Browse content similar to 20/01/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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And in the South East: Kent's children at risk are | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
considered safer than they were two years ago, but is an "adequate" | :01:20. | :01:29. | |
:01:30. | :01:30. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2301 seconds | :01:30. | :39:51. | |
rating for social services by I am Natalie Graham and this is the | :39:51. | :39:55. | |
Sunday Politics in the South East. Coming up later: | :39:55. | :39:57. | |
As a parliamentary inquiry suggests all drugs should be decriminalised, | :39:57. | :40:01. | |
we go to Brighton - the UK's drugs death capital - to get the views of | :40:01. | :40:08. | |
those tackling substance abuse. Joining me in the studio today is | :40:08. | :40:12. | |
an all female cast - our guests of the day are Amber Rudd, the | :40:12. | :40:14. | |
Conservative MP for Hastings and Rye and the Labour Baroness Maggie | :40:14. | :40:18. | |
Jones who lives in Hove. First, we have been warned that | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
more than 100 jobs could be lost at Kent County Council as the | :40:21. | :40:24. | |
authority tries to make a further �34 million worth of savings on top | :40:25. | :40:27. | |
of the �60 million cuts it had already planned for next year. | :40:28. | :40:30. | |
Brighton and Hove's ruling Green Party has already announced it | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
wants to raise council tax to provide what it says are essential | :40:33. | :40:37. | |
services in the coming year. So are local authorities being squeezed | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
too hard by centrally imposed austerity measures? Amber Rudd, | :40:41. | :40:51. | |
:40:51. | :40:53. | ||
sounds like it. We have to spend less money in order to reduce the | :40:53. | :40:57. | |
deficit. I think you will find most people agree with the starting | :40:57. | :41:03. | |
position. We also have to protect children as well as we can, I am | :41:04. | :41:08. | |
happy to see East Sussex County Council and managing to do that by | :41:08. | :41:11. | |
applying the money they have too early intervention to make sure | :41:12. | :41:15. | |
that children that get into trouble and not going to get into trouble | :41:15. | :41:21. | |
as early on as they might have otherwise. We will talk about | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
children services later. We do not know whether as a result of the | :41:26. | :41:31. | |
cuts that service will still be judged good. I am confident of that | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
because they have already been called outstanding. There one of | :41:34. | :41:39. | |
the top and the here and I'm sure they will stay that way. The Green | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
Party claim they need to increase council tax to provide essential | :41:42. | :41:48. | |
services. We do not know that they might not be able to just become | :41:48. | :41:54. | |
more efficient. There are too many demands on local councils to work | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
through and implement further and further cuts. I do have some | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
sympathy now with the Green Party in Brighton. They have already | :42:02. | :42:07. | |
tried to hold the council tax down in previous years, but now what it | :42:07. | :42:14. | |
has -- now it is at a point but they cannot. The electorate need | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
protection up their front line services and of that is at stake | :42:17. | :42:21. | |
than they have no choice. You're supporting the Green Party in | :42:21. | :42:25. | |
raising the council tax? I have every sympathy with the situation | :42:25. | :42:29. | |
they find themselves in. Local authorities the right the country | :42:29. | :42:33. | |
have a disproportionate amount of the cuts but the Government are | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
trying to make to save money. At the end of the day, at those | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
services provided by local authorities, transport and social | :42:43. | :42:50. | |
services, schools, all of those things really matter. The cost of | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
living for people is so important and I think it is really | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
irresponsible to put up council tax went Berwick Government is giving | :42:59. | :43:07. | |
extra money to keep it level. they are cutting local authorities. | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
