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5.49 p.m.
Baroness David: My Lords, first, I should like to thank the noble Earl for introducing this very important and, as it has turned out, varied debate. The subject is of great importance to our country's future. It also gave
us the opportunity to hear the noble Earl, Lord Enniskillen, give his maiden speech, which was fascinating. It was interesting to have a wider view--a view from another continent. I was particularly pleased to hear him talk about the environment. I believe that young people find the environment a stimulating subject, and the more we can encourage that the better.My own list of problems which create difficulties for society today are: poverty; unemployment; inadequate education and training; poor parenting; and the greedy and unfair society that it seems we have become. All those lead to young people feeling alienated from society. That, to me, is dangerous.
Poverty makes it very difficult for parents to cope, and it is growing fast in what we are told by the Chancellor is a prosperous and successful society. Children living in households with less than half the national income rose from 16 per cent. to 33 per cent. between 1981 and 1992. Inequality of income is greater in the UK than in any other north European country. There are two groups I want to mention specifically: lone parents and young people leaving care.
The percentage of children brought up in one-parent families rose from 11 per cent. to 19 per cent. between 1981 and 1992. That is 4.2 million children. That is frightening. Last year they had their benefit cut. I wrote as chairman of the all-party Children Group to Mr. Peter Lilley to beg him that further cuts forecast would not take place in the Budget. We did ask him to see us but he was not able to do that. Yesterday he pushed through a drastic reduction in benefit payments for single mothers by abolishing the lone-parent premium for all new claimants. The 1 million lone parents on income support will continue to receive the £5.20 a week, but single parents who go onto income support from next year will not be eligible.
A Channel 4 programme on poverty a few weeks ago showed a good, caring, single mother trying to bring up a child on £80 a week. Imagine the stress and the struggle in trying to keep up appearances for the child's sake at school, buying expensive little packets of orange juice so the other children would not think that he was different.
Some people think that pushing more money toward two-parent families in order to boost marriage is sensible and would influence people towards marriage and two-parent households. Perhaps it will, but I am afraid that I consider it doubtful. Surely it is children of whom we should be thinking and the effect of poverty on them, on their lives. They are the next generation. Deprivation is recognised as a cause of crime.
Now, children leaving care, particularly the 16 to 18 year-olds are others about whom we should be very anxious. During the debate on the Children Bill in 1989, Lady Faithful and many of us tried very hard to improve the possibilities for them and put some responsibility for them on local authorities. We did not get what we wanted. The powers of the authorities are discretionary, and of course a great many of them have not got the money.
Those young people represent only 1 per cent. of their age group, yet they are massively over-represented among those who are disadvantaged. More than 75 per cent. have no academic qualifications; between 50 per cent. and 80 per cent. are unemployed; 23 per cent. of adult prisoners and 38 per cent. of young prisoners have been in care; one in seven young women leaving care is pregnant or already a mother; 30 per cent. of young single homeless have been in care; one in 10 16 to 17 year-old claimants for DSS severe hardship payments has been in care. There are some care leavers who are successful, but a caring society should not feel complacent about what is happening now. The vast majority are in care through no fault of their own. Local authorities just do not have the necessary resources to take on the duties that they could exercise. The plight of those young people is very serious.
The Labour Party has a number of plans for getting young people into training and employment, but I do not have time to go into those. Poor parenting is a cause of inadequate and possibly delinquent children. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, talked about that and I echo everything he said. The Labour Party has produced an excellent document called Parenting. I recommend that to people's attention. Research has shown that parental supervision is one of the most important factors in determining juvenile delinquency. Poor parental supervision and harsh and erratic discipline were among the most important factors contributing to youth crime.
We in this country give very little attention to helping people acquire the skills of a competent parent. Our media give more attention to the care of car and pets than to the care of children. Newspapers and magazines bombard us with information about our personal relationships and sex lives, but about parenting and children, the product of those relationships, there is usually silence. As they grow older they are exposed to an ever increasing range of harmful influences--drugs being a prime one--and strong peer pressure can mean that the lowest common denominator in behaviour can easily become the norm.
Parents find it difficult to cope and need help. We are constantly made aware of violent and anti-social behaviour in our schools. That is not just in urban areas; it can be in villages, towns, and cities in any part of the country. Unemployment, poverty and deprivation research has shown that economic deprivation, family criminality and school failure, as well as parental mishandling, are important predictions of offending. The crucial factor is the relationship between parent and child. How can we get better parenting? We should go back to the schools and look at the curriculum. It is too prescriptive. As it is, it cannot achieve the purpose of education which Section 1 of the 1988 Act states is to prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
Personal life skills must be a part of the curriculum. Example must be offered by the atmosphere and ethic of the school. Children will not learn to respect others if members of the school are not mutually respectful. They will not learn to negotiate, compromise and
resolve conflict constructively if they are being bullied or coerced. They will not learn tolerance and non-discrimination if they are isolated from people who are different from themselves. They will not learn to participate responsibly in a democratic society if they are given no voice or responsibilities in the school community. They will not learn self-discipline if they are always being disciplined. Educating for parenthood must begin in schools.One thing that worries me is the alienation of young people from national politics. That was mentioned by several speakers. Here again, I think that the schools could help. The all-party children group recently had a meeting at which Demos and Barnados told us of the apathy of the 18 to 25 year-olds to voting. They have a total lack of interest. The noble Lord, Lord Holme, mentioned that also. If we are to have a fully democratic society they must be involved. The noble Lord, Lord Sempill, also mentioned that in his fascinating speech. A fairer more caring society might make them more idealistic. The present greedy, unfair society is not the one to inspire them.
I spent most of the weekend reading the excellent Audit Commission report entitled Misspent Youth, which was mentioned by the right reverend Prelate, the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, and one or two other speakers. It is an excellent fully researched document. It does not just clearly outline the problems which exist in society today--it is immensely readable--it gives many examples of policies which could be followed which will improve society and help with all the difficulties we are now suffering. It makes a number of recommendations and it gives examples of good practice in a great many areas. There are examples from both at home and abroad--for instance, the HALT programme in Holland--which we could well look at and learn from.
The introduction points out the huge rise in crimes against individuals. It increased by 73 per cent. between 1981 and 1995 to 19 million, and against retailers and manufacturers it increased to 9 million, involving losses of £1 billion. It is predominantly young people who commit these offences.
Part 2 of the report, entitled "Tackling Offending Behaviour", I found an encouraging read. It first outlines the unnecessary costs--the very large costs--of the work involved in preparing cases for court, when one in four cases is withdrawn or results in conditional or absolute discharge. There is an appalling length of time in getting cases to court and the time which such cases take is a total waste. If only the time were shorter, the better it would be for young people. The commission report states that £40 million could be saved. If all the money that were saved could be spent on establishing schemes for community services of some kind, or on educational courses such as motor mechanics for joyriders--the Bumpy Project deals with motorbikes--a great deal of money could be saved and a much more satisfactory outcome achieved.
I wish that I had time to outline some of the successful projects which have been started in some areas. There is such a lot of good practice; for instance,
the Northamptonshire Diversion Unit, the HALT programme started in Rotterdam, the Dalston Youth Project in Hackney. All that has led me to take a much more optimistic view of the future. There are things that can be done but they need imagination and acceptance by the Government that what has been happening in our criminal justice system has not been successful.
I really do hope that we can have some assurance from the Minister that there will be a change from this harsh, punitive attitude which seems to dominate, at any rate, the Home Secretary. It has been extremely expensive and there are other much better means to create a caring and happier society which I believe that all who have spoken in the debate want to see.
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