In the run up to the General Election in December 2019 Numerous Ministers and Mp’s made promises to meet with the Campaign and Families to look into our case that children had been lost to suicide or seriously harmed, as a consequence of failures to properly address bullying and violence complaints in schools.
After the Election From December to early February, a total of over 650 Ministers and MP’s were invited to attend meetings held in Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. due to take place on February 25th. As stated the aim was to hear evidence from the families and learn how they could prevent this from happening to any other children and families in the future. Only two MP’s attended the meetings and no MP took up the invitation to be interviewed by the National media, including Sky and ITV news throughout the day.
A number of MP’s had agreed to attend but either cancelled at short notice or simply did not show up, with no notification at all or apology at the time or since. Therefore not for the first time over the last 5 years, Regulators, Government Departments, Ministers and MP’s., have all failed to accept various opportunities to investigate the whole issue, with a view to preventing further deaths and protecting all children from bullying and violence in schools.
It was said by the MP hosting the meeting that other MP’s had discussed attending and everyone had been advised that meeting the campaign group in an open and public meeting was not appropriate but if the families insisted on meeting with MP’s to ensure it was done on a more individual and private basis. There can be no way that Ministers should be allowed to avoid public scrutiny when it comes to the deaths of children in schools and the decision and the explanation for failing to do so, simply raises further questions that we will continue to ask, as to the levels of Government failure that are involved and how far back historically they go.
