Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation Taking Account of the Recession - Unemployment (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

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Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation Taking Account of the Recession - Unemployment

November 3, 2009 4:43 PM
By Cllr Jean Fooks in Council

I think we all know that inequality has grown over the last 12 years or so. There is a bigger gap now between those at the top and those at the bottom. This is correlated with worse outcomes of all kinds - health, crime, educational achievement, happiness.

Those at the bottom are seriously deprived in terms of health, wealth and happiness, which tends to repeat itself in the next generation. It is that cycle which must be broken.

Just now, thanks to the recession, things are getting worse. More people out of a job - especially young people, and particularly those with few qualifications. The charts in the Council book (on page 87) show data for May 2009, and are bad enough. But the Children's Trust had at their last meeting data up to August 2009 which are significantly worse.

The overall Oxfordshire NEET percentage for 16-18 year-olds was 7.1% in August and varied across the county. More than 10% of this age group in Banbury and in Cowley/Iffley were not in education, employment or training, nearly as many in Didcot and almost 15% in south-east Oxford.

Within those figures the vulnerable groups are faring worse than ever - care leavers at 60%, young offenders at 70% and teenage mothers at 87% , nearly 9 in every 10. If we cannot find a way to get these young people engaged, they face a bleak future.

I know that work is being done to try to help - but more is needed to get these young people started on a life journey which will take them out of poverty. I see that the county is administering the Future Jobs Fund (page 90) to encourage employers to take on young unemployed - but so far no jobs have been offered by the County Council. Surely we must play our full part in this project - could we offer some jobs and more apprenticeships? Especially for care leavers for whom we are corporate parents - and thus have a special responsibility.

Those with low skills are faring worst. There are two solutions: increase their skills, by providing more relevant education in a curriculum which meets their needs, and seek to get more low-level jobs in the county. That is a failure in the Oxford Regeneration Framework - too much emphasis on high-tech growth rather than seeking to have a range of jobs to provide employment for a range of abilities.

An extra barrier to employment in the rural areas, for people of all ages, is the lack of transport to the jobs that do exist.

Community groups helping young people get qualifications need support - a little goes a very long way here.

Flexible working patterns enable more parents to work while their children are at school or in child care. Holiday playschemes are vital to help working parents.

Are we doing all we can to provide space and help for start-up businesses? That is where new jobs are most likely to be found.

Unless we can tackle unemployment we are not going to break the cycle. So we must improve education, ensure children do not lose out for lack of support. We must continue to develop our very successful children's centres - improve our primary schools and our secondary schools - adapt the curriculum to meet our pupils' needs.

I hope that we can work with all our partners to make Oxfordshire a fairer, and thus happier, place.