29 September 2007
The PM has spoken at the latest citizen jury event in London. Teachers, children and social care workers attended similar events in Leeds, Portsmouth and Birmingham - with each session linked by satellite.
Read the PM’s opening and closing remarks:
Prime Minister’s opening remarks
Can I say first of all that I am delighted to be here in London this morning with this wonderful audience and to welcome people from Leeds, from Birmingham, from Portsmouth to join our discussions today. And if I begin by saying that I am here not really because of the job I do but because, like so many people here, I am a parent and I am thinking about how I can do best by my children just as you are thinking about how you can do best by your children, how our children can have a safe, happy, upbringing, how our Education services, our schools in particular, can do better by our children and how all of us can feel confident that all the services that are available are ones that do best by our children for the future. And I say to Ed, who introduced me, I am here not because I have got nothing else to do today but because I think this is probably the most important set of discussions that we can have in our country about how we can build better services and better support for children and for parents in the future.
I just think of what it was like when I was growing up and the influences on me and what my parents had to do. And when you think about it, when we were growing up, the then the real influences on us were our parents, teachers, maybe churches and faith organisations, friends, neighbours. And now we think as parents what are the influences on our children as they are growing up today. And you have got to include things that are quite different from maybe 20, 30 or 40 or even 10 years ago. The influence of the Internet, the influence of commercial television, the influence of commercial advertising, which is quite aggressive in trying to pinpoint children and sometimes we feel as parents, where all these pressures upon us mean that it is very difficult for us to give the best advice and to influence our children in the best possible way. So we are dealing with a new world where we know that our children are potentially influenced by a range of things and we as parents feel more under pressure I think than parents of any other generation.
And then of course as parents we are worried also about the pressures of time because all of us may be here this Saturday morning but we know if we are parents there are a thousand different things that we could do and might be able to do to help our children and so the pressures of time come on top of all the pressures of all these other influences on our children.
So that is why today I think it is fascinating for parents to be able to discuss how we move forward, but it is also fascinating for teachers and for all those involved in children’s services and education to think what things are going to look like next year, five years from now, ten years from now and I am particularly pleased that there are so many young people here because I don’t think, when we have thought about youth services or what we do to help and support children, we have consulted young people enough. And when I go around the country I hear lots of people saying that some young people are very badly behaved, but I also hear lots of people saying rightly so that the vast majority of young people who are well behaved feel that often there is nowhere for them to go in the evenings, there is not enough for them to do, and we have got to take that into account as well.
So why are we having this session in all these different cities of our country today and why are we doing it this way? It is because we want to listen to you, and the only way that we will get the policies right in the future is by listening, involving and engaging all those who have got a lot to say about how we can develop the services of the future. You know, 20 years ago a politician would have come and just given a speech. Then a few years ago you might have had a question and answer session and you would have been here, and the politician would have said, give me some questions and I will give you the answers, and usually of course the answers took far longer to give than the questions and you were listening to all these long answers. And that is why I think the whole day is about an interactive discussion.
It is only possible to make the right policy decisions if we involve and engage everybody in the making of these decisions and that is why I am here to listen, and I am here to learn. And we have Ed Balls in Leeds, we have Jim Knight with us, we have Kevin Brennan with us, and we have here Andrew Adonis who has done so much to build up our schools in the country in the last few years. All the Ministers are here so that they can listen but not just listen, but interact in the discussions, involve and engage each other. And the only way we will make the right decisions, is if we can look at the matters ahead together. And then, after these discussions are held, we have got to feed back to you. There is no point in having the discussions and then have nothing come of it, so we have got to feed back to you, so at the end of this session, after we have absorbed everything that you have said, we will also write to you and say this is what we are learning and perhaps you might contact us again to see what you think about the conclusions that we have drawn. So you are here right at the centre of making the children’s policy of the future. We will be drawing up a 10-Year Children’s Plan, it is your views that will actually influence how it develops and I think that is the best way for the future. Parents, children, young people, all those who can contribute to our children’s welfare, their education and their progress, all working together. Children may be 20% of the population of our country, but they are 100% of our future and that is why today is so important.
Thank you all very much.
Prime Minister’s closing remarks
Can I just say first of all that I have learned a great deal in these few minutes that we have been discussing some of the issues and I have been at Table 11 in London but I wonder if all the tables around the country will be reflecting some of the things that I have heard.
