Social Policy and Advanced Professional Practice Nigel Pimlott.

Social Policy and Advanced Professional Practice

Nigel Pimlott

• DEMONSTRATE UNDERSTANDING OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE, CONTINUAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE WIDER POLICY CONTEXT.

• UNDERSTAND HOW SOCIAL POLICY IMPACTS PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE AND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY.

• Social and political context• Trends in social policy relating to work with

children and young people• Young people and politics

• During the last few years, services for children and young people and the world we live in have changed beyond all recognition.

• I don't know if you have noticed but there is an election coming up. What will the election mean for young people and how will what happens in the future impact the work you do?

• How best might ‘hope’ continue to be brought to young lives in a changing policy context?

Social Policy … (ignore the ;academic’ sources!)

… is the study of the causes of social problems and what governments attempt to do about them. Ask.com

… relates to guidelines for the changing, maintenance or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare. Wiki

… is, in broad terms, public policy that relates to social issues. These social issues relate to our wellbeing and include things like housing, healthcare, education, money, jobs, welfare benefits. CAB

• What do you see when you look at lives young people?

• Are you content with how things are?• What hope is there for the future?

Politics?• “I have come to the conclusion that politics are

too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. “ Charles De Gaulle

• Current system: “it’s fucked and it’s fucking us and it’s obsolete” Russell Brand (p 341)

• “It’s bullshit” Alex Brooker

• “Idiots”• “Who gets what, when and how” Harold Lasswell

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/unthinkable-happened-comedian-adam-hills-reviews-nick-cleggs-performance-last-leg

The risks of non-participation …

“If you go to Nando’s and get someone else to go up to the counter and order for you, you can’t complain if they come back with a meal you don’t want.” Nick Clegg

“Wherever the gospel is preached, we must remember that its good news will make you crazy. Jesus will put you at odds with the economic and political systems of our world. This gospel will force you to act, interrupting the world as it is in ways that make even pious people indignant.” - Emmanuel Katongole. (2009:116). Mirror to the Church: Resurrecting Faith after Genocide in Rwanda. Zondervan

We will never be Christ-like if we ignore the fact Jesus did politics, and did it in a highly charged and contested political context. We will also never be fully Christ-like if our approach does not have a special place for the poor, ostracized and marginalized of society. Embracing the Passion (p194)

Problem, Challenge, Issue ‘x’

‘x’Policies, social conditions and

systemic problems

causing ‘x’

Ideology driving policies and

creating context

Powers and principalities influencing

ideology: the gods of our age?

From your perspective…

• Main current problems?• Impact policies and social conditions?• Underpinning ideology?• What are the powers and principalities?

Is Britain Broken? View from the right

• Unemployment?• Crime and ASB?• Obesity, teenage pregnancy, drug & alcohol abuse?• Global race – education, industry, resources?• Big national debt?• Big welfare bill?• Very big pensions bill?• Immigration?• Too much bureaucracy?• Underachievement?

• Inequality?• Injustice?• Foodbanks?• Capitalism on its knees?• Blame culture?• Moral panics?• Vilification of the poor, disabled and needy?• Ignoring of globalisation negative impacts?• No trust in politicians, church, institutions?• Lack of political alternative models/parties?• Environmental destruction?

More from the left …

Who should sort it?

• Historical debates around the roles of: the state, civil society, markets, humanity

• Are we ‘good’ or ‘bad’?• Do we need ‘the state’ to intervene?• Leave to ‘the market’ to sort?• Is it about a good education and job or a

level playing field and equal opportunities?

• Is it the role of ‘faith and religion’ to sort it?

Overarching Government Responses

• Britain is Broken • Need new approaches• Neoliberalism – less government, more market,

commodification

• The Big Society – brand maybe toxic; but idea implemented

Inequality• The five richest families now own more

wealth than the poorest 20 per cent of the population. Oxfam A Tale of Two Britains (2014)

• Globally, the richest 20 per cent gets 83 per cent of income, the poorest 20 per cent just 1 per cent. Unicef

• Inequality is bad for everyone Wilkinson and Picket

• Feelings?

Imagine you paid £12000 in tax and

national insurance. How would you like

government to spend it?

The Challenges

Return to Forgotten Britain: Govern 2012- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYb0-Gtm480 33.20 – 36.21

Identify:Key challenges?What does God think?What would Jesus do?What would you do if in power?What will you do, now?

