Dear Andy Burnham MP,

We are parents from across the UK deeply concerned about this latest, record-smashing heatwave and the profound impact it has on our children.

Extreme heat threatens our children’s health and wellbeing - and more intense and frequent heatwaves lie ahead.

Schools and nurseries have closed, hospitals and ambulance services are buckling under severe strain. Millions of children are stuck indoors, in over-heating flats and houses, where there is simply no escape from the heat. 

Babies and younger children cannot regulate their temperature as effectively as adults. It's painful for us to see their young bodies struggle to cope in the heat. 

“The Lullaby Trust recommends 16-20C as a safe sleeping temperature for babies. Heartbreakingly, I put my baby to bed in 31C heat, despite desperately trying to keep the house cool all day.” Hattie, mother of Dylan aged 6 months, Bristol 

Schools have been forced to close because classrooms are unsafe, disrupting children’s education and, for some, cutting off access to meals they depend on. Schools windows have cracked. So many children have become unwell.

“A child had a seizure in assembly due to the heat and an ambulance was called. And the local hospital has declared a critical incident due to the heat causing chillers to fail.” Nathalie, mother of Sofia age 13 and Lottie age 10, Portsmouth

We are frightened for our children.

Each year we see more intense heatwaves, flooding and wildfires.

But we CAN and MUST still protect the children and communities we love. We can still limit even more severe impacts of climate breakdown.

That requires leaders like you to act with courage, compassion and urgency to protect the people they are elected to serve.

We call on you, as likely next Prime Minister, to meet with parents and listen to our concerns. And if you take office, we urge you to:  

• urgently adapt our homes, schools and public infrastructure in line with the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee's A Well-Adapted UK report;
• Invest in affordable, clean, renewable energy generated here in the UK that will help ease the cost of living crisis in the long term, clean the air, and cut heat-trapping, polluting emissions;
• oppose new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, including the Rosebank oil field. Such projects will not improve our energy security or lower energy bills. They will only lock in further pollution and heat, deepening the climate crisis; and
• support a televised National Climate Emergency briefing so the public can fully understand the risks we face and the actions needed to keep our communities safe.

We hope you will stand with your fellow parents and, for sake of our kids and future generations, take the action this moment demands.

Yours sincerely,