Families with problems, not problem families

I am so impressed by the Action for Children campaign. The package on the Today programme this morning illustrated clearly that families have problems and there are ways that statutory services and voluntary organisations can work with families, not against them, to help. Practical support works. Help with cleaning, cooking and getting the kids to school with a breakfast inside them and proper clothes can get kids to grow into law abiding and loving citizens. The head teacher on the radio this morning told the story of a little girl who was found washing in the school toilets, but with help for her family she flourished and went on to university. I particularly like the way they have characterised the issue by talking about families with problems, not problem families. This implies that things are redeemable, that we can intervene and help.В 

Juxtapose this with the latest outpouring from the government about cracking down on “problem families”. How negative and ineffective. Increasing the use of ASBOs will be a disaster, for the families, for neighbours, for prisons. The Howard League’s book The ASBO:wrong turning, dead end, written by Chief Superintendent Neil Wain, showed that this coercive approach was not only ineffective, but counter-productive.

The Home Office was forced to publish the breach rate of ASBOs in February. Over five years 9,749 ASBOs were imposed, and 4,568 breached. Manchester is the ASBO capital, handing out 1,227 of the orders but with one of the highest breach rates in the country at nearly 60%. They are imposed on people with mental health problems, children and addicts. They solve nothing. This is the politics of nastiness.

If only the government would learn from the voluntary sector. It is possible to deal with the problems that people have, the problems they pose, and at the same time gain public support for this. It is possible to be effective and compassionate and popular.

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October 13, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Government policy, Sentencing

One Response

  1. OwloftheWolery - October 21, 2009

    England could perhaps learn from Glasgow’s approach to ASBOs.

    I understand that very few ASBOs have been “awarded” since the power to do so was granted in Glasgow. This is apparently for two main reasons.

    The first reason is that the authorities do not want to criminalise young people because of a technical breach of an ASBO. Given such a large percentage of ASBOs breached in England, Glasgow’s concern seems to have been well founded.

    The second reason is that the authorities understood that ASBOs might become trophies for young people behaving anti-socially, making the coercive approach even more counter-productive.

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