Has anyone had a chance to look at the new Cabinet Office white paper on social mobility? What do you think of it? How much impact will it have for the most vulnerable? Are there any things that it has missed?
Some of the proposals in the white paper include:
- £57m to extend free childcare for disadvantaged two year olds- vulnerable pregnant mums to have access to a dedicated family nurse - full time community volunteering programme for people not in education, employment or training in 33 local authorities- £500 back to work training entitlement for parents and carers- employment support programme for young people leaving care- £15million communities fund to tackle deprivation on the worst estates and build thriving and sustainable communities
CareSpace support
I don't want to be entirely cynical, but in reality all of these efforts will be overwhelmed by the recession, which, as always, will hit the most vulnerable hardest. That is the way the economic system works.
hm, got a lot of buzz words there...don't mean to be cynical too but i sense it lacks substance or realistic implementation plans. However, there are some good ideas for sure, in so far as offering pathways as opposed to just throwing money at people, which unfortunatlely tax increases mean they will be heamoriging elsewhere.
The one that i raised my eyebrows at was 'vulnerable pregnant mums to be provided with dedicated family nurses' - who gets the label vulnerable? And what else does a midwife do if not that?? And isn't there a general shortage of nurses? I imagine that will work something like having a named nurse - who is substituted for someone else when they aren't available. And what exactly are they meant to do exactly anyway? Does vulnerable mean subject to child in need/protection, in which case, having another professional involved monitoring them is only going to add to stress and vulnerability, speaking from experience working in this area. I think this 'sounds good' but has absolutly no substance.