[vc_row content_placement=”top” row_space=”remove_padding_top”][vc_column][gva_block_heading title=”WHO WE ARE”][/gva_block_heading][vc_column_text]We are a passionately committed team of grassroots volunteer campaigners who first joined forces in May 2020 to stand up for children’s interests during the pandemic. Our network of members has since grown into tens of thousands of parents, grandparents, carers and concerned citizens. We are a non-profit non-affiliated group focused on high impact campaigning and strategic legal activity.

Our core team — driving the strategy, campaigning, communications and support for our members — consists of:

Molly Kingsley: Exec Founder (previously a corporate lawyer and an ad-tech entrepreneur)
Arabella Skinner: Chief of Staff (previously head of brand strategy and marketing planning, BBC, and partner, Circus Strategy Consultancy)
Ben Kingsley: Legal and Strategic Affairs (previously senior regulatory law partner at law firm Slaughter and May)
Jenny Lovatt: Research and Social Media (previously research editor for BNP Paribas).
Marta Kotlarek: Web Development and Lead for Wales[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]

In setting up UsForThem the [co-founders] demonstrated extraordinary leadership and advocacy for children and young people where academic, the government and third sector organisations failed. They have done this in the face of trolling and abuse on a scale which is hard to take in, even two years after the pandemic began.”

Professor Ellen Townsend, foreword, The Children”s Inquiry (Liz Cole and Molly Kingsley, Pinter & Martin, June 2022)

[/vc_column_text][gva_icon_box title=”OUR KEY ACHIEVEMENTS” icon=”gv-icon-1085″ icon_position=”top-left-title” icon_width=”fa-2x” icon_border=”border-2″ icon_radius=”radius-5x” icon_color=”#C44535″][vc_column_text]

• We authored two books: “The Children’s Inquiry” by Liz Cole and Molly Kingsley (2022) and “The Accountability Deficit” by Molly Kingsley, Arabella Skinner, and Ben Kingsley (2023).
• A track record of delivering successful political campaigns on welfare-critical topics: school closures, masks in classrooms, isolating and bubbles in schools, new legislation to classify schools as essential infrastructure, the terms of reference for the UK Covid Inquiry, Paypal’s ‘denial of service’ censorship, and a pharma regulatory complaint against Pfizer re safety of Covid vaccine use for children.
• Built a strong network with MPs and Peers, with past and present Children’s Commissioners, with journalists and broadcasters, with leading educationalists, academics, lawyers and medics, and with adjacent campaign groups in the UK and US in particular.
• Significant public profile as effective campaigners and vocal commentators on the welfare of children, parents and families, through OpEds, commentaries, interviews and panel appearances, particularly in The Mail, The Telegraph, The Daily and Sunday Express, Brownstone Institute, The Critic and on GB News and TalkTV).

[/vc_column_text][gva_icon_box title=”OUR MOST PROMINENT CAMPAIGNS” icon=”gv-icon-1565″ icon_position=”top-left-title” icon_width=”fa-2x” icon_border=”border-2″ icon_radius=”radius-5x” icon_color=”#C44535″][vc_column_text]1. Campaign to reopen schools, in June 2020

Formation of UsForThem. Campaign by three mothers threatening legal action. Schools were reopened shortly afterwards.

2. Campaign to reopen schools, in January 2021

Campaign to get schools reopened, Jan 21, backed by Tory MPs, succeeded albeit took a few weeks.

3. Campaign to get mandatory masks out of classrooms, in April 2021 and January 2022

Media campaign backed by Tory MPs and UsForThem threatened legal action succeeded in getting masks out of classrooms, April 21, and in Jan 22 a judicial review backed by Tory MPs did the same. “It is exceptionally rare for MPs to back a legal challenge against their own Government”, said the Telegraph.

4. Joint campaign with Miriam Cates MP on children’s Covid vaccination

Media campaign with Miriam Cates MP to lobby the CMO to make decision on basis of clinical need, only.

5. Coordinating a private members bill to classify schools as essential infrastructure, in Nov. 2021

Worked with the then chair of the Education Select Committee to draft a private members’ bill to safeguard schools against future closures. Robert Halfon MP’s speech.

6. Campaign to expand the terms of reference for the UK Covid Inquiry to include children, in 2022

Forcing children into terms of reference for Covid Inquiry – campaign backed by MPs and peers, children’s commissioners and a collective of children’s charities

7. Campaign to highlight bias in Covid Inquiry

Coordinating public letter and working behind the scenes briefing the APPG on the Covid Inquiry.

8. Joint campaign with The Free Speech Union to force Paypal to reverse its censorious denial of service, in Sept 2022

Joint campaign, UsForThem preparing the relevant letters, with Free Speech Union to get FSU and UsForThem reinstated.

9. Regulatory complaint against Pfizer and its CEO, between December 2021 and December 2022

Regulatory appeal in front of UK regulator, UsForThem, won on key points.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]