New Approaches

• Less state• Localism• Opening up public services – market-driven• Cut costs• The art of government is now about how

power is exercised to ensure things get done; but in a way that means they are not necessarily delivered by government - governmentality

Neoloiberalism

Harvey. (2007:2). A Brief History of Neoliberalism

Practice and Neoliberalism …• Schools

– Free schools– Academies– Parental choice

• Youth Work– Tendering– Services such as NCS– Youth offending– About outcomes and returns on investment– Youth unemployment

Commodification of Young People• Problematise and put up for sale ways of

solving the problems• Things and people that were originally not for

sale, are now for sale – schools, health, prisons, getting people into employment, youth services

• YP seen as economic units – ‘All our reforms to GCSEs and A levels complement the changes we have already made to technical and vocational qualifications, removing those which are not endorsed by businesses or employer bodies from league tables, and leaving only those which represent real achievement.’ Gove April 2014

• Services – tendering, commissioning, competition

• Payment by results• Social returns on investment

Deficit-driven policies

The deficit approach doesn’t really liberate young people. It might address some of their immediate problems (and this is often important), but does little to change the circumstances causing the problems in the first place. Both need to happen if young people are to flourish.Embracing the Passion (p 146)

Key policy moves …

1. Community Empowerment We decide what needs doing We do the work We foot the bill

2. Opening up Public Services Opportunities Challenges

3. Social Action NCS Youth United Faith groups (no extremists, please)

Community asset ownership

• “Re-endowing communities with independence and self-sufficiency”

• We face unprecedented mass divestment of state assets:

• Libraries. • Swimming pools. • Community centres. • Public spaces. • Council offices. • Courts. • Police stations. • Prison buildings. • The road network. • British Waterways. • RDA, MoD and Whitehall assets. • Ports.

• Want to avoid privatisation• “we have an unprecedented opportunity to lay the

foundations for a truly popular and meaningful Big Society by simultaneously capitalising civil society and spreading ownership.”

You can now take over and

run your local youth centre!

Opportunities

Challenges

Current policies

• Welfare reform• Troubled families• Pupil Premium• Adoption• Getting Britain building• Positive for Youth• National Citizen Service

Reflections?

Troubled Families‘Troubled Families’ first appeared David Cameron speech in Dec 2011: ‘last year the state spent an estimated £9 billion on just 120,000 families, around £75,000 per family. Our heart tells us we can’t just stand by while people live these lives and cause others so much misery. Our head tells us we can’t afford to keep footing the monumental bills for social failure. .. we have got to take action to turn troubled families around.’

… now helping over 110,000 of the most troubled families in England. Of these nearly 53,000 have had their lives turned around thanks to the intensive and practical approach, which works with the whole family on all of its problems … While retaining its focus on reducing truancy, crime and anti-social behaviour, the expanded programme will apply this approach to a larger group of families with a wider set of problems including domestic violence, debt and children at risk of being taken into care. (2014) www.gov.uk/government/news/troubled-families-programme-expanded-to-help-younger-children

‘Troubled families’ are households who: • Are involved in crime and anti-social behaviour • Have children not in school • Have an adult on out of work benefits • Cause high costs to the public purse The criteria for drawing up the families to be targeted by the Troubled Families programme therefore reflect these issues. Spending £200 million funding for 2015 to 2016

Other sources of info:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6151/2183663.pdfhttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/11469/2117840.pdf

Welfare reform

• Present system is too complicated and work incentives are poor

• “No one in work will be worse off than a person on benefit”

• ‘Universal credit’ – a single benefit (amalgamating Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Housing Benefit, Income Support, income-based JSA and income-related

ESA); merges out of work and in work benefits

• Sanctions for refusing job offer– (Relying on ‘nudge’ – behavioural economics)

From white paper: Universal Credit: A welfare system that works

Children a few headlines …• Raising achievement

disadvantaged children• Pupil Premium for schools• Free school meals• Lots of tests!• Improving the adoption system

and services for looked-after children

• Reduce obesity

http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/p/positive%20for%20youth.pdf

Positive for Youth• Coalitions Policy for young people• Published Dec 2011

The new measures of to be published annually on outcomes for young people are:% of 16 to 18s reporting that they are satisfied with their lives;% of 16 to 19s volunteering;% of 16 and 17 year olds in education and work-based learning;% of 18 year olds in education, employment or training;% of young people aged 19 who have claimed free school meals achieving level 3 (to focus on improving their outcomes relative to others)% of 19 year olds achieving Level 2;% of 10 to 17 year olds who have not had any contact with the criminal justice system (as measured by a reprimand, warning or conviction);% of 11 to 15 year olds misusing drugs and alcohol; andconceptions per 1000 15 to 17 year olds.

N Pimlott facebook entry 21 December 2011

‘Just read the government’s new ‘Positive for Youth’ policy – issued yesterday. Actually policy is a being a little generous – it’s more like a long list of issues and challenges facing young people and their parents and an equally long list of reasons why everybody else but govt has to respond to them? The same ‘everybody else’ who govt has taken funding away from. Localism? Empowerment? Or a total abdication of responsibility? In just over 90 pages, the word ‘local’ is mentioned a staggering 374 times! I must have been the only person who said anything negative in the consultation process as all is rosey according to them.’

Cameron has argued that young people will sow the seeds of the Big Society and let them burst into bloom in future years… The main weakness of the Big Society narrative is its ambiguous aims and objectives…Low Pay Commission report published in March 2010 expressed concerns about the number of people being encouraged into work or future education via unpaid full-time volunteering. Concern is growing that young people are increasingly being used to cut costs by performing basic administration and other entry-level jobs. In light of potential funding cuts, it is likely that many young people will be offered opportunities to undertake such positions.

