Monday, July 25, 2011

Being Ten

Framework, the charity I work for, is ten this month. In some ways this still comes as a surprise to me. It feels like we’ve been around forever. If you went out into the town and city centres of Nottinghamshire and started asking people who Framework are, it wouldn’t take long before you found someone who not only knew who we were, but probably knew someone who had been supported by us.

We’ve grown an awful lot since we emerged from a coming together of ‘Nottingham Help the Homeless’ and the ‘Macedon Trust’ in 2002. I wasn’t around back then because I joined in 2009. I’m a quick study though and the last three years have been an overwhelmingly positive experience. You could say I’m like a (ten year old) kid in a sweetshop.

As far as ten year old go, some are out playing most of the time, suffering knee scrapes or getting bike pedal mud on the bottom of their trousers. At Framework we’re not really that different. For the time I’ve worked here, I’ve seen many of our Service Users in scrapes and our staff knee deep in mud, trying to carve out a path for them.

However, it is worth remembering that some ten year olds are not as lucky as others. We see many families who are in turmoil, trying to keep their heads above the choppy financial waters and dealing with a host of social problems along the way. The ten year olds who live in these households often miss out on the opportunities of their peers. They may be underachievers at school and getting up to things they shouldn’t. They may witness domestic violence and sometimes they may suffer it.

To be ten should mean that your days are filled with making new friends, overcoming difficulties, learning new things and being challenged to find that one thing which you are better at than everyone else.

We’re certainly trying to do all of those things here at Framework but more importantly we’re trying to help others to do that too.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

What a Pickle! Homelessness is on the increase.

A leaked letter from Eric Pickles to David Cameron has cheered me up today. Pickles told the Prime Minister that his welfare policies which are due to come into effect in 2013 risk making 40,000 families homeless. This aspect is far from cheery, but what is heartening is that there are people working at the heart of Government who have a conscience.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the decisions of this increasingly nasty right wing government will increase homelessness and child poverty. The letter warns that:

• 40,000 families will be made homeless by the welfare reforms which spells "some very serious practical issues for DCLG priorities".
• An estimated £270m saving from the benefits cap will be wiped out by the need to divert resources to help the newly homeless and is likely to "generate a net cost”
• There will be additional costs to local authorities (having to provide extra homelessness provision and temporary accommodation)

If you consider that Notts County Council and Nottingham City Council have just used a wrecking ball on homelessness prevention services, it brings the leaked letter into sharp focus. Budgets have been cut by in excess of 50%. This comes at a time when people most need help and support to hold onto their home. The ‘Supporting People’ regime which has delivered a great many benefits to society as a whole, has been unceremoniously gutted by the coalition.

Andrew Redfern, Chief Exec of Framework Housing Association sums it up very well.

“SP is being destroyed by the recklessness of politicians and the incompetence of civil servants. All three parties are implicated.

The decisions taken at central and local level about the future of Supporting People have little or nothing to do with the economy. They are unnecessary, ill-considered changes driven by arrogance and an unwillingness to listen.

The reduction and closure of services is already having a visible impact. Informal street counts show an increase in rough sleeping over the past few months. Hostels are beginning to ‘silt up’ as people have nowhere to go, and more people are seeking immediate help by knocking on the doors of offices, churches and private dwellings.

Disproportionate cuts, targeted at the most vulnerable, do not merely harm those from whom services are withdrawn. They also increase the overall burden on the exchequer – an impact that is masked by the transfer of cost from one budget to another.”

So where do we go from here? Well, given that Iain Duncan Smith will probably resign if there’s a U-turn on the benefits bill, perhaps the solution for Cameron is a less embarrassing backtrack on localism… So I say…. Restore the Supporting People Ringfence. It’s sorely needed, now more than ever before.