Globalisation:Centre for Social Justice: Policies

Policies

Globalisation: Centre for Social Justice have many differnet policies. There are a few explored within the following section including; Criminal Justice: Courts & Sentencing; Debt; Economic Dependency; Youth Justice and finally Children in Care.

Criminal Justice: Courts & Sentencing

'Every day, our criminal justice system deals with the consequences of social breakdown. When the same characters - the same individuals - appear in local courts time and time again, we must recognise there is something wrong with the system' Rt Hon. Iain Duncan Smith MP, Order in the Courts

A policy report by the Courts and Sentencing Working Group draws on interviews with the public, experts, the judiciary, probation and others involved in the criminal justice system. The report makes recommendations on a variety of typical problems facing local justice institutions, including deprivation, addiction, mental illness and the broad loss of public confidence. The courts are supposed to pursue justice, and discipline and rehabilitate law-breakers. But citizens do not believe that the courts punish appropriately. Sentences often fail to reflect the crime and appear opaque and do not seem successful in rehabilitating prisoners. Criminal activity and punishment are too distantly linked in the minds of many criminals because of a cumbersome and bureaucratic trials and sentencing process.

“It is not uncommon in London to have muggers released on bail eight or nine times before they face trial for their first attack.” Lord Stevens calls for criminal justice reform

The CSJ want to link what’s happening on the streets with what’s happening in the courts. They think that the excessive piecemeal reform of the last few years is only damaging the system further, and the aim of this working group is to establish clear guiding principles about the purpose of policing and sentencing, and consequently to recommend policy.

Debt

The report of "Breakthrough Britain: Debt" explores the number of people who admit to having debt problems, the many indicators which provide evidence on the scale of the problem and the contrast of UK indebtedness with that of Europe and suggests it all confirm the conclusion that 'personal debt is the most serious social problem facing the UK today'.

Consumer debt is at record levels with personal debt lending having reached £1,318 billion. Indebtedness is one of prime causes of stress and worry, with 74% of British couples finding money the most difficult issue to discuss, and over a third reporting that they lose sleep as a result of financial concerns. Debt cannot be viewed in isolation, it is both a cause and effect of other social problems, such as worklesseness. Low income families are some of the most vulnerable in society and the CSJ believe that the onerous burden that serious personal debt currently has on people in this country can be broken but that action must be taken now. Their policies are designed to redress the balance between lenders and borrowers and to give every consumer the opportunity to learn how to manage their money effectively, and the space and freedom to do so. It is not only about getting people out of debt, but also providing people with the knowledge and skills they need to stay free of serious debt and the social problems so entwined with it, for the rest of their lives.

"Debt is one of the most significant challenges facing today's society. With the help of the policy recommendations outlined within Breakthrough Britain Report the voluntary sector is well placed to address many of the associated issues the indebted encounter." Heather Keates, Community Money Advice.

Economic Dependancy

This policy report "Dynamic Benefits: Towards Welfare That Works" A Policy Report by the CSJ Economic Dependency Working Group was published in association with management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman. This report presents a review of the UK benefits system and proposals for a radical recasting of state support for the jobless and low-paid. The policy proposals in Dynamic Benefits would result in 600,000 households coming off welfare dependency and into work, boost the incomes of the lowest paid by nearly £5 billion and help move more than 200,000 children out of poverty. The overhaul will make welfare spending predictable and promote a culture of working rather than not working. Dynamic Benefits is the most far-reaching review of the UK welfare system in 60 years.

Over the past decade economic dependency, worklessness and poverty have become entrenched, not eradicated, in the UK. Millions of people are languishing at the margins, unable to fully participate in society. Three-quarters of a million more people are living in severe poverty now than when Labour came to power.

There are around 3.5 million working-age people on inactive benefits that require virtually nothing of them, and unemployment has increased in the last year. As well as this, the benefits system penalises both two-parent family formation and progression in work - both of which help protect against poverty. The Government is failing the very people it claims to be helping. The Economic Dependency and Worklessness Working Group have recommended a series of policy proposals to strengthen Britain by supporting people in taking the sustainable routes out of poverty: work and married couple family formation. The proposals focus on the most disadvantaged people in society, particularly those facing multiple barriers to work. . “We have created in this country a whole culture of dependency – if you pay people to do nothing they begin to expect something for nothing. You need to reward people for what you want.” Philip Collet, Motivational Systems

The Centre for Social Justice Commission are looking into making the Housing Benefit system simpler and fairer.

Youth Justice

Young people who have experienced educational failure and family breakdown disproportionately end up in the youth justice system: 42% of female young offenders have experienced domestic violence and 73% of young offenders describe their academic achievement as zero. Within England and Wales there is Little investment in prevention considering they spend 11 times more on locking children up than on preventing their involvement in crime in the first place. The youth justice system does not rehabilitate young offenders as the re-offending rate for young offenders leaving custody is currently 77% and the re-offending rate for young offenders leaving community sentences is currently 69%. Also Custody does not protect against harm as 30 children have died in custody since 1990 and in 2007, there were over 1,000 self-harm incidents among children aged between 15 and 17. There are many failures of the juvenile secure estate such as poor mental health care despite the fact that up to 95 per cent of young offenders may have at least one mental health disorder, only 53 per cent received care from local child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in 2006. Also included is poor education as the more welfare-orientated Secure Training Centres and Secure Children’s Homes provide formal education for 25 hours per week, 50 weeks per year yet around 15% of young offenders in YOIs only receive between 15 and 20 hours, while around 25% receive less than 15 hours. The final failing explored is the inadequate support upon release. In 2004-2005, 54% of those leaving YOIs had no recorded education, training or employment placement.

Children in Care

The CSJ published the report “Couldn't Care Less: Children In Care Report” This report addresses the current state of the care system for children in the UK where those children in care on average do very badly compared to other children.

Breakthrough Britain, published last year, covered the five pathways to poverty: family breakdown, failed education, debt, worklessness and dependency and drug and alcohol addiction. During the work on Breakthrough Britain, the CSJ began to notice that children in care had some of the worst outcomes of any group. They covered all the areas from family breakdown to drug and alcohol addiction and the CSJ felt that they weren’t able to report on the issues surrounding them in the time available. As a result it was decided that the Centre for Social Justice should commission another report on looked after children in care which would pull together members of the voluntary sector who deal with children in care, academics and those who were themselves in care as young people. Evidence was taken and used as extensive polling to find out what social workers and foster carers felt about the service they provided.

The report shows that children are taken into care because their parents are dysfunctional and can’t cope or they are threatened by abusive behaviour from their parents. However, once they are in care too often the state seems to lower their life outcomes, not raise them. The reports findings should make compelling reading for all politicians. As the report was read, it was found to cause anger, that society could have allowed so many children to have been failed by statutory authorities. The appalling level of academic achievement, the high levels of mental illness, the destructive levels of drug and alcohol addiction and the criminality that so characterise these children, should anger the population. This failure affects society for it is already picking up these enormous costs through the criminal justice system and the health service and these are set to rise. What the paper also shows is that other countries seem to be much more responsive to the needs of the children they have taken into care, often with better results. The recommendations in this report are about changing the way society look at children in care and how it lives up to its responsibilities. However, what is needed first is the political courage to make this a priority and initiate the process of change to an area society has brushed aside for too long. Only then can the population see the answer of the important question – who cares? Rt Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP.