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Giving Canning Town a LIFT

Monday, July 5th, 2010

LIFT Canning Town Just around the corner from our headquarters building in Canning Town an intriguing new structure has been taking shape behind the hoardings over the last few weeks. Here in east London amid the Olympics building work and other huge regeneration projects we are used to seeing things change. The new building on the site of former council housing is actually a mobile performance venue – basically a big tent  – and provides a temporary home to the London International Festival of Theatre.

For a few weeks this empty patch of ground will be transformed into a venue for a diverse range of drama as well as a full programme of eclectic events stretching from boxing to haircuts by children!

As part of the fun Community Links will be taking over the space for a full day next Monday 12th July.  We will be presenting a Family Fun day with a programme of activity and taster sessions including a chance to get professional advice and help filling in forms; Keep Fit; Pensioners Bingo; Salsa Dance workshop; after-school craft activities for local children and ending up with music and street dance performances from young people in the Youth Zone until 9:00pm

It’s great to have unused bits of urban land put to community use and bringing drama to areas outside the west end of London is to be celebrated. Come and join us at our family fun day next week – or come sooner and take in a show. Highlights this week include free performances of  “She from the Sea” by Zawe Ashton from the Clean Break Company – a theatre company using theatre for personal and political change, working with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system. The programme outlines the performance :

Pearl, Masha and Edlin are trying to move on.  A simple life by the sea is all they need to forget their pasts.  But when a mysterious visitor is washed up, she brings with her a dark history that threatens their new way of life. A decision must be made.   Let her stay or make her swim?

Hooked?  … I might see you there….   7.30pm, 8 July 2010 or 2.30pm & 7.30pm, 9 July 2010. Loads of other interesting and exciting things are happening and it is a great opportunity to experience something new in an unusual setting.

Have a look at the full programme and do drop-in on Monday 12th to join in the  Community Links family fun day.

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Posted in Communication, Innovation, Inspiration, Regeneration | No Comments »

Should Parliament move to east London?

Friday, February 12th, 2010

MPs have put forward a suggestion that Parliament should move its premises to east London’s ExCel centre. This is just a few minutes away from our base in Canning Town so we asked our staff what they thought, 80% of our staff live locally or are ex-service users.

Here’s what they said:

‘Not sure why ExCel would be considered a location more in touch with real life. It is in many ways more isolated than Westminster.’

‘I think that’s a great idea, especially as Newham, even though the host borough for the Olympics is still one of the poorest boroughs, and the politicians would get a better insight to the area and its problems.’

‘I would strongly disagree due to the strain on local roads, facilities etc. Also, with the constant threat of terrorism I do not like the idea of such high profile figures at the end of my road.’

‘I think it’s a great idea for Parliament to be located in the heart of East London, especially with a backdrop of the recent tarnished media image of Westminster politics & expenses scandals over the last year. The areas of regeneration immediately surrounding the ExCel Centre, such as Canning Town and Newham in general would provide a daily reminder, and accurate snapshot of the array of challenges facing people today. Westminster Palace can be seen to be a location that can often be seen to be its own detached and removed world. In addition there could be marked cost reduction benefits to the tax payer also, and potential to make such a site a sustainable one, perhaps helping to restore some faith in the public that politics and voting is a system one should try to engage with in order to help address society’s problems.’

‘My experience of the Excel centre is that it is a place full of ’suits’ on dubious expenses!!!!!!’

‘I really don’t want them in east London.  We already have enough agro when the biannual DSEI exhibition is held at the Excel.  Then we will have the massive inconvenience of “heightened security” from about April 2011 until the end of the games.  We have permanent armed cops in Royal Docks because of the airport!’

I personally think instead of the Excel centre perhaps some of them should move in with us to see how the real day to day to life is like, see what we have to put up with, I bet half of them would be scared to go out after 6pm. Most of them don’t know what real life is like, with all their pampering up at Whitehall.

There we go again, they want the accommodation in the Olympic village and to be in for 2012……..

“Once the Olympic athletes have left the Village how about turning it into dormitory accommodation for MPs right next to a new Parliament – that way nobody would need to apply for a second home allowance and the security and official transport could all be pooled making a financial saving.”

Apart from the obvious benefit, the creation of a local food outlet other that one long standing bakery to swarm to for lunch, we would have MPs at our doorstep. Would local east London people get more involved in governmental affairs as a result? Would the cynicism and lack of trust that has increased since the MP expenses scandal in the summer gradually disappear (that is why MPs are suggesting this surely?!), probably not.

