Blog

In recent weeks, I have been thinking a lot about the impact of austerity, change and uncertainty on people facing complex problems and on the frontline staff who support them.

The London mayoral election is nearly upon us, with the last of the manifestos from the three main party candidates, Boris Johnson, Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick, being published.

I am at the Ministry of Justice/NOMS conference at Warwick University. This morning I volunteered to be one of the delegates to step onto the Soapbox in the lobby area during the refreshment break to have my say for 10 minutes with a microphone in front of the milling delegates.

Yesterday saw the launch of the government’s social justice strategy, Social Justice: transforming lives; described by Iain Duncan Smith as “setting out our vision for those who do not have a foot on the first rung – our vision for the most disadvantaged individuals and families.”

In September we published Turning the Tide, a vision paper setting out how political leaders could transform the way our public services respond to people with multiple needs.

Ollie and Dominic speech for Vision Paper launch: Turning the Tide

Today we see the result of over year’s work with Making Every Adult Matter – the publication of our joint Vision Paper for multiple needs and exclusions, Turning the Tide.

Ken Clarke’s comment piece in The Guardian on Tuesday caused a storm of protest over his unfortunate use of “feral underclass” and “criminal classes” to describe the rioters. Beyond the debate on the semantics, his article underlined the justice secretary’s analysis of the need for reform in criminal justice and beyond.

The riots that began in London last Saturday night and then spread to other cities across England have focused even more attention on criminal justice reform. As journalists and commentators struggle to understand why the riots happened, thoughts also turn to how rioters should be dealt with and what long-term lessons can be learned.

Last week saw the publication of Graham Allen’s second report, Early Intervention: Smart Investment, Massive Savings. Although it focuses on interventions for children and young people, many of its themes and recommendations are highly relevant to adults with multiple needs.

Our new literature review, launched today, provides evidence and tools for anyone concerned with commissioning or delivering support to short-sentenced prisoners in order to improve health outcomes and reduce reoffending.

I recently attended the 2011 London Drug and Alcohol Network (LDAN)/DrugScope conference ‘Capital Concerns – the future for drug and alcohol services’ on 9 March.