There has been some good but -- has been some good news for Kent County | :43:12. | :43:22. | |
:43:22. | :43:23. | ||
Council this week. Inspectors have now rated Kent's Children's | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
Services as "adequate" - that is the same as Brighton and Hove, but | :43:26. | :43:30. | |
not as good as East Sussex where they are rated as "good". So how | :43:30. | :43:32. | |
does Kent continue to improve its children's services, or will the | :43:32. | :43:35. | |
planned budget cuts we have just discussed mean that "adequate" will | :43:35. | :43:38. | |
have to do? Jenny Whittle, cabinet member for specialist children's | :43:38. | :43:41. | |
services, joins me now. Ofsted say you have improved, but it has | :43:41. | :43:49. | |
listed quite a few areas of concern. What are your priorities now? | :43:49. | :43:54. | |
focus on the fact that we had reduced caseloads due adequate | :43:54. | :44:04. | |
:44:04. | :44:07. | ||
levels. But no child be found was seen to be unsafe. We need to pit | :44:07. | :44:10. | |
investment into early intervention and reduce the need for bringing | :44:10. | :44:14. | |
children into the care system which is highly expensive and not good | :44:14. | :44:19. | |
for outcomes. There was quite a contrast -- there was quite a | :44:19. | :44:23. | |
comprehensive list of criticisms. Ofsted mentioned that there were | :44:24. | :44:29. | |
people -- children at risk not being seen by a social worker and | :44:29. | :44:35. | |
the Sydney to focus more. Yes, there are people needing more | :44:35. | :44:41. | |
attention. We need to keep them on our radar. Ofsted did raise a | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
concern that perhaps we are pulling a week the rub too quickly. We want | :44:46. | :44:52. | |
to make sure it that we are or providing support for as long it is | :44:52. | :44:59. | |
needed. Given the size of Kent, we're at the second largest | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
children's services department in the country, I am reassured by what | :45:02. | :45:09. | |
I had. You have invested something like �10 million in order to get to | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
adequate. And I presume you want to get it better. How will you do that | :45:14. | :45:24. | |
with the budgets getting cut? of the additional investment has | :45:24. | :45:29. | |
been spent getting us from crisis 0.2 years ago getting up to | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
adequate and making sure children are safe. We have been overly | :45:34. | :45:39. | |
reliant on agency social workers and now we're at adequate I am | :45:39. | :45:42. | |
confident we will attract more a qualified social workers back to | :45:43. | :45:49. | |
Kent, some of whom left a few years back. That way we will reduce the | :45:49. | :45:52. | |
bell and provide a more permanent and stable work force for the | :45:52. | :45:58. | |
children. That will reduce our costs overall. Or you have fewer | :45:58. | :46:03. | |
people? What is happening to those temporary workers? But you have | :46:03. | :46:10. | |
more social workers than you have had or fewer? We have a team of 400 | :46:10. | :46:15. | |
social workers, 50 of them are agency workers. If we can fill that | :46:15. | :46:19. | |
with permanent staff that would reduce our bill. We can deliver the | :46:19. | :46:22. | |
savings that we me through that. We will not reduce the number of | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
social workers, we need them to support the children, as long as we | :46:26. | :46:29. | |
have manageable caseloads for social workers we will keep | :46:29. | :46:35. | |
children safe. That is our top rarity. I asked a similar question | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
18 months ago on this programme, how long do you think it will take | :46:39. | :46:45. | |
you to get a good or outstanding? said you before it would be a three | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
you for your journey. The hardest point is going from Chris spied to | :46:49. | :46:56. | |
adequate. We have invested a lot, we're halfway through the journey, | :46:56. | :47:04. | |
and to increase remuneration we're competing effectively. We have put | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
in place the basic measures needed. I am very hopeful over the next | :47:08. | :47:16. | |
couple of years we will get up to good if not outstanding. It does | :47:16. | :47:21. | |
have a particular problem, we have a lot more children are coming into | :47:22. | :47:30. | |
the county. But the road is at the same level there. Yes, as the | :47:30. | :47:35. | |