The Canary Wharf development is a stones throw from Canning Town and has had very little impact on local residents in all the years that is has been there. When asked what impact Canary Wharf has had, our community development team replied that ‘most locals say it is for rich people, there is a stigma to it as it cost millions and it has no place for them, the shops are lovely but far too expensive so its just somewhere some feel them can go for a nice wander around’

If government is trying to find ways to reconnect with the public and be in touch with real life issues to win back that trust they have completely lost then it will take more than packing up and moving location. That is a mis-diagnosis of the problem. We have had political apathy for a long time; in the 2005 election there was an overall voting turnout of 61.4% in the UK, a slight rise in an overall declining trend from previous decades. Last summer’s revelations fed ammunition to turn that apathy to resentment. Parliament needs to changes its practices; get out, listen and take action, not relocate to what is considered less attractive dwellings and adopt exactly the same customs as before. The geography isn’t the problem; it’s the lack of listening to real people. Not just listening for the sake of an election but to take action and do something about it. That will win the hearts and minds of local people and make it worthwhile to plan a trip over to Westminster.

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Posted in Communication, Community Engagement, Regeneration | No Comments »

Welfare Commission: humanising decision making and appeals in the benefits system

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Today the Department for Work and Pensions Select Committee publishes its report on decision making and appeals in the benefits system, the headline press coverage reports that overpayments due to error had soared from £400 million in 2000, while overpayments due to fraud and mistakes by claimants dropped. As part of the solution the select Committee is calling for a Welfare Commission to be set up to simplify the benefits system. We welcome this news and believe that any redesign should place a one-to-one service to claimants at its heart; ensuring efficient and humanised service delivery. We have a few specific recommendations for the Commission to consider

  • Reduce the complexity of claim forms,
  • Make crisis loans more accessible and immediate,
  • Addresses the inconsistency of the earnings disregard across all benefits to ensure accidental fraud is not committed resulting in benefits being automatically stopped.

Last year the Community Links advice services were used by a total of 12,400 local people. At our drop-in advice sessions 37.8% were benefits related cases, of which 73% were a result of DWP error. Our advice services continue to be in high demand, services cost several hundred thousand pounds per year – funded by local authorities and the Legal Services Commission. This cost to the tax payer could be dramatically reduced by the simplification of the benefits system and increased competency with the administration process.

Research by AdviceUK in Nottingham reveals that 42% of the demand at advice agencies in the city is ‘failure demand’ – demand caused by failures in the system of public administration. Reducing this would save significant amounts of money and free up advisors to carry out valuable work with clients, supporting them to resolve their long-term problems.

Many of our clients have used our advice services in the past; some have had their benefits mistakenly stopped on more than one occasion. The knock-on effects are increased borrowing and debt, eviction problems and in many cases people falling into the informal economy, working cash-in-hand to cover costs as a last resort. Debt related advice has doubled, and our advisers believe this is in part due to the recession-related rise in claimant figures, and benefits being stopped or delayed as people struggle to find formal work.

Our campaign, Need NOT Greed has been calling for a simplified benefits system. A system which is easier to navigate could help prevent the rise of informal economic activity caused by people struggling to survive poverty. At the launch of the Need NOT Greed campaign in February 2009 Terry Rooney, chair of the DWP select committee said

“There is a treadmill of being in the informal economy out of Need NOT Greed. The striking thing is that the national benefits system is geared up to serve millions, but everybody is an individual – it’s how you can recognise everyone’s needs and requirements. You need a totalitarian system and there are enormous challenges – but ones that need to be faced and met.”

A local campaigner and user of our advice services said

“the system wears you down, I am constantly just surviving. Every time you pick yourself up and try to move forward the system lets you down again. It’s the same old problems for everyone and none of us round here trust it anymore. How can something you don’t trust be able to help you?”

Rising unemployment is increasing demand for welfare benefits at a time when public funding is under severe pressure. Spending time building productive relationships with people using services is time well spent; not an extravagance. These relationships are instrumental to efficient delivery of public services. We hope that a Welfare Commission is established as it is evident that change is necessary – but change must put the needs of the service user at the heart of the system.

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Posted in Benefits, Communication, Informal Economy, News, Regeneration, Research, Welfare, debt, employment | 2 Comments »

What do journalism students know about poverty?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

The UK Coalition Against Poverty have begun an excellent programme working with student journalists, introducing them to the realities of poverty in the UK and how to report on it. Eileen Devaney, UKCAP national coordinator, reflects on the experience so far…

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently produced a guide for journalists on reporting poverty, as part of their public attitudes to poverty project. We were commissioned to promote the resource to journalism educators and support them to cover the subject of poverty in the classroom.

