The Community Vision - When in Government Series
A series of papers illustrating how UKpopdems will manage government for the benefit of Britain and the British people.
2. Implementing the Vision – we can govern for the pitfalls and problems of everyday life and deliver the promises we have made to Britain and the British people.
c). The Community Vision - Increasing Social Wealth
Summary
UKpopdems Community vision strengthens the position of communities as the key democratic bodies nearest to the individuals they serve. Implementing the community vision means that far more front-line resources will be available to support the needs of the community, residents, those working in the community and their families. Currently, far too many valuable public sector resources are tucked away in central offices or involved in administrative, managerial or bureaucratic duties when they should be using their expertise to support people who most need their expertise. UKpopdems community vision ensures these resources are mobilised to work directly in the communities they should be serving, in the specialist delivery roles where they can add the most value in increasing the social wealth of Britain. Back-line administrative, managerial and bureaucratic activities will gradually be reduced to no more than 20%-30% of total front-line resource numbers, instead of the 100% overheads suffered today.
Even this change will not be enough to repair the social damage inflicted by past and present governments and their failures to address crime, social services, education, pension and health problems and provide effective solutions. They’ve imposed very high taxes and wasted much of it on central bureaucracy, quangos, consultancy, failed IT systems, poorly executed re-organisations and much else besides. UKpopdems will seriously address and solve these problems to the satisfaction of individuals and communities; the only true test of ultimate success. To repair the damage, UKpopdems will recruit an extra one million front-line resources to serve Britain and the community; half of these will be specialists working directly in the community, on the streets and in schools and hospitals. The new buildings and infrastructure those resources need will also be a key part of the UKpopdems solution.
To balance overall costs and ensure taxes do not rise further, the extremes of government waste and bureaucracy we have all become used to will dramatically shrink. We’ll reduce central and Whitehall bureaucracy by 7% annually (half the rate of natural public sector wastage), eventually saving £50billion a year, and transfer the funding to front-line resources: there will be no need for redundancies. Independent estimates of total government waste run to £180billion a year. UKpopdems will quickly identify and cut £20billion of this in the first year, rising to £50billion a year in the fourth year, and apply the savings to building front-line infrastructure such as special schools, local hospitals and other essential construction. Together, that means an extra £100billion total transferred from waste and back-office bureaucracy to front-line resources and infrastructure; half of it going directly to help local communities.
The detail of how UKpopdems intends to utilise these extra community resources to repair and greatly improve the social wealth of individuals and communities across Britain is the subject of this document under the following sections:
Policing and crime
Schools and education
Hospitals and health
Social services and pensions
Policing and Crime
One of the most serious problems expressed by almost everyone is crime and the fear of crime, especially violent crime. Violent crime seems to be escalating out of control; detection rates for all crimes are very low and sentences appear derisory compared to the seriousness of some crimes. Britain suffers a thousand murders every year and tens of thousands of crimes involve violence. Millions of Britons are victims of crime and in many cases all the police can do is offer sympathy and a crime number with no hope of ever finding and prosecuting the culprit. This situation frightens people and limits their freedoms; it also demoralises the police and has great destructive social and economic consequences for the whole of Britain. UKpopdems must solve this problem for the benefit of all law abiding people and make it safe for everyone to go about their daily lives.
Ask ordinary people and they’ll tell you what the answer is. They want many more police on the beat and tougher sentencing for serious crimes. UKpopdems trusts this commonsense approach and will act on it. The key goal is to make it clear to all offenders and potential offenders that they will be caught, prosecuted and receive proper sentencing. It is especially imperative to rid communities of the cancer of violence; that is, violent acts by gangs and individuals, mindless threatening aggression and serious criminal damage. Perpetrators must be caught and, if found guilty, immediately removed from the societies they are terrorising. This will keep individuals and families safe and give violent criminals the chance to understand their actions and redeem themselves. The same must also apply to crimes of invasion, for example: burglary, mugging and rape; and also to drug and people trafficking as well as serious fraud. The resources to accomplish these goals are woefully inadequate today.
We will immediately begin to increase police resources by recruiting an additional 250,000 Community Officers to keep communities safe. These are real policemen and women patrolling community streets twenty-four hours a day and liaising closely with community leaders. They’ll be operative after only two weeks training and have full powers after completing standard police instruction. Existing PCSOs will cease to be a separate community force and become fully integrated and trained as Community Officers, thus boosting numbers still more. Initially, Community Officers will be deployed where crime is worst but eventually cover the whole of the country. 250,000 officers sounds a lot, but it’s the minimum required to genuinely reduce crime, and if Britain needs more then more will be recruited. There will be no penny pinching on this policy.
The key job of Community Officers is to thoroughly get to know the individuals and families in the communities they serve to accomplish three objectives:
1. To identify people who really need support from social services; health services or educational services and are not currently getting it. Community Officers will be the coordinating channel for all kinds of social support and will use their local knowledge and contacts to provide long term continuity where help is required to avoid the communication and hand over problems commonly encountered where different service groups are involved.
2. To reduce future crime by identifying individuals and groups likely to become involved in crime, especially violent crime, and initiate projects that bring appropriate social, education and health resources to bear in order to address problems before they get out of hand. UKpopdems will hold a popular vote on whether or not to reduce the age of criminal responsibility and parents of under age offenders may be prosecuted themselves unless they inform Community Officers beforehand that they need support in managing their children’s behaviour.
3. To play a major role in identifying suspects after crimes have been committed. They should know from their local knowledge those who may be directly involved or be keeping stolen goods, illegal weapons or drugs, or be harbouring illegal immigrants. No corner should be so dark that Community Officers do not know what is going on in it. This is the reason why such a large number of Officers are required. There must be enough presence to cover the whole ground.
In order to halt the burgeoning weapons culture, guns and replicas even remotely capable of re-commission; other weapons; most knives; toys capable of firing dangerous projectiles will all be banned from sale and possession. Standard shotguns and small bore rifles may be exempt if kept only on approved land and transported only by secure agents. Permitted knives will need licensing by Community Officers if carried in public. Illegal possession will generally result in a custodial sentence. As a balancing policy, the police will no longer carry arms routinely in public, only as a last resort in response to a direct and obvious individual threat. Weapons required for anti-terrorism must remain out of sight of the public with any use regarded as failure. Other means must be utilised to disable threats. No-one wants more innocent deaths at the hands of over enthusiastic armed police.
Britain can do nothing about reducing crime levels unless sentences properly reflect the seriousness of the crime. All serious crimes, especially crimes of violence, will carry sentences of detention from the very first verdict of guilt; and the term given will be the minimum time served. Bad behaviour will result in lengthening the sentence. Because UKpopdems is recruiting thousands more front-line resources, proper support for life-changing opportunities focused around basic skills, work, discipline and service will become a reality. This policy will require many more prisons, detention centres and other secure institutions: perhaps triple the number of current places before the pattern of violent crime turns down. Growth in prison places will be speeded up through ensuring each county, district and Metropolitan area sets aside land for building, and by adopting standard design principles that promote rapid pre-fabrication and build.
Lastly, it is essential that court procedures and paperwork be speeded up. But there must be no reduction in the rights of ordinary men and women, nor their treatment under the law, nor the presumption of guilt over innocence. The extended use of magistrates’ courts allowing up to 12 month prison sentencing will go a long way to easing the legal burden. Courts will have to stay open longer and some minor offences will be made civil to reduce work-load. Paperwork, the bane of police work, will be reduced by portable technology used at the scene of crime and thus avoiding the need for manual duplication of data.
Schools and education
The future of Britain is the future of our children and the object of education is to turn out well educated, healthy and confident young adults. Yet thousands of pupils are leaving school without sufficient education to fulfill their expectations; truancy, disruption and bullying seem endemic; children are not being stimulated sufficiently to keep their interest; bureaucracy, government interference and constant ‘new’ initiatives are distracting teachers from their main role; children who require specialist education are not getting the support they need; grade inflation is leading to devaluation of results and confusion for university and business recruiters; and many students are starting their lives saddled with debt.
This is a sorry picture and a tale of past and present government failure not befitting a great nation such as ours. Neither will Britain’s complex and demanding future needs be secured unless young adults enter the workplace with skills and confidence enough to take advantage of the challenges and opportunities they’ll be presented with. UKpopdems will address this issue boldly. We’ll invest massively in terms of both resources (an additional 100,000 teachers and front-line support) and new school infrastructure (additional annual funding of £6billion) to ensure that every individual student can maximize their potential. We are proposing that the school day be lengthened for all pupils in order to incorporate an extended curriculum; two healthy meals cooked fresh in-school, and to allow for the completion of homework and course-work at school under supervision rather than at home. The longer school day will also greatly help most working parents, too. Their children will be healthily fed (breakfast and lunch, or lunch and supper); they will not have to worry about their children being home alone or worry about getting them looked after while they are still at work; and they won’t have to concern themselves with pressuring tired children to get on with their homework. Parents can expect much better school liaison, including the services of a qualified dietician, and will be encouraged to participate in school activities and meal times when they are able.
Truancy, disruption and bullying are such serious issues and adversely affect so many pupils that combating them is a key priority. First, every unexpected no-show will be followed-up immediately by local Community Officers, some of whom will have the school as part of their community responsibility. Parents and guardians must take schooling seriously and will be prosecuted if they are aware their child is truanting, unless both the school and Community Officers have been notified early of impending problems. Infirmaries will be incorporated into most schools so that mildly ill children can still be brought in, and those not able to travel to school or to see their own doctors will be expected to remain at home until examined by a community school doctor. It will be normal for most pupils to stay and be safe on school grounds throughout the day, unless accompanied. Older students can earn the right to travel outside school unaccompanied. A simple school identity card will be introduced so that Community Officers will know that children out of school have permission. These are tough measures, but with truancy out of control, tough action must be taken. Repeatedly disruptive and bullying pupils have got to be removed for their own benefit and that of other children. Ukpopdems massive investments mean that new disciplinary schools will be available where the necessary support needed by these children, and possibly their parents, will speed return to normal education.
The school curriculum needs to be expanded and changed to ensure children are fully equipped to succeed in the modern world; young children learning by play within set boundaries, understanding and differentiating between right and wrong; middle school pupils learning through adventure with wider horizons; and senior students learning through challenge without frontiers. The new curriculum must offer a rounded education of breadth and depth which can be tested properly through a new independent examination board giving a true and honest insight into knowledge and performance. There’ll be no school selection as such but there will be constant individual assessment to make sure pupils are allocated to the right schools for their needs. Schools themselves will be measured and monitored on individual attainment as well as overall school success. The curriculum needs to operate at all levels with pupils learning in the way that suits them and their individual capabilities best, and allows them to freely move between streams and schools as they develop. Likewise, political dogma must be taken out of the educational field so that all the schools that children need are available, from grammar schools to special schools. The new curriculum contains four departments: Communication, Civilisation, Self-Management and Vocation.
Communication equips students with the ability to communicate clearly through the written and spoken word in English. Young adults who do not possess basic communication skills who cannot be understood clearly and have limited vocabularies are not only likely to be less valued in the work-place, but might withdraw from normal society, or revert to violence instead.
Civilisation will promote respect and understanding of the modern world and its diversity. Here are the sciences including history, geography, mathematics, languages, physics and chemistry, all promoting a diverse world view and with practical relevance to adult life, particularly understanding, tolerance and respect of difference.
Self-management prepares and equips students for the adult world of work, responsibility, accountability and democratic power; confident in managing their own lives and goals in a competitive world. It includes understanding and coping with: responsibility for others, food preparation, money management, mental arithmetic, contracts, law, work, cleanliness and personal health, alcohol, drugs and sex.
Vocation encourages experiences and the development of practical skills in sports, engineering, science, health, arts, crafts, entertainment and others. Every pupil will be encouraged to get involved in one or more vocational fields both in school and outside school hours.
Our eventual aim is that when schools can demonstrate they are ready, they’ll be set free from what many teachers claim is the cloying control, interference and bureaucracy of both local education authorities and central government. It will be theirs, the governors and the independent regulator’s decision – not central government’s. This is not independent or public schooling by another name. They will remain as state schools funded by the state, but will have been set free to do the job of properly educating children. Government’s role will be to set standards, construct a regulatory framework and to ensure independent inspections are carried out, addressing any remedial action required. With freedom will also come a larger role for Communities. It is anticipated that community representatives will sit on school boards within catchment areas and approve plans in cross-community summits. Communities, individually or together, may also decide to open their own schools where they perceive the need and prioritise their funding,
Hospitals and Health
The provision of a modern health service is incredibly expensive yet totally necessary for the elimination, or at least lessening, of disease, pain, disability and debility. Never before have so many health solutions been available for so many health problems. Yet, for all the money governments have invested in Britain’s health service, it is not up to the standard of many other countries nor up to the standard the British people expect. Waiting times are still too long for many in and out patient treatments. There is too much bureaucracy and not enough front line specialists or beds. Hospital infections, food quality and patient dignity require improving. People in need at home, and their carers, require more help and support. Obesity and other public health concerns, particularly childrens’ health, need much more attention.
The first thing UKpopdems will tackle is reducing waiting times. We want to see waiting times for all procedures requiring hospital treatment reduced to a total of three months: a maximum of one month to initial consultation, a further month for diagnosis and then a final month to treatment or operation. Initially these times will apply to life-threatening conditions, chronic pain and crippling and debilitating illnesses (recognizing that these times are already being beaten for some serious situations). Hospitals will be obliged to publish their current maximum wait times for serious and less serious conditions on a board in a prominent public place. Wait times will be independently monitored and inspected. Patients will have choice and may elect for treatment elsewhere, or in the private sector or abroad if published wait times are exceeded.
Achieving this reduction requires investment and determination. We’ll start building local cottage and convalescent hospitals to avoid bed blocking. This will allow patients to be properly monitored and cared for pre-op and post-op without taking up expensive and much needed beds in full service hospitals. Minor procedures and some out-patient treatments may also be undertaken locally. These small hospitals may be attached to larger hospitals or integrated into community clinics. Community councils will form part of the board of these local hospitals agreeing plans in cross-community summits. Secondly, we will end the practice of outsourcing resources and services so all staff and services are directly under the control of the hospitals that need them. This will include porters, cleaners, catering, home care etc. To ensure adequate resourcing and cover for absence, we’ll need to accept overstaffing by about 20%, but this will be better and no more costly than employing temporary nursing through agencies. Many hospital staff are recruited from overseas, sometimes depleting the skilled resources of hard pressed developing countries. As a simple balancing initiative UKpopdems will commit to the local training of double the number we employ from developing nations so that both Britain and the providing nation benefit.
As well as shortening waiting times the standard of in-patient and home care must improve. We’ll do this by expanding the responsibility of the nursing profession to take on total responsibility for patient care; that is, to ensure that the health of patients improves pre-op, post-op, at discharge, in convalescence and long term in the community. This will include responsibility for ancillary services now brought in-house; porters, cleaners, catering, and all staff involved directly with patients so that standards of cleanliness and food quality can be directly managed. It will include all home health services, too. This much expanded role will require fundamental changes, training and professional development and we’ll liaise closely with the profession to make sure the benefits both to patients and the nursing profession are evident. Doctors and surgeons will remain responsible for patient treatment and be measured on improving patient outcomes.
It is anticipated that individual hospitals, including teaching hospitals, will eventually become independent of Local Health Authorities when they are ready. They will not be pushed into this decision as existing foundation hospitals have been with inevitable financial problems. But UKpopdems are expecting efficiencies, with qualified professional staff delivering more and managing and administering less. Efficiencies will be important because hospitals and clinics will be paid by procedure at a standard NHS rate determined independently. There is no reason except poor management why an initial consultation cannot be followed by necessary testing, x-rays etc., analysis and diagnosis all while the patient is on-site, rather than forcing another appointment on a suffering patient with all the attendant administration, traveling, inconvenience and extra waiting that involves. Government’s role will be to set standards and ensure independent inspection of performance. Hospitals and clinics will also be expected to canvass patient and community opinion and this will be part of the inspection process. Funding research and training will still be a government responsibility and investing for research, particularly, will substantially increase.