Monroe report reported, there are large numbers of children's homes | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
around the coastal towns. Other local authorities are sending | :47:39. | :47:44. | |
unattached young people to them. I have sympathy with Kent, it puts | :47:44. | :47:48. | |
added pressure on their local services. It is something that | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
needs to be dealt with. It makes more sense for children in | :47:51. | :47:56. | |
children's homes to be near their friends and family. A lot of | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
problems with gel its quotation have been because these places have | :47:59. | :48:05. | |
a reputation were have - but for having Honourable young girls and | :48:05. | :48:09. | |
then attract certain types. It is something the Government is to get | :48:09. | :48:16. | |
a grip of. Local authorities cannot just dump their it and wanted cases | :48:16. | :48:20. | |
to another local authority. It has gone on for many decades. I hope | :48:21. | :48:27. | |
this Government will deal with it. It is important to get away from | :48:27. | :48:33. | |
agency workers and that is important as part of the solution. | :48:33. | :48:41. | |
You need to have good people working permanently. It is not | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
necessarily an extra cost to a permanent workers, it does cost | :48:44. | :48:49. | |
less. And sure that is but the reason you have had success. | :48:49. | :48:53. | |
thing the Government have been guilty of it is not talking up | :48:54. | :48:57. | |
social work and have to talk about what a valuable contribution they | :48:57. | :49:02. | |
are making. It is an unsung role, no matter what you do you cannot | :49:02. | :49:08. | |
get it right. To you agree with that? I think Michael Gove has been | :49:08. | :49:14. | |
very prolific about the social work first programme. We're trying to | :49:14. | :49:17. | |
reflect on how successful that has been in bringing in bright young | :49:17. | :49:23. | |
graduates into social work. I think the media could help us out a lot | :49:23. | :49:26. | |
as well because all we hear a bad stories about social workers. We | :49:26. | :49:30. | |
would like to hear a lot more positive stories about her be keep | :49:30. | :49:34. | |
children safe from harm. We need to promote the good work that is being | :49:34. | :49:40. | |
done. There was a complaint made about Michael Gove this week that | :49:40. | :49:47. | |
Michael Gove had no interest in gel predicted services at all. It was | :49:47. | :49:52. | |
said he had radio silence. We need to move on. | :49:52. | :49:54. | |
Now, Brighton still has the unfortunate title of the nation's | :49:54. | :49:57. | |
drugs death capital - although the number of fatalities there as a | :49:57. | :50:00. | |
result of substance abuse has been falling. A new report into legal | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
highs by a cross party group of peers has recommended that all | :50:03. | :50:06. | |
drugs should be decriminalised to make sure that users can identify | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
exactly what goes into them. But is there a danger that such a policy | :50:09. | :50:19. | |
:50:19. | :50:24. | ||
could backfire? Lucinda Adam went Brighton is known for its youth | :50:24. | :50:29. | |
culture, liberal attitudes and exciting nightlife. Under the | :50:29. | :50:34. | |
surface lies the dark reality. Britain has the highest rate of | :50:34. | :50:39. | |
drugs-related deaths in the country. 32 people died from drugs last year. | :50:39. | :50:43. | |
That is one every 11 days. Now a legal highs or adding to the city's | :50:43. | :50:53. | |
problems. 150 people a month were admitted to hospital due to them. | :50:53. | :51:00. | |
The commission set up to investigate into them, has just | :51:00. | :51:03. | |
said that they think it should be legalised and put behind the | :51:03. | :51:08. | |
counter. It has been suggested before I'd be Green Party member | :51:08. | :51:13. | |
for Brighton. And also for at their chief superintendent. People argue | :51:13. | :51:19. | |
that it would make substances safer for users, and reduce crime. But | :51:19. | :51:24. | |
there are concerns that decriminalising ecstasy, heroin, | :51:24. | :51:28. | |
cannabis and others could make the problem worse here are not better. | :51:28. | :51:34. | |
More people using more drugs are more combinations. This man runs | :51:34. | :51:38. | |
the largest drug and alcohol treatment centre in the city. | :51:38. | :51:42. | |
fundamentally disagree with that decriminalisation approach. I think | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
