted to find a way of highlighting the issue.  Because MCNL^td’s approach allows the children to speak for themselves and also results in a film that can be used by all Islington’s schools, it seemed like the ideal organization to work with and we are grateful to the Big Lottery Fund for providing the funding.”

Laverne Hunt, Founder and Operations Director of MCNL^td, said “allowing children and young people to explore issues through the medium of film is what MCNL^td is all about.  We are really pleased to be able to work with the children and parents at Duncombe and hope that their film will provide a basis for raising the issue with other children in Islington and elsewhere.”

The resulting film will be launched at a press conference at the House of Commons on 6th November hosted by local MP, Jeremy Corbyn.