Looking at treatment and care outside of hospitals, UKpopdems want to ensure that when local and community hospitals are built they have provision for 24 hour surgeries and dispensing, so that consultation and minor procedures can be carried out in-situ. This will also have to include provision for out of hours home visits. Just as with hospitals, out-patient care and home convalescence will be the responsibility of the nursing profession who will have the final say on health matters and call in the support needed for proper care. Funding will come directly from the communities these patients live in. The charitable sector, nursing profession, social services, Community Officers and community leaders will all have to liaise closely to fulfill their responsibilities. Proper home support and especially help and appreciation for carers is crucial and UKpopdems will be expanding front-line resources by thousands across the country to make sure this happens More resources will also go toward ensuring that those suffering disability get the support they need to participate fully in society, contribute to it and get the most out it. Support for psychiatric and behavioural disorders will expand to properly treat, monitor and look after patients. It will not be a second class service. Institutions will be strictly monitored for the quality of care and treatment. But where there is a risk of violence, psychiatric care must be under a secure regime to ensure medication is taken under supervision and the community is protected.
Public health issues in Britain are increasing with obesity, binge drinking and drug abuse at the top of the list. None of these issues are easy to solve and will take years of hard work. UKpopdems is taking a two-pronged approach. Firstly: getting messages out to children in schools under the Self-Management curriculum and by providing support at school and home to children and parents that encourage moderate behaviour, including the wide provision of qualified dieticians. We’ll also protect young people by ending food advertising aimed at children altogether. Secondly: using the massive coverage of Community officers to detect drug use and trafficking, and to discourage bad behaviour by making it clear that violence and aggression are serious offences that will result in mandatory prison sentences. We have to face up to the fact that obesity, drug and alcohol abuse are illnesses that have to be detected, treated and managed properly like other infirmities rather than the cure being left up to the will power of the sufferer alone. UKpopdems will have the resources and funding in-place to detect and treat these problems, but eradication is a long term goal.
Social Services and Pensions
The point of social services in Britain is to make sure that people who really need help can obtain it simply and thoughtfully. But today, many individuals and families are not getting the help they desperately need because of bureaucracy, complexity or lack of resources. And yet many others are finding it easy to get support fraudulently by playing the system and taking advantage of the very bureaucracy, complexity and the lack of communication among overworked resources that is preventing others who need it from getting it. It’s a bizarre and deeply ironic situation. It’s a mystery why governments have failed to address this situation, leaving many high and dry, yet allowing others to take advantage. UKpopdems will finally correct this inequality and build social wealth everyone in Britain can be proud of.
If people really need help then the right support should be easily and simply available. As with other community services we’ll get workers out of back offices and working in the community directly with the people who need their support. We’ll also massively increase specialist frontline personnel by several thousand to ensure those in need are not abandoned. In future, when people need support, social services will mainly come to them at their homes in order to observe, survey and properly understand requirements, and to simply explain what is available and how it can be obtained, and to complete any necessary form filling at the same time. One of the most important changes is making sure that communication and hand-over problems do not cause mistakes and harm where there should have been help. There have been too many of these, where the public apology that ‘lessons must be learned’ is never actually learnt. We’ll correct this situation by bulldozing barriers between social services departments, putting multi-disciplined teams, including charities, together within communities delivering broad areas of support. In fact, social services will work directly for and be funded by the communities they serve and be managed by cross community summit groups so that local priorities can be met by local resources.
Once we have begun to put in place social service solutions so that people who really need it can get help easily and quickly, we can begin to tackle the problem of fraud. This is a much simpler task under UKpopdems policies, because hundreds of thousands of extra front-line resources are active in the streets and homes of local communities across Britain. This is where some of the value of Community Officers comes in; that is, their role in detecting crime, including Social security fraud. In this role they liaise with all other services as well as get to know the local population well. So those who are claiming benefits fraudulently or that they are not entitled to will come to light. Fraudulent claimants will know they’ll be caught and punished so those thinking of it will think twice. In addition, it is our intention to gradually replace cash benefits with more practical material support and therefore, the temptation to claim benefits solely for the transferable cash value will also diminish.
Providing dignity in retirement and old age through adequate pensions, as well as social support, is a key requirement of any government; but this government particularly, has destroyed the value of pensions in the private sector and left many looking forward with unease to an old age of poverty. This is a reversal after many years of improving living standards for pensioners and is shameful.
UKpopdems has to reverse this situation and we’ll do it through an initiative called ‘safe pensions’ (further explained in the next paper – Implementing the economic vision). This involves reducing company taxes and in return, obliging them to offer all employees, British and foreign, easily transferable final salary pensions that pay at least 50% of average earnings. This will also apply to those who are self-employed. We’ll set up a joint ring-fenced industry/government fund to make sure pensions can be paid in full if the business fails or there’s a shortfall. Under strict conditions, companies who genuinely cannot afford to pay into their pension funds will be government subsidized. Retirement age will remain at 65 but employees may vary their retirement date in advance through extra contributions, or lesser contributions for later retirement.
For those not working, in career breaks or retiring early, we’ll provide contributions for a safe minimum pension that can be made up once back in employment if a return is practical. In any case, no pensioner at age 65 will receive less than 50% of the minimum wage pertaining at the time. This will be an individual entitlement and there will be no reduction for couples co-habiting. It is our intention to negotiate with unions to implement ‘Safe Pensions’ for new entrants in the public sector, too. ‘Safe Pensions’ is a future proofing policy to make sure people are secure in retirement and Britain is protected from escalating pension costs.
Implementing the vision papers to come:
The Economic Vision
The International Vision
2. Implementing the Vision – we can govern for the pitfalls and problems of everyday life and deliver the promises we have made to Britain and the British people.
c). The Community Vision - Increasing Social Wealth
Summary
UKpopdems Community vision strengthens the position of communities as the key democratic bodies nearest to the individuals they serve. Implementing the community vision means that far more front-line resources will be available to support the needs of the community, residents, those working in the community and their families. Currently, far too many valuable public sector resources are tucked away in central offices or involved in administrative, managerial or bureaucratic duties when they should be using their expertise to support people who most need their expertise. UKpopdems community vision ensures these resources are mobilised to work directly in the communities they should be serving, in the specialist delivery roles where they can add the most value in increasing the social wealth of Britain. Back-line administrative, managerial and bureaucratic activities will gradually be reduced to no more than 20%-30% of total front-line resource numbers, instead of the 100% overheads suffered today.
Even this change will not be enough to repair the social damage inflicted by past and present governments and their failures to address crime, social services, education, pension and health problems and provide effective solutions. They’ve imposed very high taxes and wasted much of it on central bureaucracy, quangos, consultancy, failed IT systems, poorly executed re-organisations and much else besides. UKpopdems will seriously address and solve these problems to the satisfaction of individuals and communities; the only true test of ultimate success. To repair the damage, UKpopdems will recruit an extra one million front-line resources to serve Britain and the community; half of these will be specialists working directly in the community, on the streets and in schools and hospitals. The new buildings and infrastructure those resources need will also be a key part of the UKpopdems solution.
To balance overall costs and ensure taxes do not rise further, the extremes of government waste and bureaucracy we have all become used to will dramatically shrink. We’ll reduce central and Whitehall bureaucracy by 7% annually (half the rate of natural public sector wastage), eventually saving £50billion a year, and transfer the funding to front-line resources: there will be no need for redundancies. Independent estimates of total government waste run to £180billion a year. UKpopdems will quickly identify and cut £20billion of this in the first year, rising to £50billion a year in the fourth year, and apply the savings to building front-line infrastructure such as special schools, local hospitals and other essential construction. Together, that means an extra £100billion total transferred from waste and back-office bureaucracy to front-line resources and infrastructure; half of it going directly to help local communities.
The detail of how UKpopdems intends to utilise these extra community resources to repair and greatly improve the social wealth of individuals and communities across Britain is the subject of this document under the following sections:
Policing and crime
Schools and education
Hospitals and health
Social services and pensions
Policing and Crime
One of the most serious problems expressed by almost everyone is crime and the fear of crime, especially violent crime. Violent crime seems to be escalating out of control; detection rates for all crimes are very low and sentences appear derisory compared to the seriousness of some crimes. Britain suffers a thousand murders every year and tens of thousands of crimes involve violence. Millions of Britons are victims of crime and in many cases all the police can do is offer sympathy and a crime number with no hope of ever finding and prosecuting the culprit. This situation frightens people and limits their freedoms; it also demoralises the police and has great destructive social and economic consequences for the whole of Britain. UKpopdems must solve this problem for the benefit of all law abiding people and make it safe for everyone to go about their daily lives.
Ask ordinary people and they’ll tell you what the answer is. They want many more police on the beat and tougher sentencing for serious crimes. UKpopdems trusts this commonsense approach and will act on it. The key goal is to make it clear to all offenders and potential offenders that they will be caught, prosecuted and receive proper sentencing. It is especially imperative to rid communities of the cancer of violence; that is, violent acts by gangs and individuals, mindless threatening aggression and serious criminal damage. Perpetrators must be caught and, if found guilty, immediately removed from the societies they are terrorising. This will keep individuals and families safe and give violent criminals the chance to understand their actions and redeem themselves. The same must also apply to crimes of invasion, for example: burglary, mugging and rape; and also to drug and people trafficking as well as serious fraud. The resources to accomplish these goals are woefully inadequate today.
We will immediately begin to increase police resources by recruiting an additional 250,000 Community Officers to keep communities safe. These are real policemen and women patrolling community streets twenty-four hours a day and liaising closely with community leaders. They’ll be operative after only two weeks training and have full powers after completing standard police instruction. Existing PCSOs will cease to be a separate community force and become fully integrated and trained as Community Officers, thus boosting numbers still more. Initially, Community Officers will be deployed where crime is worst but eventually cover the whole of the country. 250,000 officers sounds a lot, but it’s the minimum required to genuinely reduce crime, and if Britain needs more then more will be recruited. There will be no penny pinching on this policy.
The key job of Community Officers is to thoroughly get to know the individuals and families in the communities they serve to accomplish three objectives:
1. To identify people who really need support from social services; health services or educational services and are not currently getting it. Community Officers will be the coordinating channel for all kinds of social support and will use their local knowledge and contacts to provide long term continuity where help is required to avoid the communication and hand over problems commonly encountered where different service groups are involved.
2. To reduce future crime by identifying individuals and groups likely to become involved in crime, especially violent crime, and initiate projects that bring appropriate social, education and health resources to bear in order to address problems before they get out of hand. UKpopdems will hold a popular vote on whether or not to reduce the age of criminal responsibility and parents of under age offenders may be prosecuted themselves unless they inform Community Officers beforehand that they need support in managing their children’s behaviour.
3. To play a major role in identifying suspects after crimes have been committed. They should know from their local knowledge those who may be directly involved or be keeping stolen goods, illegal weapons or drugs, or be harbouring illegal immigrants. No corner should be so dark that Community Officers do not know what is going on in it. This is the reason why such a large number of Officers are required. There must be enough presence to cover the whole ground.
