COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENT News Release (004) issued by COI News Distribution
Service. 12 January 2009
Communities
Secretary Hazel Blears has today unveiled measures that will see
young people from some of the nation's most deprived areas
getting involved in activities that will introduce them to a world
beyond their immediate neighbourhoods, involve local communities
in efforts to raise their aspirations and aim to break the cycle
of deprivation that blights some of our communities.
Over the last eleven years, Government investment and reform has
meant that many of this country's most deprived
neighbourhoods have changed for the better and, in turn, so have
people's opportunities and prospects.
But there are still streets and estates with high levels of
unemployment. This Government is determined to ensure that
nobody's chance in life should be determined and
nobody's opportunities should be limited by the place in
which they live.
Targeted programmes within schools are turning around low
achievement. But, it's no surprise that if you grow up on a
street where no-one works, where people tell you that you
won't go far, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. However
there is nothing inevitable about the link between growing up in a
deprived neighbourhood and what you can go on to achieve. Young
people with the support of parents, peers and communities grow up
to excel and it is within that wider community that some of the
solutions to the problems of low aspiration lie.
As part of wider measures published today in the New
Opportunities White Paper the government is setting out plans
specifically targeted at turning around the life chances of some
of our poorest kids. We will provide £10 million over the next two
years to support the creation of a network of fifteen
'Inspiring Communities' where parents, schools,
business, third sector organisations and local agencies believe
that their young people can succeed and will work together to make
it happen.
The funding will be used to support local communities to design
their own solutions to the particular barriers they face in order
to ensure that the limits of our children's aspirations are
not defined by the street or neighbourhood in which they live, including:
Community pledges - where local people set ambitious goals for
local kids such as getting to university and meeting those goals
becomes a shared endeavour.
Encouraging more young people to get involved in volunteering -
volunteering is a great way to boost ambitions, build confidence
and responsibility and can be a pathway to employment. These
schemes will bring people of different backgrounds and ages
together and foster a sense of pride and attachment to the local community.
Support young social entrepreneurs to develop and deliver
positive activities for other young people in their area.
Twinning between different communities - we know that people can
benefit from connections with a wider range of people and
opportunities outside of their immediate neighbourhood. We are
keen to see diverse communities working together to get kids out
of their normal setting in order to expand their horizons and
their experiences.
Inspiring Communities neighbourhoods should be selected and ready
to launch their individual Inspiring Communities campaigns in
August 2009.
Hazel Blears said:
"For some people, the streets around their house constitute
their universe. If the only people they interact with are out of
work and they don't see education as being a realistic route
to improving their lot then we will continue to see generation
upon generation stuck in a vicious circle.
"What happens in schools is vital but it is not enough. We
need to give our young people the chance to meet a wide variety of
people, experience new opportunities and new places. We need to
give communities the tools they need to change their own lives. By
getting local parents, teachers, businesses and others working
together to encourage, support and collectively strive for the
best for their kids there is a real potential to turn things around."
Local people, organisations and partners are key to tackling
local problems. Local communities are often the source of support
that people need to get on - neighbours giving neighbours a lift
to work, local people setting up local business, friends helping
people make the contacts that will get them a into a job and
helping to keep local kids on the straight and narrow.
Building on the progress made through programmes such as Sure
Start and the New Deal for Communities the Government wants to
make more of local networks and harness the energy and commitment
of communities in finding solutions that will improve life
chances, especially for the next generation. In particular
government want to get a better understanding of how to tackle
stubborn and persistent deprivation with an emphasis on involving
local people.
We have regenerated many of the most deprived estates and made a
genuine difference to quality of life, and the education and
employment of the people living there. The gap in educational
achievement has closed, crime has fallen, estates have been
regenerated and hundreds of thousands more people are in jobs.
Despite this progress, some estates still have entrenched problems.
The problems facing communities can differ from street to street.
Over the next two years £15m will be available to the new Homes
and Communities Agency to work with around ten local authorities
with the most deprived estates. The work will draw heavily on the
crucial lessons that we have learned from our work on regeneration
to date. This tells us that the local residents who have the
crucial insight into what the problems in their area must be
involved. We also know that more attention needs to be paid to the
wider economic development - and the opportunities for work that
can exist outside the estate.
So, in each area, residents will be involved in designing plans
for the future. In the short term they will identify quick wins
which can offer immediate improvements to their estate. In the
longer-term the aim will be to better link these estates to new
opportunities to turn things around - and halt familiar cycles of
renovation and decline. This could mean developing better
transport connections to work, ensuring residents have the skills
to get jobs in nearby areas, improving local parks and green
spaces, or developing community organisations which support
residents to help themselves, and making better use of existing
private and public investment - the solutions will be different in
each area.
Rather than residents having initiatives done to them we want to
empower communities to do things for themselves. By drawing
regeneration work down to this intensive neighbourhood level and
getting the right teams of people in place to support communities
we hope to transform not just the physical environment but the
quality of life more generally including health, employment and
education and crime.
The intention is to build up a range of good practice that could
then be shared with local authorities.
The measures being outlined today in the New Opportunities White
Paper and are part of a broad package of measures aimed at
ensuring that each successive generation can gain better jobs,
which in turn will improve their wealth and wellbeing; and
creating a society where everyone is able to realise their
potential and have fair chances to access these better jobs,
regardless of their social background.
Notes to Editors
This press notice applies to England
1. The policies being outlined by the Communities Secretary today
are included in The New Opportunities White Paper http://www.hmg.gov.uk/newopportunities
2. The 'Inspiring Communities' policy is a response to
the joint Social Exclusion Task Force / CLG / DCSF short study
into the 'aspirations and attainment of young people in
deprived communities' published in December 2008. The
evidence pack for which available at http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/109339/aspirations_evidence_pack.pdf
News Releases: http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsroom