Poverty Debate

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood attacked after confronting Bournemouth gang – Guardian 21/6/09

The former army officer was taken to hospital with hearing damage after attempting to put a stop to disruptive gang behaviour. I want case to go to trial, says Bournemouth East MP.

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Worldwide production of heroin and cocaine falling, says UN drug chief – Guardian 24/6/09

The UN is calling for the treatment of drug problems as an illness, not a crime. Antonio Maria Costa, director of the UNODC, claims that "People who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution." The continuing challenge of monitoring and addressing the problems of drug production needs to focus on traffickers.

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£1m asylum return scheme helped one family – Guardian 24/6/09

Children's Society says project was a failed opportunity to deal with 2,000 children locked up in immigration centres. Despite the ‘good intentions’ of the scheme, which aimed to help keep families out of asylum centres, only one family successfully returned home.

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Why frontline childcare workers are the unsung heroes

Residential staff and family social workers deserve more credit for the contribution they make to the lives of many of our vulnerable young people. Rather than taking responsibility for our failure, it is argued that we too often blame the staff or their managers.

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£1m migrant’s project ‘a scandal’ – BBC 24/6/09

A £1m government scheme to help failed asylum seekers and their children return home resulted in just one family leaving Britain, the BBC has learned. In an attempt to bring down the high numbers of child detentions, the UK Border Agency set up the one-year pilot project.

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How discipline saved a sink school – The Times 24/6/09

Struggling schools across the country may become part of a project making plans for highly paid “superheads” to strengthen them by helping them to merge with top-performing schools to form not-for-profit successful “chains”. The new push to force the worst schools into mergers with their more successful counterparts comes after the Government revealed last week that, on average, 60,700 primary and secondary school pupils bunk off school every day.

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A programme in Lambeth is successfully using peer counselling to steer young people away from gangs. The development by Lambeth council of the 2 XL programme, which uses leadership training along with one to one therapy to encourage young people to change their lifestyle, aims to tackle the problem of reoffending. 

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Government aims high with diversity targets – Guardian 19/6/09

This week, the Scottish Government published their strategy for tackling alcohol abuse. Central to this is the proposal to establish a minimum price per unit of alcohol. This would be accompanied by a ban on ‘irresponsible promotions’ and legislating for a Social Responsibility Fee.

Such pro-activity should be commended. Addiction – both drug and alcohol – is a key driver of poverty. It is also a key driver of crime, violence and anti-social behaviour. Directly and indirectly, it ruins lives, families and communities.

The education pages have been filled this week with stories drawn from the latest Ofsted report: the transformation of schools through ‘back-to-basics’ discipline and targeted exclusions. While discipline will help, what really matters is the headteachers.

Formal discipline does have a role to play in turning round schools. It establishes that the school does not operate by the rules of the street; and that everyone is equal, subject to the same rules properly enforced. Children at the Robert Clack school agreed, saying the school was a success “because the rules were enforced”. Targeted exclusions are also necessary, both as a consequence of clear rules being applied consistently, but also because they remove unruly children from situations which profit neither them nor their classmates.