In order to halt the burgeoning weapons culture, guns and replicas even remotely capable of re-commission; other weapons; most knives; toys capable of firing dangerous projectiles will all be banned from sale and possession. Standard shotguns and small bore rifles may be exempt if kept only on approved land and transported only by secure agents. Permitted knives will need licensing by Community Officers if carried in public. Illegal possession will generally result in a custodial sentence. As a balancing policy, the police will no longer carry arms routinely in public, only as a last resort in response to a direct and obvious individual threat. Weapons required for anti-terrorism must remain out of sight of the public with any use regarded as failure. Other means must be utilised to disable threats. No-one wants more innocent deaths at the hands of over enthusiastic armed police.
Britain can do nothing about reducing crime levels unless sentences properly reflect the seriousness of the crime. All serious crimes, especially crimes of violence, will carry sentences of detention from the very first verdict of guilt; and the term given will be the minimum time served. Bad behaviour will result in lengthening the sentence. Because UKpopdems is recruiting thousands more front-line resources, proper support for life-changing opportunities focused around basic skills, work, discipline and service will become a reality. This policy will require many more prisons, detention centres and other secure institutions: perhaps triple the number of current places before the pattern of violent crime turns down. Growth in prison places will be speeded up through ensuring each county, district and Metropolitan area sets aside land for building, and by adopting standard design principles that promote rapid pre-fabrication and build.
Lastly, it is essential that court procedures and paperwork be speeded up. But there must be no reduction in the rights of ordinary men and women, nor their treatment under the law, nor the presumption of guilt over innocence. The extended use of magistrates’ courts allowing up to 12 month prison sentencing will go a long way to easing the legal burden. Courts will have to stay open longer and some minor offences will be made civil to reduce work-load. Paperwork, the bane of police work, will be reduced by portable technology used at the scene of crime and thus avoiding the need for manual duplication of data.
Schools and education
The future of Britain is the future of our children and the object of education is to turn out well educated, healthy and confident young adults. Yet thousands of pupils are leaving school without sufficient education to fulfill their expectations; truancy, disruption and bullying seem endemic; children are not being stimulated sufficiently to keep their interest; bureaucracy, government interference and constant ‘new’ initiatives are distracting teachers from their main role; children who require specialist education are not getting the support they need; grade inflation is leading to devaluation of results and confusion for university and business recruiters; and many students are starting their lives saddled with debt.
This is a sorry picture and a tale of past and present government failure not befitting a great nation such as ours. Neither will Britain’s complex and demanding future needs be secured unless young adults enter the workplace with skills and confidence enough to take advantage of the challenges and opportunities they’ll be presented with. UKpopdems will address this issue boldly. We’ll invest massively in terms of both resources (an additional 100,000 teachers and front-line support) and new school infrastructure (additional annual funding of £6billion) to ensure that every individual student can maximize their potential. We are proposing that the school day be lengthened for all pupils in order to incorporate an extended curriculum; two healthy meals cooked fresh in-school, and to allow for the completion of homework and course-work at school under supervision rather than at home. The longer school day will also greatly help most working parents, too. Their children will be healthily fed (breakfast and lunch, or lunch and supper); they will not have to worry about their children being home alone or worry about getting them looked after while they are still at work; and they won’t have to concern themselves with pressuring tired children to get on with their homework. Parents can expect much better school liaison, including the services of a qualified dietician, and will be encouraged to participate in school activities and meal times when they are able.
Truancy, disruption and bullying are such serious issues and adversely affect so many pupils that combating them is a key priority. First, every unexpected no-show will be followed-up immediately by local Community Officers, some of whom will have the school as part of their community responsibility. Parents and guardians must take schooling seriously and will be prosecuted if they are aware their child is truanting, unless both the school and Community Officers have been notified early of impending problems. Infirmaries will be incorporated into most schools so that mildly ill children can still be brought in, and those not able to travel to school or to see their own doctors will be expected to remain at home until examined by a community school doctor. It will be normal for most pupils to stay and be safe on school grounds throughout the day, unless accompanied. Older students can earn the right to travel outside school unaccompanied. A simple school identity card will be introduced so that Community Officers will know that children out of school have permission. These are tough measures, but with truancy out of control, tough action must be taken. Repeatedly disruptive and bullying pupils have got to be removed for their own benefit and that of other children. Ukpopdems massive investments mean that new disciplinary schools will be available where the necessary support needed by these children, and possibly their parents, will speed return to normal education.
The school curriculum needs to be expanded and changed to ensure children are fully equipped to succeed in the modern world; young children learning by play within set boundaries, understanding and differentiating between right and wrong; middle school pupils learning through adventure with wider horizons; and senior students learning through challenge without frontiers. The new curriculum must offer a rounded education of breadth and depth which can be tested properly through a new independent examination board giving a true and honest insight into knowledge and performance. There’ll be no school selection as such but there will be constant individual assessment to make sure pupils are allocated to the right schools for their needs. Schools themselves will be measured and monitored on individual attainment as well as overall school success. The curriculum needs to operate at all levels with pupils learning in the way that suits them and their individual capabilities best, and allows them to freely move between streams and schools as they develop. Likewise, political dogma must be taken out of the educational field so that all the schools that children need are available, from grammar schools to special schools. The new curriculum contains four departments: Communication, Civilisation, Self-Management and Vocation.