We have done presentations and workshops with journalism post graduate and M.A. students, and the lack of awareness of poverty in the UK shown by the students was quite shocking.

(more…)

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Posted in Attitudes, Communication | 6 Comments »

How does the media influence public attitudes to people in poverty?

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Attitudes to poverty week A few months ago a BBC producer asked if we could put her in touch with people willing to talk to Melanie Phillips about their experience of being unemployed and on benefits. We declined – we didn’t feel we knew anyone in the right position. The second of two episodes aired on Radio 4 yesterday (my review of the first episode here, second episode here).

It did made us think a lot about the role we, as a grassroots charity working in one of the poorer London boroughs, could play in influencing public attitudes to those on benefits, and how we should interact with the media on this issue.

Then we thought we’d draw on the collective wisdom of our readers, and open it up for debate. So for a week starting on 25th January, this blog will be devoted to discussing the importance of the media in influencing public attitudes to poverty. We’ll be commissioning posts from a wide range of contributors – if you’d like to write something, please do get in touch

To get people thinking, and as a brief introduction, here are some assertions. Feel free to disagree.

The media is important because it can influence public opinion. If the media present poor people as scrounging, benefit-cheating, crime-ridden layabouts, people who are not poor might believe that’s the case. If the media present poor people as just like everyone else but trapped by a system and really quite keen to be less poor, then people might believe that instead.

Public opinion is important for the way individuals and government treat those in poverty. If the not-poor 4/5 of the population have a stereotyped and negative view of the poor fifth, they will tend to treat them accordingly – in job interviews, in shops, in the doctor’s surgery, on the street. This helps keep people poor. And if the government believes that a crackdown on benefit cheats would be more popular than a raise in benefit levels, you can guess which they’ll announce. This will also keep people poor.

In the last few years the media has largely misrepresented and stereotyped poor people, in two ways.

1) In documentaries that claim to highlight poverty, but are perceived – very strongly by those featured in them – as a deliberate misrepresentation. This came across clearly at a fascinating event last year (part of JRF’s excellent work on public attitudes), where people with connections to programmes like Rich Kid Poor Kid, or The Tower, highlighted the ways in which they felt the programmes had wronged them and their communities.

2) In news and comment that selectively covers poor people who are also criminals (anti-social behaviour, knife crime, benefit cheats etc). Many people’s only experience of poverty is through the media, and without any coverage of the law-abiding majority of poor people, they are left with the impression that poor equals criminal. The award-winning blogger NightJack controversially called this the problem of the Evil Poor, Neil Robertson made the point that what they really are is the ‘visible poor‘.

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Posted in Attitudes, Communication, Innovation, Regeneration | 1 Comment »

What happened when Melanie Phillips met real people on benefits

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Last night was the first of Melanie Phillips’ two programmes on the ‘British work ethic’ on Radio 4, (listen on iplayer for the next week), which she also described in her column. I was particularly interested because we declined an invitation to help in the making of the programme, but also for her reactions to those people, struggling on benefits, who she met.

It’s very hard making judgements about other people, because there’s always a tendency to forget all the ways in which their life is different from yours. I got the impression that before the programme Phillips imagined people on benefits were mostly lazy versions of herself, with her access to money, support, education, social networks, and her ‘middle class elbows’.

She didn’t realise, for example, that people might not travel outside their town for work because they just couldn’t afford the bus fare. Or that a man might not challenge his doctor over a diagnosis that had left him in pain and on a cocktail of pills for many years. To her credit, in both these situations she admitted to having had her eyes opened. But these are just two examples, and there must be many other ways in which her eyes are still closed.

I’m still not sure she realises, for example, what it might feel like to apply for a low-paid, no-skilled, unbelievably dull job with no chance of progression and the prospect of years spent doing it. She dismisses a young man’s assertion that he wants to do an interesting job with fairly casual disdain, but is it really too much to ask, or atleast aspire to? The problem, perhaps, is that he has no idea how he could progress from an entry-level job into a more interesting one, or even what jobs might interest him. He needs access to jobs and support just as much as the man on incapacity benefit, and far less than Phillips probably did at his age. I’d be interested to hear what he thought of her portrayal of him in the programme.

I don’t want to be too harsh though – her column today shows admirable recognition of many of the problems of the benefits system. And to a great extent we all share the difficulty of truly putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes, rather than just imagining ourselves standing where they are.

In her column she notes that ‘not surprisingly, no one who was on the fiddle agreed to speak to me.’ Our Need NOT Greed campaign works with many people she’d consider ‘on the fiddle’, and we hope she’d be surprised to find that, again, it’s usually the system rather than individuals’ failings that forces them into it. For example, as we highlighted last year, people on Jobseekers Allowance who get a part-time job are only allowed to keep £5 of their wages. In this situation, can you blame someone for not declaring their work? In our experience, informal work is a great sign that people want and are able to work – we now needs a system that makes it worthwhile doing it legally.

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Posted in Benefits, Communication, Informal Economy, Welfare | 1 Comment »

A Year of Social Change

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

As we reach the end of 2009 the national team at Community Links have been reflecting on the last year … and begining to plan for 2010.

In 2009 Community Links has seen more and more people come through our doors, as people struggle and demand for our services increased. In Newham Community Links  carried on running much needed local services -  youth clubs, the New Deal, our own school, provided advice and support to families struggling with debt and welfare, and much more. And we’ve continued to share our learning nationally, achieving considerable success.

Projects that our national team have worked on this year include
The Parliamentary launch of our Need NOT Greed Campaign in February, to the National Talent Bank in June, Chain Reaction in November,  including the launch of three more Council on Social Action reports and much else besides.

We have produced a short report on our activities: you can read it here.

To all those with whom we’ve worked, a warm thank you. To those with whom we haven’t, how about next year? The election, unprecedented regeneration, the European Year Against Poverty all provide us with enormous opportunities for social change. We look forward to seizing that moment with you.

Wishing you a peaceful Christmas and a joyful New Year
The Community Links national team.

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Posted in Benefits, Child Poverty, Communication, Council on Social Action, Informal Economy, Innovation | No Comments »

The Council on Social Action: Twelve Snapshots

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

The Council on Social Action was set up by the Prime Minister in 2007.  It brought together innovators from every sector to generate ideas and initiatives through which government and other key stakeholders can catalyse, develop and celebrate social action. 

 

The Council considered “social action” to include the wide range of ways in which individuals, communities, organisations and businesses can seek through their choices, actions and commitments to address the social issues they care about.

The Council on Social Action first met in December 2007, and yesterday the last meeting of the Council took place, over the short life of CoSA we have discussed many issues and suggested several new ideas in a brief overview of just some of our work here are four topics from our agenda and, two years later,  twelve outcomes.

At the first meeting  the PM  challenged us to imagine a society where we might all have a one-to-one relationship, someone to turn to,  through out our childhood years and thereafter in times of crisis or transition….

Our report on this subject in November 2008 made 44 recommendations. We have subsequently pursued them all;  31 are now either completed or underway.  We made 11 more last month, four are underway already.

To further develop  the ideas on the ground two “Leading Community” pilots will begin work, with independent funding, in spring 2010

And “extra time funding” has been secured from our three corporate partners to chase through and further develop all our one-to-one recommendations for another 12 months

At the first meeting we considered the challenge of sustainable funding……

A pilot for the “sustainable law centre” built around the one-to-one relationship between client and adviser is now being developed in south London by the Ministry of Justice and a group of  independent trusts and city law firms.

Much work on developing the Social Impact Bond is close to generating the first pilots. It has taken a lot of effort, several partners and a long time but could transform the funding of preventative work and early intervention.

And it has led to further work on developing and sharing other alternative funding models and to the new “Alternative Funding” ning.

At the first meeting we talked about bringing together people, ideas and opportunities………

More than 1200 people from 20 countries have attended the first two Chain Reactions. Much larger numbers are connecting, collaborating and committing to new ideas for social action in the thriving Chain Reaction online community.

The Catalyst community awards for social technology have unearthed and profiled hundreds of inspiring stories demonstrating the power of technology for catalysing social action.

We have developed the idea of a National Talent Bank to promote and support employee volunteering amongst those with more time to share as a consequence of recession

And the Big Lunch, a twinkle in Tim Smit’s eye at that first meeting was served at more than 8,000 street parties last July.

And at the first meeting we discussed the importance of not just doing things but also generating new thinking  and long term structural change……..

One-to-one is now a “common core skill” in the cross government children’s workforce training strategy, considered in procurement and a featured priority for all new policy in the DCSF “Making Policy” guides and tools.

And our eleven publications have included many more examples of the advice we have offered and the projects we have led. They have covered new ground on “willing citizens”, on “collaborative commitments”, and on the implications of our one to one learning for the reform of public services. Our two commentaries have reflected on what we’ve learnt through out the process as well as on the outcomes.

For further more information on these projects and all our other work see www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/social_action.aspx

David Robinson is Vice-Chair of the Council on Social Action and Co-Founder of Community Links.

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Posted in Communication, Council on Social Action, Innovation, Inspiration, Leadership, News | No Comments »

Personalised service and Knight’s digital vision

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

community Links Advice workerPersonalised service = zero human interaction. An online welfare system; modern, instant and resistant to human frustration or despair: the computer says no.  I just read today’s announcements by Jim Knight MP, the employment minister about improving the Jobcentre’s service. If you have a lack of computer skills you will get a technologies budget to get internet access at home and training in computer skills. He also went on to say that the Jobcentre Plus measures it success in the number of people get gets into a sustainable job.

Last week a group of local volunteers got together with local unemployed people from Canning Town as part of the Need NOT Greed campaigning groups. One guy had been unemployed since the 80’s and told us how he struggled to apply for jobs as the Jobcentre adverts often only provide emails, not phone numbers to call.

 Today I spoke to a local grassroots campaigner who needed £20 to pay his agreed debt payments or the bailiffs would be round tomorrow, eviction just in time for Christmas. He was looking for a cash-in-hand job to earn the emergency £20, and had one lined up but the rain meant it had been called off. The weather man tells us the rain isn’t likely to look any better over the coming months. Neither is his situation.

On Monday I heard a rumour that there would be an announcement from Jim Knight by the end of this week about improving the service and efficiency at the Jobcentre. Immediately some recent reports sprung to mind Working Alongside, produced with ATD and both  People of Influence and Time Well Spent from the Council on Social Action. I emailed Jim Knight’s private office about the announcement and included Working Alongside to contribute some recommendations from individuals who had experienced the service themselves. I got no response. Frustrated I picked up the phone to call, I was told the appropriate person would call back. In despair I read the announcements this morning.

Online activity is great; we use it regularly at Community Links as part of our Need NOT Greed campaign and Chain Reaction social network. It is great to share government and grassroots activists voices, to link people up and to support people. However accessing benefits online and applying for jobs online will not deal with the multiple complex problems that the most vulnerable face, like the two people I met just over the past week.

Bringing in a move like this is important, so that the 21% of  UK adults who have never used the internet are not even more excluded in 10 years time. However “personalised” online efficiency is not the same as “humanised” one-to-one support. Consider Dell, I have been requiring their services recently because of a laptop problem that I have no understanding of. Most of us have experienced something similar. When dealing with new, complex issues that we have no, or very limited experience of, the first thing people want is someone to speak with directly, in a language they understand and to have confidence in their competency. If I had to entirely fix my own computer, by myself online – honestly I probably wouldn’t do it. On the other hand I’d prefer to search for employment on line. The welfare system is catering for incredibly complex needs and, yes, government actions on digital inclusion are excellent, but it should not mean sacrificing the vital one-to-one support that is needed and gives results.

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Posted in Benefits, Communication, Council on Social Action, General, Informal Economy, Voices from the Ground Up, Welfare, debt, employment | No Comments »

Why aren’t the child poverty and welfare reform bills better aligned?

Friday, November 6th, 2009

A couple of days ago shadow work and pensions minister Andrew Selous mentioned both our work on the informal economy and the community allowance campaign during the committee stage of the Child Poverty bill. It’s always nice to see a bit of lobbying reflected in what politicians say, but it also reveals something of the debate around poverty and welfare reform.

At this stage of the bill’s passage, a small group of MPs is considering every sentence in incredible detail. Yesterday they’d reached the section of the child poverty bill that will make it compulsory for every local authority to assess the needs of children living in poverty in their region. And Andrew Selous’ contribution was about the extent of that assessment.

He was arguing for it to be compulsory to assess not only the family income of the poorest children, and their takeup of benefits and tax credits, but also the extent to which jobs were available and being created in their area, and their ‘family resilience.’

He believes that to beat child poverty we need, above all, ‘more and better jobs’ – ie that getting people off benefits and into work is the best (only?) way to tackle poverty.  A focus on the transition off benefits and into works sounds like the kind of thing that should be in the Welfare Reform Bill – slightly more advanced through parliament, with a focus on coercing people into work that seems far removed from the child poverty bill, with its focus on income level.

It’s good that Selous is trying to force the issue of that transition into the child poverty bill, but seems a missed opportunity that the bills aren’t just better aligned in the first place. He recognises, as we’ve been saying, that “the challenge of getting into work from being out of work is huge. The move from not working and being on benefits into full-time work is an enormous step – sometimes almost a step too far that many people are not able to make in one leap.” Why hasn’t this recognition, particularly during a recession and with rising unemployment, been included in the welfare reform bill?

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Posted in Benefits, Child Poverty, Communication, Informal Economy, Regeneration, Research, Welfare, employment | 1 Comment »

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