JULIE ELLIOTT: Government needs to finance getting pupils back to school

In his inspirational letter calling for Government action at the weekend, he recalled how he became the youngest International Senior player ever here in Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. He recounted how he got to where he was with the support of his community, the hard work of his mam who worked on minimum wage full time, relying on breakfast clubs and free school meals to get by.

Children should not be going to bed hungry, ever, and every single child who goes to bed hungry is a failure of Government. At the start of the crisis, the Health Secretary stood at a press conference calling on football players to do their bit. This time, the call was the other way around.

This should not be where Government action stops.

Government should be funding education so that they can that pupils can get back to school in a safe, socially distanced environment. As children are kept away from school, the education divide grows as those who have the money to afford private tutoring and enough devices with internet connection for children to use are able to continue with their education, when others are not. This needs to change, as soon as safety can be assured.

The Government need to support Local Authorities, Academy Trusts and Schools, asking what they need to get children and young people back to school.

They need to give them t the money in order to open community spaces, provide portacabins and pay teachers who had left the profession to be able to allow children back into Education in a safe environment for all.

Secondly, we need the government to properly invest in support for children and families, in addition to their reluctant commitment to ending child hunger over the summer. We need a commitment to the addition of broadband connections to free school meal entitlement, so children can properly access education from home.

There are many, many measures that the Government can bring forward to help children and families through this crisis and beyond, but we need action, and we need it now.