Prof Ruth Patrick
@ruthpatrick0.bsky.social
Professor of Social & Public Policy at University of Glasgow
Perimenopausal | neurodivergent | navigating parenting kids with SEND
Ruth Myrtle Patrick was an American botanist and limnologist specializing in diatoms and freshwater ecology. She authored more than 200 scientific papers, developed ways to measure the health of freshwater ecosystems and established numerous research facilities. .. more
Political science
29%
Environmental science
26%
Pinned
I can’t envisage a child poverty strategy which garners any credibility without fully scrapping the two-child limit.
Unconvinced? Check out (even better share) this summary of the peer-reviewed evidence base @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social
largerfamilies.study/publications...
Unconvinced? Check out (even better share) this summary of the peer-reviewed evidence base @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social
largerfamilies.study/publications...
How employers can help their staff stay in work | Letters
Letters: Readers respond to the government’s Keep Britain Working review that aims to tackle the growing worklessness crisis
www.theguardian.com
Very thoughtful letter from my brilliant aunt @katharinesut.bsky.social @theguardian.com we need to do much more to make work work, & we need to address the systemic issues that lock ppl in poorly paid jobs. Improving procurement practices would be a great start www.theguardian.com/money/2025/n...
'Labour must abolish the two child limit in full and with pride' - LabourList
Labour should abolish the two child benefit cap and do so with pride write Alison Garnham of Child Poverty Action Group.
labourlist.org
Only right that on the occasion of @cpaguk.bsky.social 60th birthday, I use today's post to share a typically forthright call from CPAG's Chief Executive Alison Garnham for the Government to scrap the two-child limit in full, published in @labourlist.bsky.social
labourlist.org/2025/11/abol...
labourlist.org/2025/11/abol...
Thank you!!! It’s been ace to be in a (very rainy) Glasgow for my birthday
Thanks you lovely lot x
Thank you Tom
Thank you!!
I do remember!! It’s terrifying how quickly time passes
Shamefully, the stress of my everyday has led me back to smoking, a habit I quit almost 20 years ago [stopping tips, welcomed!]
I will quit & meantimes, I'll get outside whenever I can & be thankful for all the good that is in my life on this full-super moon-birthday
[End of this all-about-me-🧵]
I will quit & meantimes, I'll get outside whenever I can & be thankful for all the good that is in my life on this full-super moon-birthday
[End of this all-about-me-🧵]
And while three of my four children navigate life with less support than they need, I am (of course) so thankful to have their energy, ideas and passions in my life. And would be lost without them [and my long suffering partner]
On Thursday 18th September, parents and carers from Changing Realities met with the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Philipson to discuss the forthcoming Schools White Paper. There was a focus on planned reforms to SEND,and parents and carers shared their hopes and fears for the White Paper. Parents also shared reflections on their recent experiences of SEND systems, and the ramifications of these everyday experiences for planned reforms. In this short policy note, we summarise reflections and priorities for change in this arena, including points raised by those at the meeting and by others who were unable to attend.
www.changingrealities.org
My family experiences the sharpest edge of the broken send systems & while that's the hardest part of my life right now, I'm thankful for the support from @barnardos.org.uk, from parents in @changingrealities.bsky.social & in my local community
www.changingrealities.org/writings/wha...
www.changingrealities.org/writings/wha...
And - while life has its challenges - the fact that I can swim, and swim often, is a constant comfort, & I've had some really special swims in my 40s so far, including this one at Labour Party Conference with the @cpaguk.bsky.social crew & @kittyjstewart.bsky.social
I feel incredibly lucky to get to work with inspiring people on both @changingrealities.bsky.social and @safety-nets.bsky.social & to be part of pushing for real and lasting change to make social security in the UK fit for purpose.
Today, I turn 45 & enter the second half of my 40s. It feels scary, but has made me reflect on how fortunate I am in lots of ways. Despite the rain (& there's lots of it), I am chuffed to be working back in Scotland w/ ace colleagues & students @uofgussp.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social
🧵 of 🌈
🧵 of 🌈
Benefit changes and larger families
We are a group of university-based researchers investigating how families with more than two children are coping with the benefit cap or the two-child limit.
www.largerfamilies.study
Back in New Labour times, we spoke about the idea that 'every child matters'. This still resonates. Each (and every) child should be at the heart of the government's child poverty strategy & only a full abolition of the two-child limit does this. Tapers don't cut it.
www.largerfamilies.study
www.largerfamilies.study
Paying the price of child poverty
4.5 million children are now paying the price of poverty in the UK. Without sustained policy action, a further 400,000 children will be pulled into poverty by the end of the decade.
www.actionforchildren.org.uk
As the chancellor prepares to give pre-budget speech, want to focus on the cost of inaction on child poverty. Yes, abolishing the two-child limit & benefit cap is expensive but inaction costs much more (see vital @actionforchildren.bsky.social analysis) www.actionforchildren.org.uk/our-work-and...
