Peter Beresford has written an interesting blog post about how major public policy is undermining community and therefore the aspirations of much of social care, particularly in terms of building social networks for service users. Is this people's experience?
Also, did anyone watch the ch4 documentary on Castleford last night. The programme follows the attempts of community members and local politicians as they try to regenerate the city, mainly through architectural schemes. Again, I wondered if anyone had experience of involvement in regeneration schemes and what impact they can have. Could we rebuild communities throughout the country with a concerted national effort?
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It's an interesting piece, and I agree with the idea that poorly thought out policies by national government - namely, post office closures and poor public transport in rural areas - impact on vulnerable groups the most.
But not all centralised policies and ideas are necessarily bad. I'd like to stick in an unlikely defence for the Tescos of this world. My local Safeways recently shut down, and yes, it's meant more life has come back into the local shops. But it also means that local people are reliant on little more than newsagents to do their shopping, and anyone who has tried to buy healthily from a branch of Costcutter knows that isn't always easy. It's all well for people who live in areas with local jam shops to complain, but for people in areas like mine, a centralised approach was the only thing that stopped the community effectively becoming a fresh food desert.