Communication equips students with the ability to communicate clearly through the written and spoken word in English. Young adults who do not possess basic communication skills who cannot be understood clearly and have limited vocabularies are not only likely to be less valued in the work-place, but might withdraw from normal society, or revert to violence instead.
Civilisation will promote respect and understanding of the modern world and its diversity. Here are the sciences including history, geography, mathematics, languages, physics and chemistry, all promoting a diverse world view and with practical relevance to adult life, particularly understanding, tolerance and respect of difference.
Self-management prepares and equips students for the adult world of work, responsibility, accountability and democratic power; confident in managing their own lives and goals in a competitive world. It includes understanding and coping with: responsibility for others, food preparation, money management, mental arithmetic, contracts, law, work, cleanliness and personal health, alcohol, drugs and sex.
Vocation encourages experiences and the development of practical skills in sports, engineering, science, health, arts, crafts, entertainment and others. Every pupil will be encouraged to get involved in one or more vocational fields both in school and outside school hours.
Our eventual aim is that when schools can demonstrate they are ready, they’ll be set free from what many teachers claim is the cloying control, interference and bureaucracy of both local education authorities and central government. It will be theirs, the governors and the independent regulator’s decision – not central government’s. This is not independent or public schooling by another name. They will remain as state schools funded by the state, but will have been set free to do the job of properly educating children. Government’s role will be to set standards, construct a regulatory framework and to ensure independent inspections are carried out, addressing any remedial action required. With freedom will also come a larger role for Communities. It is anticipated that community representatives will sit on school boards within catchment areas and approve plans in cross-community summits. Communities, individually or together, may also decide to open their own schools where they perceive the need and prioritise their funding,
Hospitals and Health
The provision of a modern health service is incredibly expensive yet totally necessary for the elimination, or at least lessening, of disease, pain, disability and debility. Never before have so many health solutions been available for so many health problems. Yet, for all the money governments have invested in Britain’s health service, it is not up to the standard of many other countries nor up to the standard the British people expect. Waiting times are still too long for many in and out patient treatments. There is too much bureaucracy and not enough front line specialists or beds. Hospital infections, food quality and patient dignity require improving. People in need at home, and their carers, require more help and support. Obesity and other public health concerns, particularly childrens’ health, need much more attention.
The first thing UKpopdems will tackle is reducing waiting times. We want to see waiting times for all procedures requiring hospital treatment reduced to a total of three months: a maximum of one month to initial consultation, a further month for diagnosis and then a final month to treatment or operation. Initially these times will apply to life-threatening conditions, chronic pain and crippling and debilitating illnesses (recognizing that these times are already being beaten for some serious situations). Hospitals will be obliged to publish their current maximum wait times for serious and less serious conditions on a board in a prominent public place. Wait times will be independently monitored and inspected. Patients will have choice and may elect for treatment elsewhere, or in the private sector or abroad if published wait times are exceeded.
Achieving this reduction requires investment and determination. We’ll start building local cottage and convalescent hospitals to avoid bed blocking. This will allow patients to be properly monitored and cared for pre-op and post-op without taking up expensive and much needed beds in full service hospitals. Minor procedures and some out-patient treatments may also be undertaken locally. These small hospitals may be attached to larger hospitals or integrated into community clinics. Community councils will form part of the board of these local hospitals agreeing plans in cross-community summits. Secondly, we will end the practice of outsourcing resources and services so all staff and services are directly under the control of the hospitals that need them. This will include porters, cleaners, catering, home care etc. To ensure adequate resourcing and cover for absence, we’ll need to accept overstaffing by about 20%, but this will be better and no more costly than employing temporary nursing through agencies. Many hospital staff are recruited from overseas, sometimes depleting the skilled resources of hard pressed developing countries. As a simple balancing initiative UKpopdems will commit to the local training of double the number we employ from developing nations so that both Britain and the providing nation benefit.
As well as shortening waiting times the standard of in-patient and home care must improve. We’ll do this by expanding the responsibility of the nursing profession to take on total responsibility for patient care; that is, to ensure that the health of patients improves pre-op, post-op, at discharge, in convalescence and long term in the community. This will include responsibility for ancillary services now brought in-house; porters, cleaners, catering, and all staff involved directly with patients so that standards of cleanliness and food quality can be directly managed. It will include all home health services, too. This much expanded role will require fundamental changes, training and professional development and we’ll liaise closely with the profession to make sure the benefits both to patients and the nursing profession are evident. Doctors and surgeons will remain responsible for patient treatment and be measured on improving patient outcomes.
It is anticipated that individual hospitals, including teaching hospitals, will eventually become independent of Local Health Authorities when they are ready. They will not be pushed into this decision as existing foundation hospitals have been with inevitable financial problems. But UKpopdems are expecting efficiencies, with qualified professional staff delivering more and managing and administering less. Efficiencies will be important because hospitals and clinics will be paid by procedure at a standard NHS rate determined independently. There is no reason except poor management why an initial consultation cannot be followed by necessary testing, x-rays etc., analysis and diagnosis all while the patient is on-site, rather than forcing another appointment on a suffering patient with all the attendant administration, traveling, inconvenience and extra waiting that involves. Government’s role will be to set standards and ensure independent inspection of performance. Hospitals and clinics will also be expected to canvass patient and community opinion and this will be part of the inspection process. Funding research and training will still be a government responsibility and investing for research, particularly, will substantially increase.
