My day began with giving a speech at Stratford Town Hall to a London Voluntary Sector Training Consortium conference focusing on promoting social inclusion of those furthest from the labour market.  My speech focused on the Government’s approach to tackling child poverty.  It is important that we tackle this problem at its root and remind ourselves that we can all do more to support families experiencing hardship and break the cycle of deprivation.

Following a lively discussion I went on to the ‘Discover’ centre in Stratford.  It is an exciting facility that encourages over 50,000 children a year to explore communications and creative skills through stories, play and in a variety of interactive ways.  My tour ended with a discussion with some well informed primary school children on the topic of the economic downturn!

From there I went to meet with the chair of the Alzheimer’s Society Newham Branch, and the Society’s Newham worker, to discuss the new National Dementia Strategy.  We talked about the recommendations of the new strategy and in particular the need to raise awareness and understanding of dementia.  Better awareness will have the knock on benefit of improving early diagnosis and therefore increase the chance of those suffering from dementia living well with the condition.

I then had a meeting at the Kitchen Table café, East Ham, with a group of Bangladeshi residents in response to a column I wrote in the Newham Recorder about the success of December’s elections in Bangladesh.  The Group are wonderfully passionate about their heritage and we had time to connect over my visits to the country.  We also had a chance to discuss their worries over the recent Border Guard mutiny in Bangladesh. 

The day ended with my regular Advice Surgery at Beckton Globe.