Love this - what's the project? Knitting is ace
eprints.lse.ac.uk
It’s important to shine a light on the unusualness of the two-child limit, when situated in international perspective. @kittyjstewart.bsky.social @aaronreeves.bsky.social and I found that the UK’s approach serves to render the child in the household invisible eprints.lse.ac.uk/123868/3/ste... #day3
Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Ruth Patrick
Fully repealing the two-child limit on benefits is by far the best way to ensure fewer children are growing up in poverty.
Half measures – from moving to a three-child limit to exempting working families – would all still lead to an increase in child poverty by the end of the decade.
Half measures – from moving to a three-child limit to exempting working families – would all still lead to an increase in child poverty by the end of the decade.
New costings: scrapping two-child limit is 'by far' most cost-effective way to cut child poverty
Policy has pulled 30,000 children into poverty since Labour took office. Eighth anniversary of the policy on Sunday 6th April.
cpag.org.uk
In the last 24 hours, about 109 children will have been born into households that won’t get any extra means-tested support because the 2-child limit exists. These households now have an extra person to keep fed, warm and clothed but no support for that extra need cpag.org.uk/news/new-cos...
Half term
YouTube video by Aaron Reeves
www.youtube.com
First up, for 1st November is a short film on what half term is like for families struggling to get by on less than they need www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFYA... ( both the two-child limit & the benefit cap sever the link between need & entitlement to support)
"The worst social policy ever"
We have a couple of bonus guest posts over the next week.
samf.substack.com
I wrote a guest post for @samfr.bsky.social setting out what Labour must do if it is to publish a child poverty strategy worthy of its name. Every day between now & the budget I’m gonna add a reason why the 2CL should go to this thread samf.substack.com/p/the-worst-...
New post out:
"The worst social policy ever"
Today we have a guest post from @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social on the abomination that is the two-child limit and why Labour need to scrap it ASAP.
Lots of data but also powerful testimony.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
"The worst social policy ever"
Today we have a guest post from @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social on the abomination that is the two-child limit and why Labour need to scrap it ASAP.
Lots of data but also powerful testimony.
(Free to read)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/t...
"The worst social policy ever"
We have a couple of bonus guest posts over the next week.
open.substack.com
Budget month is here, and it’s time for the rumours to be pushed to one side and Labour to lay the groundwork to act decisively on child poverty.
This must and can only start with a full scrapping of the two-child limit.
This must and can only start with a full scrapping of the two-child limit.
Thanks for sharing it Richard!
Thank you Trish! Hope you’re keeping well
Reposted by Ruth Patrick
The core of our work has not changed, but we have. We have spent, in some cases, years together, uplifting our voices and learning how to be part of a movement for change, and we are proud to be here to represent our work and the people within.
changingrealities.org
On 23rd October, we headed to a Child Poverty Strategy roundtable hosted by Baroness Lister at the HoL. Our participants delivered powerful testimonies & their speech can be read here📣: changingrealities.org/writings/cha...
@uofgussp.bsky.social
@ippr.org
@cpaguk.bsky.social
@uofgussp.bsky.social
@ippr.org
@cpaguk.bsky.social
"The worst social policy ever"
We have a couple of bonus guest posts over the next week.
samf.substack.com
Labour can and must get this one right. The two-child limit needs to be abolished, and it needs to be abolished now.
🧵ends
🧵ends
The core of our work has not changed, but we have. We have spent, in some cases, years together, uplifting our voices and learning how to be part of a movement for change, and we are proud to be here to represent our work and the people within.
www.changingrealities.org
In the blog for @samfr.bsky.social on the two-child limit, I end with a quote from a speech Jo Barker-Marsh from @changingrealities.bsky.social made at a House of Lords event on the child poverty strategy last week. This merits reading in full www.changingrealities.org/writings/cha... [pls share it]
No half measures • Resolution Foundation
The Government’s long-awaited Child Poverty Strategy is due next month, close to, or contemporaneous with, the Autumn Budget. There have been some welcome announcements already: the over-indexation of...
www.resolutionfoundation.org
While we continue to hear whispers of possible half-way measures on the two-child limit, new analysis by @resfoundation.bsky.social @alexclegg.bsky.social shows only its full abolition will do the heavy lifting required to drive child poverty down www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications...