BLOGS
July 20 Wake-up call
The news that some companies are providing wake-up calls and lifts to interviews to the NEETs they are trying to get back into work demonstrates just how bad the situation is for disillusioned young people.
But the spoon-feeding approach seems to be the wrong way to transform these people’s lives. Providing such a level of support to people who quite clearly do not want to work is incredibly depressing when you think of the thousands of people aged 16-24 who are desperately trying, and failing, to fi nd jobs.
Obviously leaving the NEETs to their own devices and allowing them to remain in bed for as long as they please is not an option;
This can only lead to young people coming to expect such treatment, which is both clearly unsustainable and simply ridiculous. To change
either for the people themselves, or the society they are shunning.
Yet chauffeuring them around town and ringing each day to wake them up presents a very dangerous message – that they can continue to rely on somebody else to take all responsibility for their actions.
NEET behaviour, we must fi rst work to change their attitudes. Otherwise this scheme will remain an expensive way to temporarily modify action, without address the core issues behind their reluctance and apathy.
July 13 More haste, less speed?
Many parts of the new white paper for criminal justice should be welcomed, with a greater emphasis on using technology to protect witnesses and victims and to increase effi ciency within the system.
Faster resolution of cases would also be benefi cial for all those involved, but as critics have pointed out, this will not come cheap, nor will it be easy to implement.
It’s not even these practicalities which are leading to some concern – faster justice does not necessarily mean good justice, and there is a danger that too much haste could in fact damage the court’s ability to pass appropriate sentences.
It seems as if there is a balance to be struck between speeding up the system to reduce delays and further disruption to those whose lives are affected, and allowing enough time to deliver justice effectively.
But the Lords Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change has made a fairly radical suggestion, which is worth further consideration – what if our ageing population could be seen as an asset, not a problem?
It has long been an unquestioned assumption that an increase of elderly people in proportion to younger workers is necessarily and solely a Bad Thing.
Is this simply due to our culture, which seems to place little value on these members of society? Or does this just refl ect the fact that such a change will bring multiple problems.
Perhaps if the necessary analysis and development of adequate plans takes place in a timely manner, and our policy makers approach the issue with a more open mind, the UK can optimise one of our key assets; our people.
i More blogs like this at:
www.publicsectorexecutive.com/ the-ravens-daily-blog
July 5 Age old problem?
The UK’s changing demography is going to signifi cantly affect public services and it is high time policy and strategy was developed to address this challenge.
10 | public sector executive Jul/Aug 12
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