Dr Andrew Mycock is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Huddersfield. Young People and the "Big Society"27 August 2010 http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/andy-mycock/young-people-and-big-society

National Citizen Service is a flagship initiative supporting the Government’s vision for building the Big Society. NCS will act as a gateway to the Big Society for many young people, by supporting them to develop the skills and attitudes they need to get more engaged with their communities and become active and responsible citizens.

The programme will promote: • A more cohesive society by mixing participants of different

backgrounds.• A more responsible society by supporting the transition into

adulthood for young people.• A more engaged society by enabling young people to work

together to create social action projects in their local communities.

Cabinet Office

http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/

https://vimeo.com/117372510http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/

Institutional Isomorphism

‘This is a process where religious organisations reshape themselves to fit government policy and thereby lose their unique characteristics, while taking on the same institutional shape and processes as state agencies.’ Bretherton, L. Christianity and Contemporary Politics p43 After P. J. DiMaggio & W. Powell.

Mimic, be coerced, normative behaviour

language

Look at the future - what will happen

Solutions and Ways Forward

“Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for you.”

Seek the shalom of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in the shalom of it shall you have shalom. Jer 29:7

“On my holiday to Goa in India , I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.”

“The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.”

“We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.”

“I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends’ three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller.”

“They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.”

“My fiance and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”

How. recently, have you sought the shalom of

[your place](not the church or the Christians, but everybody

else)In pairs, you have 2 mins each

My dream is that we can respond to the challenges before us in a much more collective manner than we do currently. Ultimately, I dare to believe we can work towards realising social conditions that do away with the need for ‘Good Samaritans’. This demands making decisions that benefit the majority more than happens currently. A new settlement is needed that works more effectively for the 99 per cent of society, not just the one per cent. Embracing the Passion (p 133)

“If you are to be on the side of the voiceless, you must confront the vested interests of the rich and powerful who have constructed a justification for their wealth and power.”Tom Cullinan, Catholic monk

If the total conditions necessary for human fulfilment are to be achieved in work with young people, not only must young people’s needs be met, but also the negative and demonizing societal context within which they live must be addressed. Embracing the Passion (p 143-4)

I am not opposed to the flourishing of enthusiastic local groups caring for those less fortunate citizens amongst whom they live and work. But we also need to generate genuine alternatives to the way society is structured, and the distribution of wealth and opportunity. New affinities or alliances between progressive people of all religions and of non-religious beliefs can create a genuinely progressive shared … society. Chris Baker

“Rather than a narrow, individualistic model of economic inclusion, equal value should be placed on wider aspects of citizenship, such as contribution to civic life, personal flourishing and strong social relationships. In contrast to the politics of inclusion under New Labour and the Coalition, this would be based on a conviction that empowerment is a better route to social responsibility than obligation alone. For this to succeed, however, it has to be part of a politics of the common good.”Clare McNeil. The politics of disadvantage: New Labour, social exclusion and post-crash Britain By, IPPR (Institute for Public Policy

Research) p 9

Manifestos‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ Nazareth Manifesto: Luke 4.18–19

Set out your political (and/or faith) intentions and beliefs in a short ‘manifesto’ – try and keep

it to under 75 words.

A costly business?

“Those who wish for change must think of themselves as the sacrificial margin: the pioneering movement that might not succeed immediately, but that will eventually deliver sweeping change.” George Monbiot http://www.monbiot.com/2015/01/28/the-lamps-are-coming-

on-all-over-europe/?utm_content=bufferb71c2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

A warning …35 years ago, Fred Milson (1980, p. 63) wrote a book about education and politics. It was published, like my book, by SCM Press in association with Frontier Youth Trust. He said:

“The active involvement of Christians in politics is a matter of theology: in other words, it rests on what they believe God to be like as he has revealed himself in the Bible and supremely in Jesus Christ. … The God of the Bible is involved in the affairs of men [and women, children and young people], opposing injustice of all kinds and working for social righteousness as well as individual goodness. His followers will join in the same struggle or they may find he is no longer in their midst.”

Common Good?“The profoundly important belief, shared by people of all faiths and none, that every individual is precious, that everyone has worth, and that the hunger, need and despair of any, should rightly pain us all. A belief that in a good society we share the risks of our own vulnerability, can identify that which makes us collectively strong, and can contribute to the flowering of everyone’s capabilities, not just the achievement of the very few. A good society that recognizes that what we hold in common is both important and valuable, and that jeopardizing the common good for individual gain, diminishes us all.” Julia Unwin (2011) Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Common Good

• Symbiotic and mutually beneficial• Solidarity with marginalised• Being local, and grassroots (subsidiarity)• Life-bringing• Telling the story• Equitable and sustainable• Bettering the world

equally to everyone’s advantage …

Thanks …

[email protected]@nigelpimlott

www.fyt.org.uk

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