Riot report reveals ‘500,000 forgotten families’
A lack of support and opportunity for young people contributed to the outbreak of riots in England last summer, an independent report says.
The Riots, Communities and Victims Panel, set up last year, highlights “500,000 forgotten families”.
It also cited poor parenting, an inability to prevent reoffending, too much emphasis on materialism, and a lack of confidence in the police.
Schools should work on helping children to build character, it added.
The report is just one of several investigating the causes of the riots.
It was due to be published on Wednesday, but was leaked early.
‘Poor parenting’
It said: “Families aren’t getting the support they need.”
It supported a programme already existing to help troubled families, but found that overlap with those involved in the riots was limited.
Analysis
Last summer’s days of disturbances followed a fatal shooting by police in London.
But the trouble spread to several other parts of England and this report says the roots of the riots lie in problems shared between those cities.
There are young people on the streets of Salford, Manchester, Birmingham and beyond who will all tell you that unemployment is a trap they can’t escape.
However, there are people in those neighbourhoods who insist that those same young people aren’t doing enough to help themselves.
The owner of a Manchester shop badly damaged in the riots pointed to the long criminal records of many convicted of involvement in the rioting.
“Crime is their job,” he told me.
He pointed at long sentences being the best deterrent, although he accepted finding ways of properly rehabilitating those involved was important.
However, practically helping families to leave what the panel calls ‘the bottom of society’ will take a great deal of work and resources from public services already facing cuts.
“Government and local public services should develop a strategy incorporating the principles of the Troubled Families Programme to help 500,000 ‘forgotten families’ turn their lives around,” it said.
The report stated that up to 15,000 people were believed to have taken part in the riots – with the majority of those aged under 24 and with poor academic records.
The communities the panel spoke to blamed the riots on poor parenting.
The panel has recommended that schools which fail to raise pupils’ literacy rates to the required minimum standard for their age should face a financial penalty.
The report stated that the key to avoiding future riots was to have communities where everyone felt they had a stake in society, and where those who were struggling from an early age were given the support they needed.
Its other recommendations include:
Panel members
- Darra Singh, the former JobCentre Plus chief executive.
- Simon Marcus, a youth leader in Tottenham, who was also the Conservative candidate in Barking, east London, in 2010.
- Heather Rabbatts, a barrister, has served as chief executive of Merton and Lambeth councils in London, and is also a former governor of the BBC.
- Maeve Sherlock is a life peer who has served as head of the National Council for One Parent Families and the Refugee Council.
- Mentoring programmes for vulnerable children nationwide
- Local authorities flag – from the age of 11 – those identified as being at risk of becoming young and unemployed
- Businesses to become more involved with their local schools and help tackle the problem of youth unemployment
- Government should appoint an “independent champion” to manage conversations between big brands and the government about how to protect children from excessive marketing
- A review into why restorative justice is not used more extensively in the country
- Young offenders to be offered a mentor when they finish their prison sentences
- Police services do more to “debunk myths” on issues that affect how people view their integrity
- The Met Police to be more transparent about why and how they use stop and search
- Police services to review their complaints procedures
It also urged the government to play a bigger role and “provide a job guarantee for all young people who have been out of work for two years or more”.
“Start Quote
I would place more emphasis on family life, on parents and on community”
End QuoteDavid LammyLabour MP
Still painful
The panel said it had surveyed local neighbourhoods in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Luton and found 85% of those questioned felt “advertising puts pressure on young people to own the latest products”.
It called on local authorities to commit to “driving up” the number of volunteers and uniformed groups.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “We do not comment on leaked documents.”
But David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham – where the riots began following the death of Mark Duggan on 4 August 2011 – said that the report’s focus on the role of schools was “a bit unfair” – although admitted he needed to examine the whole report.
“Of course there are issues in our schools, but it is so easy when things go wrong to point to a big institution and say the schools should do more.
“I would place more emphasis on family life, on parents and on community.”
The shadow higher education minister also stressed that a significant proportion of those rioting were not school age.
“They were adults, they were men, they were people into their 30s and 40s who did not feel they had a sufficient stake in society and were certainly prepared to stick two fingers up at society as a whole.”
Children’s Society policy director Enver Solomon said: “It is of little surprise that this independent report has pointed to factors like lack of opportunities for young people as causes behind last summer’s riots.
“We know from our work that there is a significant link between a child’s material deprivation and their overall life satisfaction.”
Panel chairman Darra Singh said he was unhappy that the report was leaked: “We are disappointed that Sky News has leaked contents from a near-final version of the Riots Communities and Victims Panel’s final report, which is due to be published tomorrow and is still being finalised.
“Our remit was to give a voice to the communities and victims of the August riots. This leak has impacted on our ability to ensure they receive the widest possible audience,” he said.
