07.10.07
Is society broken?
In the eyes of the Conservative politicians it is because they want to fix it. Apparently for the sake of about £20 per week in extra child benefit more people will get married, those marriages will produce children and one parent will stay home to care for the children and then that family will stay together and fix society! Well thats alright then, all problems solved! I have a sneaking suspicion that the problems, where they lie are slightly more significant than that. Poorly parented children may become poor parents who have not themselves perhaps reached their own potential educationally or in terms of the kinds of jobs they do. Will they then get married and then spend the £20 per week extra on healthy food, and activities for the family or will they be making other choices? Is society actually broken?
I live on the edge of a medium sized town. It has its problems, its deprived areas, its teenage pregnancy problem, its crime, its drug problems. But as I walk around areas of town and encounter people going about their business I don’t get the sense of something awful something that is caused by the breakdown of the family, something in essence broken. Things are not perfect, my own life is not perfect but I am both puzzled and concerned by the image such policy promotes. The idea that something broken can be fixed with £20 per week.
Yesterday I attended an event run by our local Children’s Trust. Now this is kind of a virtual organisation. It is a way of bringing together services for children with a common aim of making the lives of all children, whatever their particular needs better, making services better joined up, making communication better. We heard about organisations running schemes for disadvantaged children and teenagers, to get them off of the streets and doing activities they enjoy doing. Of projects which help children who have struggled to fit in at school to continue their education and to move on to work or further education. We heard of schemes for young families, parenting, learning how to choose, prepare and cook food, toy libraries for children with special needs. The work to fix society if it is broken is already going on out there. People are working hard to make it happen for themselves and each other. Money helps, but money alone is not the answer!
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July 19, 2007 at 12:25 pm
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Rachel Joyce said,
July 19, 2007 at 9:42 pm
I presume you haven’t read the report, then?
If you read the first report on Breakdown Britain, followed by the second report, Breakthrough Britain, you will see a huge amount of properly evaluated evidence, followed by almost 200 proposals. The £20 one is the typical media choice - pick something easy to report that doesn’t really represent what IDS was saying.
I have run children’s centres, planned all of these virtual organisations you speak of. They are constrained often by targets. Quite good work, but doesn’t really get to the heart of things. The welfare system needs reforming to encourage families to stay together, to encourage education and work. Read about the free school meals and different ethnic groups and their educational outcomes - it makes fascinating reading.
Please read the reports fully. For an easy guide, get this Saturday’s Telegraph.