Create a national public service scheme that rewards young people for working in their communities and that could provide massive capacity to improve our services and environment
A voluntary civilian national service scheme, offering funded volunteering in return for social credits, could provide a massive boost to public sector provision and at the same time make real our vision of the good society as active, participatory and fair.
The scheme would be targeted initially at key groups; for example, school leavers as a gap year option (and not just those going on to university) and the recently retired. They would be asked to sign on for a full-time volunteering commitment over one or two years, in return for a small weekly stipend. On successful completion of the programme, volunteers would be able to choose one of a variety of social credits – towards tuition fees or training, for example, to repair gaps in patchy NI records, or contributions to grandchildren’s child trust funds.
Volunteers would work in structured, modular schemes, with some compulsory elements. Their contributions to care for the elderly and respite care, for example – maintaining and supporting the informal care that has become a mainstay of social provision – would save the Treasury an estimated £57bn a year. Other components of the scheme would include elements of choice – work in childcare, in after-school clubs, as park wardens, or on environmental schemes, to reclaim and renew public space. Once the scheme is up and running, it could be opened out more broadly – as a career break option, or to parents of young children, perhaps volunteering reduced hours in return for extended or enhanced maternity or paternity benefits.
Such a scheme would be expensive. But there are good numbers on the financial return – volunteer schemes in the US are conservatively estimated to achieve a return of $1.66 for every dollar spent. And, although the scheme should be protected by an additionality guarantee to ensure that volunteers are used to enhance rather than replace core capacity, building a truly responsive and expansive public sector with volunteer resources would be better than trying to meet enormous future care needs with overstretched infrastructure and poverty pay.
But, above all, no other option for meeting the future demands on the state of capacity and flexibility brings the same social benefits, fits so organically with the progressive vision of society or can form the foundation of a new contract between state and citizen, where those who are prepared to take part in their society not only make it better,
but get a greater stake in it in return.
Reform and increase funding of drug treatment in prison to break the cycle of addiction
It is estimated that 250,000 ‘chaotic’ hard drug users are responsible for £10bn of crime in Britain every year and that up to 80 per cent of Britain’s record-high prison population are drug users. These are daunting statistics, yet they point to one potential solution to drug-related crime. For people who, by definition, lead chaotic lifestyles, prison is perhaps the only controlled environment in which effective drug treatment may be possible.
Examples of the way forward can be seen in prisons such as Holme House in Stockton-on-Tees. At Holme House, prisoners who have shown a genuine desire to rid themselves of their addiction can enter the Therapeutic Community, a guaranteed drug-free wing of the prison where they will take part in a programme that centres on education, self-inspection and relapse prevention. The programme’s sole aim is to turn drug-addicted offenders into people who have the capacity, confidence and desire to live a normal, drug- and crime-free life in the community.
Crucially, Holme House realises that permanent results cannot be achieved solely in prison. And to this end, the team have insured that released prisoners who have been on the scheme have access to help outside the prison. Housing departments, GPs and employment agencies all provide help and opportunities for the ex-offenders. Meanwhile, ‘link’ workers liaise with the newly released prisoners, providing them with much-needed support outside the prison walls.
But if positive reform is to be achieved and the Holme House project is to be replicated nationwide, a number of issues must be addressed.
First, financial resources must be made available. A formal structure must be established that determines a positive working relationship between link workers and all the relevant community agencies they deal with. It is also critical that released prisoners who have worked hard to become ‘clean’ are given access to community housing. Without it they will struggle to access medical and employment services, which are vital in the fight to remain free of drugs.
The facts speak for themselves. Almost two-thirds of adults and 75 per cent of young offenders are currently reconvicted within two years of release from prison. For many ex-prisoners recovering from drug addiction, the most welcoming community is, predictably, dealers and users. Only by employing strategies like that at Holme House Prison will we have a realistic chance of breaking the cycle of drug-fuelled crime that affects many families in society, but most especially those in poor communities.
Introduce universal children’s centres in every community, providing a ‘one-stop shop’ not only for childcare but also for family, health and other services
Children’s centres are a new generation public service that will deliver two priorities of a third-term Labour government: meeting the aspirations of working parents and combating social exclusion.
The government has committed to providing 2,500 children’s centres by 2008 as part of its ambitious ten-year childcare strategy, which contains a package of benefits and services to support children and parents. The centres will focus delivery at the point it will make the most difference: when children are very young.
Having services in a one-stop centre that is accessible, welcoming and has the confidence of the local community is key to tackling social exclusion. Look at the difficulty of getting health services to young children in temporary accommodation, or antenatal services to the women most at risk.
Local authorities know that certain black and minority ethnic communities especially have difficulty accessing public services, including the communities that have the worst child health indicators, such as prevalence of low birth weight babies, or high levels of hospital admissions. There is also the opportunity to provide benefit, health, housing, and employment advice for these parents, heralding a radical reshaping of public service provision.
Success for children in later life often depends on early interventions. Research for the Social Market Foundation shows that quality early education lays the basis for academic achievement in later life. A one-stop centre can also deal with special needs. Problems of delayed speaking and early signs of behavioural difficulties can be picked up by nursery staff or primary healthcare staff and referred on for more specialist care before the child even gets into primary school.
But tackling exclusion is only half the story. If childcare is to be the battleground for the next election, the hearts and minds that have to be won are those of middle-income families juggling work and family commitments. What they need is full-time, five-day-a-week childcare, not the two-and-a-half-hours-a-day nursery placement presently provided by the government, nor even the three hours a day that will be provided under the new childcare strategy. They also have an overwhelming appetite for improved health and other support services for their children.
Children’s services have been one of the great success stories of the first two Labour governments, and a radicalising force in public services. The provision of universal nursery education for four year-olds was achieved through a pioneering partnership between public, private and voluntary sectors. The financing of childcare was part of the bringing together of the tax and benefit systems in the childcare tax credit. The provision of a national network of children’s centres will be a flagship legacy of a third-term Labour government.