What I heard at the table that I was talking about is whether it is looking for what your career should be or whether you are a parent wanting to know about you can improve your child’s reading, or whether you have got an autistic child and you want to know what the services are, or could be, or in all these areas whether you want to volunteer in your school, people want to know more and want to have better sources of getting information and I think one of the lessons I have already learned is that people are not satisfied that they can get access to the information they need to make the decisions as parents that they want to make and if you are young people, sometimes you don’t know enough about what is available so that you can make the right decisions for yourself.
So I think one of the things that Ed Balls and Andrew Adonis and Kevin Brennan and Jim Knight are going to be looking at as a result of what you have already said, is how we can improve the flow of information to parents and to young people, both about what is available and what are the choices that people have in some of the decisions that they want to make. And maybe that is one of the answers to the pressures that people feel under that the starting point of getting better services is having better information about the choices that you have.
We just started to talk as we were finishing our discussion about one of the big issues that certainly worries me. I have been talking to people in the last few days about some of the pressures that teenagers in particular are under and as they are growing up, all the commercial advertising, all the sort of pressures that come through the Internet certainly open up huge opportunities, and that is a really good thing so you can find out about careers, you can find out about voluntary work, you can find out about things that worry you, you can find health information like through NHS Direct.
But one of the issues that has worried me is the number of pressures that people are under in relation to drugs and hard drugs, and people trying to peddle drugs in our communities and the fact that we have got to be tougher on those people who try to sell drugs to children, and I think the first part of it is obviously to protect the public by punishing those people who try to sell drugs. We have been closing down these crack houses. A thousand have been closed down. We have also got tougher sentences for people who try to sell drugs and any newcomer to this country who is found peddling drugs we will throw out of the country.
At the same time we have got to prevent, and that means helping young people get the education that will mean that they will not fall for those who try to sell them drugs, and that means better education not just necessarily in the secondary schools only but also perhaps in the primary schools as well. And what we started to discuss at the table as we were finishing our general debate was would it make a difference if there were people who were sportsmen or pop stars, or people who were celebrities who were able to say to young people, winners don’t take drugs, we don’t take drugs, drugs are not for us. And if a number of people were able to say that and become if you like role models for young people, would that make a difference. I talked to Kelly Holmes last night, the great Olympic runner, and she would be very happy to be one of the role models as someone who has won at sport who says that drugs are awful and wants to tell young people that drugs are completely unacceptable. And there may be others who could be role models for young people, just as parents can be, just as friends can be, just as neighbours can be, and people who have got a national standing who can do so.
And on the other side of this of course we have got celebrities who take a very casual attitude to drugs, who think that their standing in the community makes them above the law on these matters, and that is another area where I think we have got to send a very clear message, not only that we will not decriminalise drugs, but at the same time that this is unacceptable behaviour and the vast majority of young people will never fall for this, and the vast majority of young people will never be taken in, but we have got to make it clear that we as a community stand up against those who would sell drugs, those who would be casual in their attitude to drugs and those people who think that they are above the law when it comes to drugs. I hope that during our discussions today some of these big issues that parents are worried about and indeed young people themselves are worried about can come to the fore. I have got no doubt that we can do a lot better in the years to come.
I have got no doubt that our services can be a lot better on hand for parents. I have no doubt that what we can do for young people, community facilities, youth centres, but this time consulting young people about what the services are, can be a lot better and I have got no doubt also that if we all come together, what parents and young people and all the professionals can achieve for our schools can make Britain’s schools world-class in the future. I think we have moved our schools from being below average to being above average. We have now got to make them world-class giving every child an education personal to their needs in future years to come.
The one thing I want to say in conclusion is to repeat what I said at the beginning. This is a discussion that all of us are involved in today, but it is going to lead somewhere because there is going to be new Children’s Plan and it is going to be drawn up and it is going to be published and it is going to be based on the most extensive consultation that we have ever had and it will deal with all the issues we have been talking about today and we will have a duty not just to listen and involve and engage you today, but to feed back to you so that you know whether we have taken into account what you have been saying and so that we can prove to you, well I want to prove to you, that we are both listening, involving and engaging and that as a result of what you say we will be able to make a difference. I repeat, there is nothing more important than the future of our children and young people and together we can make that future so much better in the years to come.
Thank you all very much.
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