Had a lovely day yesterday, went to church in the morning hours. Today we went to the food bank and did our shopping for 5 pound - it's quite a bargain because I bought 6 potatoes, 2 carrots, squash, big weetabix, smoothie, pasta, toothpaste, 1 toilet paper, baked beans, 12 eggs, a can of Pepsi, nappies and wipes that's a great bargain.

My 2 year old is starting Nursery September am excited for him, 2 o clock we have a visit at the Nursery for them to familiarise themselves to the place. Looking forward to this visit.

Apart from that we are just relaxed home.

Feeling better today,went to church lovely service it was. Just home relaxing and waiting to watch football midnight

It is good to receive first salary after several years. But so much bills to pay. Childcare, transportation and more but it feels good to start earning no matter how small

Fantastic news for my daughter, although we continue to struggle financially, she has been offered a Ministry apprenticeship at our local church. Although this is unpaid it fits in well with the work she does at the same church where she not only works but volunteers in many activities and groups. I am extremely proud of her and the way the is managing life under extremely difficult circumstances. My daughter is also so pleased that she is moving forward in her life and able to improve her own future while also helping others in the community, many of whom also come from low income families.

I'm happy about the rain in Glasgow, it has helped with the very hot weather

Is a beautiful day I take my baby out for indoors play

On Wednesday 17th June I was delighted to attend a Downing Street event with Ruth from Changing Realities where we were invited to share our experiences of the project in engaging with policymakers and shaping policy, notably the Child Poverty Strategy. Being invited to Downing Street was strange enough but to be sat on a stage as a panellist alongside academics and a think tank boss in front of a room of more than 40 government officials and a Minister (for School Standards) was particularly odd! Nevertheless it was a fantastic opportunity to promote the work we’ve all been doing to bring real voices with lived experience into the corridors of power.

There used to be an NHS phrase (maybe it still exists?), “no decision about me, without me”. It’s a neat rhyme but it’s power lays more in what it says about policymaking. It should be fundamental and common sense that when designing whole new systems affecting the lives of millions that, at some point, you should seek to ask the views of some of those people and genuinely involve them in the design of the policy. By doing this you not only restore trust in politics but you actually deliver better policy, less screeching u-turns when you realise how this plays out in practice or expensive patching of a new system when the holes become clear in implementation.

It was particularly pleasing therefore that the room was full of enthusiasm for the concept. There were some concrete examples of where government was already improving in this regard (examples from Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the Government Digital Service where ‘user experience’ has been put at the forefront of all thinking stood out to me). Of course, the problem with events like this is the danger that you’re preaching to the choir and the real blockers of expanding participatory policy-making are much more likely those not in the room yet those who were in attendance can become the evangelists for the concept and events like this can bolster that evangelism through collective strength and ideas sharing.

The key thing to remember is that meaningful participation is not the tried-and-tested (to destruction?) model of focus groups. This isn’t about throwing out Whitehall-designed ideas and testing them out with a small group of randomly selected people to ‘see how it’ll land’. Far from it, proper participation must mean working with ‘brokerage’ groups like Changing Realities (for poverty) and others like health-specific patient groups, migrant-focused groups etc. who have the expertise and time to support participants to maximise the opportunities of engagement. I spoke about how Changing Realities gives us space to vent our frustrations with the status quo but then reflect on how things can be changed for the better and then constructively engage with policymakers.

I left the event feeling extremely positive about how there seems to be a genuine mood shift in government towards involving people with lived experience in policymaking. I would love for this to become an annual event so best practice can be shared and officials who are ‘on board’ with the concept can network together and keep growing the body of support for participatory policymaking until it becomes the common sense default setting rather than a novel nicety. If we can get there policy will be better for everyone.

I received my book and omg it is amazing. I've read through most of it and can't wait to sit down later and read it all, I am so happy to be a part of this

I had the pleasure of receiving the lovely zine art book that was produced by myself and several other participants. I wasn’t expecting the book to arrive in the post. I had completely forgotten about it so it was an absolutely wonderful surprise. I love how the book comes to life by scanning the QR codes and hearing all of us speaking or live experiences. Really proud of the work that we’ve done.

Hello everyone, i hope that we are all enjoying this nice sunny weather in the whole UK.

Feeling really happy, we've had a nice start to the half term and lots of pool fun. No expense needed