I often write in these chronicles about the funny things that happen when I’m caring for my grandson who has autism.  Thankfully I have many great experiences to share and there have been many small wins along the way worth of note however, there’s another side to caring for a profoundly autistic child that is so very hard.  I will admit it can be a challenge to write it down.   Why? Because there’s a real fear that in telling those stories I am viewed as less worthy, less capable, and less nurturing and I’m going to take an educated guess that I’m not alone in that fear.   Lots of carers feel this tension, it can be suffocating and it is isolating.   Because of this tension, I recognise I have a duty to all those hard working and committed carers out there to be just as honest about the hard days as I am about the good days.   Bank Holiday Monday was a hard day, it left me feeling less like the super gran of my dreams and more like the demented demon of a nightmare.

Today, I had the privilege of presenting evidence to the Right to Food UK Commission, chaired by Barrie Margetts, Emeritus Professor at the University on Southampton, on the stark realities of food insecurity in the North East. Drawing from Citizens Advice Gateshead data, my submission highlighted ongoing debt crises, negative budgets, and disproportionate impacts on vulnerable groups like children, disabled people and single-parent families.

Today I’ve been the Duty Manager for our drop in Advice Service and if ever there was a day of desperation today has been that day.   We’ve had a steady stream of people who needed our help today, to include people coming to sit in our reception area because it is a ‘Warm Space’, a place where they can get in from the cold, have warm drink, a cuppa soup and a biscuit or two.   They sit with us from the doors opening to the doors closing, a brief relief from the cold of living homeless or sitting in a home so cold and damp it chills the bones.

Today my first-born child, my adult daughter, has her birthday.   As I reflect on the years that have passed us by, I’m drawn back to the hopes and dreams I had for her as I held her in my arms, as she toddled down the hallway on her way out to nursery, and later as she made her way through school and into the world of work.

Gender inequality is not a relic of the past—it’s a reality that continues to shape the lives of women across the UK and beyond. From the persistent gender pay gap and the motherhood penalty to underrepresentation in leadership and politics, the barriers are systemic and deeply entrenched. But change is possible—and it starts with us.

I want to talk you today about time, not least because I’m someone who has very little of it, maybe you are too?  I am a collector of “stuff”, a serial user of the word yes, and a committed refuser of the word no.

Where do you get your news from? It’s a simple question with a pretty predictable answer. Unsurprisingly, the BBC is the UK public’s number one provider of news, with ITV in second place according to regulator Ofcom.

I want to talk to you about shame.  The shame that is forced upon me by – and here’s the irony – the shameless judgement, cat calling and ignorance that people heap upon me when I am out and about with my grandson.   This is a child of seven with a variety of complex conditions, a vulnerable, loving, energetic, kind boy.  Yes, he is loud and chaotic too, and he doesn’t always behave in a way that makes people feel comfortable but is that a reason to keep him locked away?

I found myself thinking about Jess on Tuesday morning (25th March), the day after I stood at the podium at St. James' Park to launch the Society Matters Foundation. For those of you not in attendance, Jess's story is sobering - a 12-year-old with dreams of becoming a hairdresser who's facing school exclusion not because of behaviour or ability, but because she shares a single pair of shoes with her working mother.

On Tuesday the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendal introduced the “largest welfare reforms for a generation to help sick and disabled people who can and have the potential to work into jobs”.

There’s a lot of detail in these proposals, but people are concerned and want to know how it will affect them, so whilst we work through the detail here’s our broad brush take on what it could mean.

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at North East Chamber of Commerce East Chamber of Commerce  event held at the Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council Employment Hub on the subject of “social value and the Third Sector” as part of a four part series.   The panel was expertly hosted by Dr. Suzanne Hague with an introduction from Darush Dodds Dodds of Esh Group .  My fellow panellists included Angela Miles of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Alison Walton of Muckles LLP and Angela Corner of Thirteen Group.

"My dad had a stall in Leeds Market," Lord Richard Harrington recalls with a smile. "He always used to say that Marks & Spencer started in Leeds Market and so did he. The only problem was, he was still there."