Is Wales Broken?

I will read David Cameron's speech to be given today on a 'broken society' with interest. Cameron says he wants to be as radical a social reformer as Mrs Thatcher was an economic reformer, addressing such issues as 'family breakdown, welfare dependency, failing schools, crime'. Being against these social evils is almost a no-brainer - surely nobody is seriously 'for' family breakdown or failing schools. This is a somewhat shaky agenda, because a lot of evidence suggests society is less 'broken' than Cameron thinks - divorce rates are at their lowest for 26 years, crime rates are at their lowest for years, school attainment is improving, and so on. There's very unlikely to be anything from him on social justice, despite the rhetoric, - on the need to close the gap between rich and poor, to end racial discrimination, the tackle the appalling gap in life expectancy between the most and least well off, or the need to support the most vulnerable people in society. Let's see.

Lollipop power

The Highway Code goes out of the window when it comes to dropping Dai Bach off at school, as parents park in bus laybys and on the pavement, double park and do U-turns on narrow lanes. Meanwhile a lollipop lady tries to shepherd children and a few grateful adults through the mayhem. How much different might it be if school crossing patrols had powers to enforce the rules of the road? Time to give these valiant women and men some clout.

Child Poverty time for action

A new Citizen's Advice Bureau new report paints a damning picture of the severe hardship endured by parents and children living in poverty - children missing school trips, getting birthday presents from charity shops, living in cold damp houses, to name but a few, as well as the sheer strain on parents trying to manage. The report also shows how the odds are stacked against low income parents trying to provide for their children, from delays processing claims for working tax credits, the complexity of the tax and benefit system, the impact of moving to a refuge or children coming out of care, the shortage of decent housing and so on. There is a growing consensus about what needs to be done to allieviate child poverty - action includes:
- ensuring people get the benefits they are entitled to;
- simplifying and speeding up the benefits / tax credits system;
- helping families returning to work so that they are better off from day one;
- ensuring a day at school is genuinely free.

What is so striking about the findings is that it is the system that is driving these parents to despair - it is NOT (as David Cameron alleges) the result of 'personal choices' but the bureaucracy of the tax credit system. the hidden charges for so called free state education, etc etc. Most of these are easy to rectify - so why not do it?

You can read the CAB report at http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/press_20080924

Is this a way forward for Wales

Futurebuilders creates UK’s largest out-of-hours care enterprise

Futurebuilders England has invested £550,000 to fund the formation of Urgent Health UK (UHUK), a consortium of five of the country’s largest social enterprise providers of out-of-hours care.The investment will create the largest social enterprise of its kind in the UK, allowing UHUK to tender for more out-of-hours contracts, often in partnership with NHS Direct. The investment will increase the service delivery of its five partner members by enabling them to tender for contracts outside of their geographical area.

Each of the partners currently has an out-of-hours care contract in its core area of operation, and together they deliver services to over five million people across England. It is estimated that this investment will enable an additional 300,000 people to access the consortium’s out-of-hours care.

The five partner organisations are Devon Doctors, SELDOC (Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark), Urgent Care 24 (North Merseyside), Herts Urgent Care Ltd (Hertfordshire) and South East Health (Kent).

Dr Simon Abrams, newly appointed Medical Director of UHUK said: “We’re delighted to have secured the funding to start up UHUK, to enable us to fight for NHS contracts. In our experience, we have found that GPs like working for not-for-profit companies rather than commercial providers — we share a common vision of how GP out-of-hours services should be delivered and we hope to make great strides with this investment over the initial three year period.”

Jonathan Lewis, Chief Executive of Futurebuilders England said: “This is exactly what third-sector organisations that are committed to winning contracts should be doing. They have grasped a changing environment and adapted quickly to it. UHUK have a very bright future ahead of them.”

The National Health Service in England have been working with the third sector to develop models that deliver good care and health care , that reinvest profit into the system and the service to patients and those being cared for. May be its time that our Health Minister , civil servants and health professionals looked at this model and saw the benefit to it. And more importantly put some money behind it.

Royal Glam meets Mbale

The other day I heard a presentation on help that staff from Royal Glamorgan Hospital are giving to a hospital in Mbale, Uganda. The Mbale hospital has 400 beds (although many more patients sleep on the floor), 300 staff, and serves a population of 4.7 million. Its drugs cupboard was almost empty, the one steriliser had broken and the electricity supply was intermittent. The Royal Glamorgan staff who visited (in their own time and at their own expense) did not go armed with lots of technology (which too often sits in a cupboard unused) but with skills to pass on - whether it was how to clean solar panels, mend the steriliser or infection prevention and control. A hospital team visit again in November.

Greg Dyke on Bevan

Greg Dyke is giving the next Bevan Foundation Annual Lecture - on October 24th. It follows the broadcast of his documentary on Aneurin Bevan tomorrow (Weds 24th September) on BBC 4, and he'll be giving a perspective on his documentary as well as on broadcasting generally. You need a ticket to come (£5 for Bevan Foundation members) - it's at the Atrium, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff. Email events@bevanfoundation.org for more info.