Looking at treatment and care outside of hospitals, UKpopdems want to ensure that when local and community hospitals are built they have provision for 24 hour surgeries and dispensing, so that consultation and minor procedures can be carried out in-situ. This will also have to include provision for out of hours home visits. Just as with hospitals, out-patient care and home convalescence will be the responsibility of the nursing profession who will have the final say on health matters and call in the support needed for proper care. Funding will come directly from the communities these patients live in. The charitable sector, nursing profession, social services, Community Officers and community leaders will all have to liaise closely to fulfill their responsibilities. Proper home support and especially help and appreciation for carers is crucial and UKpopdems will be expanding front-line resources by thousands across the country to make sure this happens More resources will also go toward ensuring that those suffering disability get the support they need to participate fully in society, contribute to it and get the most out it. Support for psychiatric and behavioural disorders will expand to properly treat, monitor and look after patients. It will not be a second class service. Institutions will be strictly monitored for the quality of care and treatment. But where there is a risk of violence, psychiatric care must be under a secure regime to ensure medication is taken under supervision and the community is protected.
Public health issues in Britain are increasing with obesity, binge drinking and drug abuse at the top of the list. None of these issues are easy to solve and will take years of hard work. UKpopdems is taking a two-pronged approach. Firstly: getting messages out to children in schools under the Self-Management curriculum and by providing support at school and home to children and parents that encourage moderate behaviour, including the wide provision of qualified dieticians. We’ll also protect young people by ending food advertising aimed at children altogether. Secondly: using the massive coverage of Community officers to detect drug use and trafficking, and to discourage bad behaviour by making it clear that violence and aggression are serious offences that will result in mandatory prison sentences. We have to face up to the fact that obesity, drug and alcohol abuse are illnesses that have to be detected, treated and managed properly like other infirmities rather than the cure being left up to the will power of the sufferer alone. UKpopdems will have the resources and funding in-place to detect and treat these problems, but eradication is a long term goal.
Social Services and Pensions
The point of social services in Britain is to make sure that people who really need help can obtain it simply and thoughtfully. But today, many individuals and families are not getting the help they desperately need because of bureaucracy, complexity or lack of resources. And yet many others are finding it easy to get support fraudulently by playing the system and taking advantage of the very bureaucracy, complexity and the lack of communication among overworked resources that is preventing others who need it from getting it. It’s a bizarre and deeply ironic situation. It’s a mystery why governments have failed to address this situation, leaving many high and dry, yet allowing others to take advantage. UKpopdems will finally correct this inequality and build social wealth everyone in Britain can be proud of.
If people really need help then the right support should be easily and simply available. As with other community services we’ll get workers out of back offices and working in the community directly with the people who need their support. We’ll also massively increase specialist frontline personnel by several thousand to ensure those in need are not abandoned. In future, when people need support, social services will mainly come to them at their homes in order to observe, survey and properly understand requirements, and to simply explain what is available and how it can be obtained, and to complete any necessary form filling at the same time. One of the most important changes is making sure that communication and hand-over problems do not cause mistakes and harm where there should have been help. There have been too many of these, where the public apology that ‘lessons must be learned’ is never actually learnt. We’ll correct this situation by bulldozing barriers between social services departments, putting multi-disciplined teams, including charities, together within communities delivering broad areas of support. In fact, social services will work directly for and be funded by the communities they serve and be managed by cross community summit groups so that local priorities can be met by local resources.
Once we have begun to put in place social service solutions so that people who really need it can get help easily and quickly, we can begin to tackle the problem of fraud. This is a much simpler task under UKpopdems policies, because hundreds of thousands of extra front-line resources are active in the streets and homes of local communities across Britain. This is where some of the value of Community Officers comes in; that is, their role in detecting crime, including Social security fraud. In this role they liaise with all other services as well as get to know the local population well. So those who are claiming benefits fraudulently or that they are not entitled to will come to light. Fraudulent claimants will know they’ll be caught and punished so those thinking of it will think twice. In addition, it is our intention to gradually replace cash benefits with more practical material support and therefore, the temptation to claim benefits solely for the transferable cash value will also diminish.
Providing dignity in retirement and old age through adequate pensions, as well as social support, is a key requirement of any government; but this government particularly, has destroyed the value of pensions in the private sector and left many looking forward with unease to an old age of poverty. This is a reversal after many years of improving living standards for pensioners and is shameful.
UKpopdems has to reverse this situation and we’ll do it through an initiative called ‘safe pensions’ (further explained in the next paper – Implementing the economic vision). This involves reducing company taxes and in return, obliging them to offer all employees, British and foreign, easily transferable final salary pensions that pay at least 50% of average earnings. This will also apply to those who are self-employed. We’ll set up a joint ring-fenced industry/government fund to make sure pensions can be paid in full if the business fails or there’s a shortfall. Under strict conditions, companies who genuinely cannot afford to pay into their pension funds will be government subsidized. Retirement age will remain at 65 but employees may vary their retirement date in advance through extra contributions, or lesser contributions for later retirement.
For those not working, in career breaks or retiring early, we’ll provide contributions for a safe minimum pension that can be made up once back in employment if a return is practical. In any case, no pensioner at age 65 will receive less than 50% of the minimum wage pertaining at the time. This will be an individual entitlement and there will be no reduction for couples co-habiting. It is our intention to negotiate with unions to implement ‘Safe Pensions’ for new entrants in the public sector, too. ‘Safe Pensions’ is a future proofing policy to make sure people are secure in retirement and Britain is protected from escalating pension costs.
Implementing the vision papers to come:
The Economic Vision
The International Vision
posted by United Kingdom Popular Democratic Party at 2:13 pm
<< Home