Today I have the great pleasure of taking part in our Big Society Event to help launch a key theme in our manifesto.
Since 1997, Labour has, true to its roots, concentrated on building big government. Gordon Brown’s unremitting control-freakery has peppered public services with targets and processes, regulation and paperwork. The result has been a bigger state.
We want to reverse this. We want to breathe new life into public services by making them more genuinely public – we want public sector workers to have a much greater say over what they do and how they do it. We want to make it easier for people to contribute to the lives of their communities in the ways they see best. We want a bigger society.
This mentality drives one of our most exciting proposals for young people – the National Citizen Service. This will offer all 16-year olds the opportunity to take part in a three-week social project in the summer after they’ve finished their GCSEs. First and foremost we want young people to experience a challenge – we’ll take them out of their comfort zones on a residential team-building course of a week or more.
After that they will be sent back to their own communities to consider what they think they can do to help meet their area’s needs. They will then draw up plans for social action projects which they will set up and keep going with volunteer work in the following year. This will be inspirational hard work giving every young person the opportunity to rub shoulders with others from very different walks of life and work with them to build better societies and communities.
Equally we need to build better rites of passage for young people in this country. At the moment too many of the perceived markers for adulthood are negative – getting drunk, smoking, having underage sex – NCS is an opportunity for us to offer the youth of today an indication that society will value them by what they put in, not what they take out.
This is more than just a pipedream. Last summer, a charity set up by the Shaftesbury Partnership called The Challenge ran pilots on our specifications in Southwark and Hammersmith and Fulham. We followed these trials with great interest and, using the results of an independent evaluation, we are now using this to fine tune our ideas ahead of a hopeful rollout after the election.
Over the past 13 years, the Government have made out that youth is something that needs fixing. We think young people should be seen as part of the solution rather than part of the problem. And we want their help to mend our broken society.
( 10 comments ) Tags: big society day, Hammersmith and Fulham, National Citizen Service, Shaftesbury Partnership, The Challenge
Comment by Jon Harvey on March 31, 2010 at 10:38 am
Why not go a step further – and offer graduates the opportunity to work in the public services for 3 years after their degree – with the promise to wipe their student loan. This would bring a whole new cohort of skilled and committed people into the public services just when we need more social workers, police officers etc.
Comment by Old Holborn on March 31, 2010 at 11:34 am
Is this compulsory or voluntary?
Comment by FM Watkins on March 31, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Probably compulsory to volunteer, like ‘Dave’ said a few months back. Anyway, I thought it was the role of parents to give their offspring discipline and self belief, not central government. Unless the government views itself as the ‘parent’ of all the people of Britain.
Which would make it thoroughly Marxist.
Comment by Bill McDonald on April 1, 2010 at 11:01 am
John Harvey (31 Mar 2010 10.38am) makes a very valid point. As long as it is an offer and not compulsory, this would definitely be an idea on which to expand for discussion. The idea that graduates could contribute to the state for their own benefit and that of society would be great. They may also learn life experiences more quickly. This would benefit the police and social services as opposed to the direct entrants of todays management that tend not to either have any experience or common sense.
Comment by Colin Sadler on April 1, 2010 at 12:59 pm
A form of National Service without the Military aspect of it, if thats how I read it. I asked myself once, what the right of passage was. I drifted into adulthood with great pains and a certain amount of confusion. I dont think Citizen Service will mark this any better but I’m glad the Conservatives have picked up on this. I do think with todays economic world and the broken Britian I see and this should be a compulsary service for any school leaver who leaves without prospects or exam results. Give them a path and a reason
get up.
Those loans payed to further anothers path via student loans, should be squashed if they enter the public sector service or voluntary work abroad. I wouldn’t like the tought of student loans payed for by the tax payer to profit private enterprise.
We have a valuable resource within our communities that are simply wasteing away and any idea to use them for the good of a coummunity should be applauded.
This is the sort of thinking I like where young adults are concerned.
Personally I think long term unemployed should also be thrown into the bracket. Tax payers would be better in accepting the benifit bills, if real benifits are attacted to their bill.
Good Idea.
Comment by Louise Jolson on April 4, 2010 at 11:11 am
In answer to the queries above, there’s nothing compulsory-sounding about it ” this will offer all 16yr olds the oppurtunity to take part…”
However, as good as it sounds in theory for encouraging social awareness and altruistic community participation in the young, I wonder if it might be a little unrealistic to expect 16yr olds to initiate and maintain social action projects after 1 or 2 weeks away on a residential team-building course ??
Comment by phil on April 6, 2010 at 10:02 pm
bring back national service and put the great back in to britain. it will make young people realise its not a game to play with knives and guns. also if you want to live here then fight for thiscountry to earn the right to stay.
Comment by sally on April 14, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Great idea. Why not encourage every 16-year old to spend a year on “National Community Service”? This could include cadetship for Emergency Services or Armed Services and things like “Voluntary Services Overseas”. If these young people returned to full-time education (ideally 6th Form Colleges) after this year they would be more mature, with some real experience and a clearer idea of the opportunities available and what they wanted to do. Pure Inspiration.
Comment by Emma on May 3, 2010 at 8:28 am
It sounds like a good idea until you get to the part about a year of working in the community; aren’t they supposed to be studying hard for as levels?
Comment by Tracy on May 4, 2010 at 10:41 am
I think that it should be compulsory. It is important that each and every British citizen thinks about their Country and what its good for it and their own future. Also, like in the US, a pledge to their Country when they leave school. No matter of creed, colour or culture, if they are a citizen of the UK they ought to pledge their allegiance to their country. Jon Harvey (above) also points to a very valid idea.