There’s nothing big about your society, Mr Cameron

I’m not a big politics follower; I’m not going to lie. But when changes in government affect your lifestyle, you’re entitled to your opinion regardless of the level of verbal diarrhoea you spew when you try and add ‘Coalition’ and ‘Thatcherism’ into sentences. I know it’s a bad thing when your Conservative representative only re-tarmacs the village road up to his doorstep, and a good thing when you get a tax rebate when your bank account is in the red. In fact I can’t argue that many of the changes by governments have changed my life for the better. 1948 saw Beveridge get everyone in the UK free healthcare with the introduction of the NHS. And good old Blair was around when the 2004 Green Paper ‘Every Child Matters’ emerged which changed children’s services for the better and created my degree ‘Children’s Inter-Professional Studies’. Such changes have made the UK a much more promising country. But like Benjamin Franklin once said:

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning”.

If David Cameron had come to Hull and done my degree, I think he’d realise that the notion of the ‘Big Society’ – subsidising the huge cuts to public services with volunteer and charity led schemes – is bordering on the edge of insanity. I have had placements in a variety of settings in Hull; with youth offenders, sexually exploited young people and looking after children. There is no realisation by the anally retentive budget makers that working with these groups requires a level of knowledge and expertise, and the risks both physical and emotional can affect service users and volunteers alike.

Hull public services rely heavily on public funding. The Yorkshire Post identified that Hull will really struggle with the cuts as the majority of the services provided cannot run or function without funding and many will cease to exist by the end of April.

The rumours from the professionals in these areas are that cuts will be made to Connexions, ReFresh, RAPP, a variety of supported housing and children’s homes as well as sexual health and social workers. Carl Minns, Liberal Democrat Councillor on Hull City Council, claimed in his blog on the 18th February that he was trying to raise the £1 million needed to keep services going, but many workers have already accepted redundancy or submitted resignation looking for pastures fresh.

As a volunteer and a student on placement, it can be difficult enough to get young people to engage with services. But it’s even harder when you have to tell a girl under the legal age of consent who sells her body to feed her habit and has nowhere to live that there’s ‘nothing you can do’.