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Following on from the previous post, I’ve just received this from Andrew Pakes, a councillor for Southwark where the Livesey is

Hello

Thank you for signing the online ‘Save the Livesey Children’s Museum’ petition, there has been a great response from all parts of the community and from supporters across the world.

Despite the overwhelming response and positive coverage in the South London Press and Southwark News, this morning the Council tabled its recommendation that the Museum should close at the end of March. The announcement was contained in just one sentence in a 14-page report.

Overall, closing the Museum will ‘save’ Southwark Council £140,000 – a lot of money but a small sum compared to budget as a whole. It is also considerably less than what the council proposes to spend on publicity, consultants, agency workers or a range of other items.

The recommendation will be discussed next Tuesday by the Executive – these are the Lib Dem and Tory councillors who have proposed these cuts.

So, we still have a lot to do in fighting this devastating cut. Please forward this email onto anyone else who has not yet signed the petition and ask them to do so:

http://www.gopetition.com/online/16681.html

For more information on the Museum visit: www.liveseymuseum.org.uk.

The more support we can get the better. This is a fantastic Museum and a great resource for children, parents and the local community. Shame on the Leadership of Southwark Council for putting self-interest and political spin before the needs of our local community in in Peckham and the children who benefit from the Museum.

Please do email me at this address if you have any ideas about how else we might highlight this issues or fight the cuts.

Kind regards

Andrew

Cllr Andrew Pakes
Member for Livesey Ward

Southwark Council is threatening its museums with total closure from April. These are the Cuming Museum and the Livesey Museum for Children. The Livesey is especially vulnerable as it does not house a collection.

It’s depressing news, but news that we can hopefully all do something about. As the Facebook Group involved Save Southwark’s Museums, says

“These museums are located in one of the most deprived areas of London. The museums and their staff are already operating with minimal resources but reach local disadvantaged communities, schools and families and provide value for money. Everyone involved in the museums, as friend or staff, has plenty of evidence of the impact of the rich collections and innovative displays on visitors.

Time is short because the Executive meeting to make the budget cuts decision is on 12th February (7pm). You are urged to contact Southwark Council, MP’s and senior influencers in museums, communities and education to explain why you believe these museums provide such an essential service. If you write to your MP, copy to Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture (see http://andyburnham.org/ )

Please also sign the petition“

Please help. Please.

There has been a lot written in the press recently about the shortage of midwives up and down the UK. This must have a knock on effect on all the maternity hospitals and I just wondered if anyone had any good or bad experiences they want to share?

My three were all born in Chelsea & Westminster in London. The care you get during the actual birth is great, but the post-natal care was non-existent. This doesn’t really matter second and third time round but for your first child it is a bit of a shock. I have spoken to many other mothers who have had their children here and they all say similar things ie the aftercare for Mothers could definitely be improved.

Stumbled across the BabyAngels blog, and saw they had some more sensible ways of getting children to help around the house than I recently suggested.

They also have some good travel tips here. It reminded me of the first incarnation of LittleLegends (something called Mothershare) and an idea Vicky and I had. There (and it was a couple of years ago) we set up a wiki to try to get everyone to share things like travel tips on one page. So rather than having to trawl through forums, you could see a page of general consensus advice on the topic you were interested in. A Wikipedia for parents, really.

Would people be interested in that sort of thing if we could get it going again?

I’ve just been told that the proprietor of one of our listings has been prosecuted and sentenced. The owner

“falsely described two holiday rental properties near Ross on Wye namely Brynheulog as having a ‘Tourist Board 4*’ rating and the ‘Old Limekilns / Old Kiln’ as having an ‘AA 4* rating’, which she knew to be false. Numerous complaints were also made about her attitude and behaviour to guests.”

Rosa, who was kind enough to let us know the situation, said that

“I do not think it is in anybody’s interests to promote this person to the public.”

I very much agree, and as I see it there are two ways for us to deal with this.

The first is simply to delete the entry. This way nobody looking at Little Legends finds the place, and so nobody gets harmed.

That’s fine, just as long as people’s only way of finding out about either of the two “holiday homes” is through us. Pretty much everyone I know, though, uses one or more points of reference when looking things up online.

The second way is to keep the listing, but add comments and ratings to warn people of the situation. And this is what we’ve opted for.

This way, hopefully, the information is out in the open, echoing the Herefordshire site’s news about the holiday homes. And this way, hopefully, people stand a slightly better chance of avoiding disappointment and worse on their holidays.

There may well be better ways of dealing with this, though, or I may have chosen the wrong option. Do please let us know what you think, though. At root, we’re trying to help parents and families, and so if you think what we’ve done is misguided, then please help us steer on to the right track.

Ben Smith, an assistant producer at Outline Productions, has just been in touch to see if we could help spread the word about the new fourth series of The House of Tiny Tearaways.

If you’re interested in starring or know someone who might be, do give him a call on their hotline: 020 7428 6040

Here’s his message:

We are looking for all types of people and families who are experiencing all sorts of difficulties with their children, from temper tantrums and sleep problems, to fussy eaters, children with anxieties or phobias, but also parents who are feeling fed up generally, or just in need of a bit of reassurance. We would like to help single parents, step families, families with twins, etc.

Whilst obviously this is a television series for broadcast, it is a great opportunity for all parents, offering free intensive, hands-on support and advice. The programme is not about blame or conflict – our experts and production team approach all situations sensitively and tactfully, and believe strongly in reflecting that many good parents still struggle at times, or have fears about impending parenthood which may need to be allayed. We hope that by featuring such families we can raise awareness and provide hope, education and support for others in a similar situation. Our ethos includes a duty of care and after plan, doing our utmost to make sure families feel positive about their experience from beginning to end.

Obviously it would be great to chat to you and any interested families.

Kind Regards

Ben Smith