David Cameron’s pitch for the centre ground was also reflected in his reference to the poor outcomes of care leavers (A watershed moment? Deeds not words will decide, 8 October). In doing so he was following in the footsteps of Tony Blair, who in his first term of office introduced legislation and a raft of policy measures. Paradoxically, under Blair, Brown and Cameron’s coalition, though leaving-care services improved, there has been very little change in outcomes, as central and local government services failed to address three fundamental issues that blight care leavers’ adult lives.
First, too many young people move around the care system – a third of young people leaving care at 16-plus have between five and 10 placements. Second, very few young people do well at school and in their GCSEs – only about 7% go on to university. And third, young people leave care at a younger age than other young people – half of 20- to 24-year-olds in the UK are living with a parent, whereas most young people leave care between 16 and 18.
If the Conservative government wants to learn the lessons from New Labour and coalition policy failures and improve outcomes, they should ensure young people have stability, address their educational deficits and mental health needs, and provide opportunities for gradual transitions to adulthood – as most other young people living with their families can expect.
Emeritus professor Mike Stein
Social policy research unit, University of York
• The Federation of Muslim Organisations has been in existence for over three decades. We have always been unequivocal in our commitment to the safeguarding of all our children, in all environments, in the collective pursuit of a tolerant society. The FMO has a long-established safeguarding project spanning two decades, which works with local religious supplementary schools to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children.
We urge the government to follow the collaborative example set by our local partnership in establishing the safeguarding project in mainstreaming our shared values of respect, equality, tolerance and safeguarding, in the broadest sense of the term. Furthermore, in light of David Cameron’s announcement (Report, 8 October), we believe that due consultation is required across communities nationally, with effective communication and engagement with all relevant stakeholders in a transparent and sensitive manner, so that we can truly work together collectively to safeguard future generations. This will also help to avoid any generalisations or misconceptions and will go a long way towards winning the confidence of the community.
We all agree that the safety and protection of our children is absolutely paramount. Only through engagement, with trust and mutual understanding as its foundations, can we successfully realise our shared aim of safeguarding our children.
Suleman Nagdi
Federation of Muslim Organisations, Leicester
• It was interesting to hear David Cameron support the notion of equality, but his government seems to ignore and reject the content of the Equality Act 2010. His hint at addressing social class would be supported if section 1 of the act was now adopted. Such progress as has been made on equality has come in large part from use of equality laws, from the sex and race discrimination acts of the 1970s on. But we have seen a marked failure to train people in what equality laws say and how to bring them into effect. Equality of opportunity in all aspects of life in the UK can only happen if people know what they can and cannot do to deliver and promote equality – emoting is not enough.
Linda Bellos
Former chair of the Institute of Equality and Diversity Practitioners
• Can Jeremy Hunt be serious? He suggests we should “be prepared to work hard in a way the Asian economies are prepared to work hard” (Report, 6 October). Perhaps he is not aware of some of the less savoury aspects of China’s spectacular growth over the last three decades. Does he really want already hard-pressed, low-wage employees in the UK to aspire to working 12 hours a day for minimal wages, in often unsafe working conditions? In 2014 there were 68,061 workplace deaths in China, about 186 a day. In the absence of effective union representation, strikes and workplace protest are a daily occurrence in China. Surely we can do better than this?
Professor Jude Howell
LSE
• David Cameron’s party conference speech announcing “an all-out assault on poverty” to tackle “deep social problems” and boost social mobility is a fine example of what, in Yes Minister, we called the Law of Inverse Relevance, which states that the less you are going to do about something, the more you have to talk about it.
Jonathan Lynn
New York