Sick Wales

Almost one in ten adults in Wales is being treated for some form of mental illness, according to the latest Welsh Health Survey. That's not just people feeling a bit low or a bit anxious, but people whose mental health is poor enough to go to their GP, whose symptoms are bad enough to be prescribed some form of medication, and who are willing to admit this to a researcher. That is an awful lot of people - do the maths at your own workplace, at the cinema, work out how many people that is in the queue in Tesco's. The Wales Mental Health Strategy is now 7 years old - with this scale of problem and with advances in thinking on mental health surely it is time for something a bit newer. There needs to be some urgency on this issue.

Wales do we need a manager or a leader ?

Lots of discussion and debate about leadership at the moment , both at UK level with the ongoing Brown debate, here in Wales as Labour will be looking at electing its new leader/manager , Lib Dems about to choose a new head and speculation about whether Nick Bourne will stay or go.
I liked this answer to the the difference between the two roles .

May be we should reflect on whats we have had here in Wales and what we need, from all our leaders , or are they mangers

Question: What is the difference between Leader & Manager?Answer: Leaders do the right things.They have followers.Their main focus is to lead people with passion.They direct people in to new roads.

Managers do things right.They have subordinates.Their main focus is to manage work.They direct people in to existing roads.

Too Many Policies Too Many Failures

The curse of modern Britain maybe -too many policies to0 many failures

Early intervention is the key to transforming the life chances of children from deprived backgrounds, according to a report from the Centre for Social Justice and Smith Institute.
Led by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith and Labour MP Graham Allen, it has been billed as a fresh approach to tackling the culture of intergenerational poverty.
The pair cite early intervention as a ‘radical new social policy to replace a vicious cycle with a virtuous circle’ reducing the problems of offending, teenage pregnancy and worklessness associated with social deprivation.Well so far no one has managed with all the programmes policies and interventions so far to do that.
They say by the time children have reached school age it is already too late to intervene, they refer to studies which show that the brain grows most rapidly in the first three years of life.
Targeting very young children through policies such as parenting lessons and nurse-family partnerships would also save millions currently spent via the criminal justice system, drug rehabilitation and benefits. That's nothing new, I have been reading these solutions for years , just to date no government of any shade has been willing to load the cash up front to save money further down the line
The authors called for a commitment from all three party leaders to be included in their manifestos and a new early intervention policy framework.
‘All the evidence points towards just how crucial the early years are in child development and how much of an impact they can have right up to adult life,’ said Tim Nichols, a spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group.‘Changes in family structure mean that traditional parenting skills have been lost. But one of the biggest problems is poverty itself. Whatever solutions the politicians are looking at, it must not be a limited approach or take attention away from fundamental economic inequality.’ Yes Yes Yes Tim, help parental poverty and common sense says the children will benefit.
I liked this comment from Action for Children.that excessive and reactive policy making puts children and young people at risk, In a separate report from the charity they say children’s need for stability is put second to short-term political gain,.
The past 21 years have seen more than 400 major government announcements relating to children and young people, 98 acts of Parliament in the UK, 82 different strategies; 77 initiatives; and over 50 new funding streams. Of these, 69% no longer exist, it said.That to me says it all, how much money and people time has gone into the 69% and what lessons have been learned - that may be something Bevan could look at if any one out there has some money to give us to research it
Early intervention: good parents, great kids, better citizens,www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk
As long as it takes: a new politics for children, www.actionforchildren.org.uk

Child Poverty Solutions

Child poverty solutions is the (perhaps optimistic) title of a website launched today by Social Justice Minister, Brian Gibbons. In the appropriate surroundings of Rhydyfelin Children's Centre, the website (http://www.childpovertysolutions.org.uk/) is the product of a partnership between Save the Children and WLGA, and it aims to set out practical ways in which local authorities (and others) can tackle child poverty in their communities. It's early days and some aspects of the site are a bit thin, but nevertheless it's a brave and useful alternative to hand wringing and waiting for the wider world to change. If you have examples of action that works, let the webmaster know, or if you are involved in child poverty issues, take a look.

As an aside, it is more than 25 years since I was last on the Rhydyfelin estate and it is, at least outwardly, transformed - most of the houses are substantially refurbished, and the local environment is loads better too. I only hope the lives of the people who live there are better too.

Unemployment up again

Figures released from the Office for National Statistics today show that unemployment in Wales is up again. Altogether more than one in twenty people who are 'economically active' is now out of work - 5.5%. The position in the unemployment 'hot spots' of Wales looks even worse - 7.4% of men in Blaenau Gwent are claiming benefit, and 6% in Merthyr.

Unemployment is known to cause all kinds of social ills, from mental and physical ill health to crime and family breakdown, so let' s have some action on this. Perhaps bringing forward the one good thing in the welfare reform proposals, namely much quicker access to help finding work, would be one step.

To blog or not to blog?

Not a lot of posting done recently, partly for the usual reasons, but also because I wonder if blogging is worth it. Does blogging change how anyone thinks? Does it help to spread new ideas? Does it encourage debate? I'm not sure.

Anyway, we're organising a debate on blogging - in conjunction with Positif Politics - on 21st October with some keen bloggers as well as non-bloggers on a panel. Admission will be free, watch this space for more details.

Meanwhile, over to the blogosphere for any comments - which will of course help to answer the questions .....