it would give a respectability to drugs. It would give the green | :51:46. | :51:50. | |
light for people who might otherwise not try drugs to try them. | :51:50. | :51:56. | |
And I think that we would see a massive increase in drug use. They | :51:56. | :52:03. | |
remain a lot of questions unanswered. At what point would | :52:03. | :52:06. | |
Roxby equalised. Would be decriminalised them for 14-year- | :52:06. | :52:16. | |
olds, 14-year-old in Brighton are using heroin and other drugs. | :52:16. | :52:21. | |
trial of decriminalisation in the City would not be a first. Police | :52:21. | :52:26. | |
tried turning a blind eye it took cannabis in Brixton in at 2001 and | :52:26. | :52:33. | |
the truck was decreed it to Class C in 2004. Both moves were reversed | :52:33. | :52:40. | |
after a rise in addiction. Graham Cox has become a Conservative | :52:40. | :52:45. | |
councillor in Brighton. Decriminalisation is a huge risk. I | :52:45. | :52:51. | |
have not seen compelling evidence that making drugs legal, that is | :52:51. | :52:58. | |
what it is, but that would lead to dress -- less drug use. The point | :52:58. | :53:02. | |
about it being a legal is that because it is a legal it is the | :53:02. | :53:07. | |
only way to compel people to get treatment. If it is not a legal do | :53:07. | :53:13. | |
cannot compel people that are rejected into treatment. The city | :53:13. | :53:18. | |
already has projects that help heroin Addicks use methadone in a | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
safe environment. David Cameron favours treatments that get people | :53:23. | :53:28. | |
off drugs. This is one of the trial areas where it Addicks are kept in | :53:28. | :53:33. | |
intensive support. People here who have struggled with drug abuse say | :53:33. | :53:38. | |
decriminalisation would not be a good move. I do not see it working, | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
all the people I knew who took a lot of drugs we just take more | :53:42. | :53:47. | |
because they were easily available. If we legalised heroin or crack I | :53:47. | :53:54. | |
think no matter what drug users would continue and be affected. | :53:54. | :54:00. | |
Their use will increase. Addiction would become worse. People who have | :54:00. | :54:05. | |
done a lot of cannabis and cocaine and heroin, anything like that, a | :54:05. | :54:13. | |
lot of them have ended up in hospitals. It is al ready been easy | :54:13. | :54:18. | |
to get. It is not difficult at all. Something has to be done to tackle | :54:18. | :54:23. | |
the drug problem that priests -- that plagues Brighton and Hove. But | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
would decriminalisation be too much of a risk to take. | :54:27. | :54:30. | |
Lucinda Adam reporting. Joining us from our Westminster studio is | :54:30. | :54:32. | |
Baroness Meacher, Chair of the all Party Parliamentary Group which | :54:32. | :54:35. | |
recommended that drugs should be decriminalised. We have just heard | :54:35. | :54:37. | |
lots of arguments against decriminalisation. Why exactly did | :54:37. | :54:47. | |
:54:47. | :54:52. | ||
I certainly will. What we are are suggesting is that | :54:52. | :54:56. | |
decriminalisation a position and wrists -- and use but not supplied. | :54:56. | :55:02. | |
We're not suggesting legalising drugs. 15 European countries have | :55:02. | :55:09. | |
been steady at and a report from that shows absolutely clearly that | :55:09. | :55:15. | |
the probability of a used in the previous month is reduced by 79% in | :55:15. | :55:19. | |
those countries that have decriminalised the possession and | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
use of drugs. The fact is, tough legal penalties, it is strange but | :55:24. | :55:31. | |
true, lead to greater use of drugs and in particular, of hard drugs. | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
What happens is, some young person goes for a little bit of weed and | :55:36. | :55:39. | |
the drug dealer says they have something more exciting for them. | :55:39. | :55:44. | |
Before they know what they have bought heroin or cocaine. In a | :55:44. | :55:48. | |
decriminalise country like Portugal, the use of drugs and the abuse of | :55:48. | :55:52. | |
drugs is seen as a psychological problem. This is not something that | :55:52. | :55:57. | |
young people Bragg about. They do not want to be seen as someone with | :55:57. | :56:02. | |
the psychological problem. If you tried those problems into at deep | :56:02. | :56:07. | |
understanding of how young people work and how mental processes work | :56:07. | :56:11. | |
you begin to make some progress. What has happened in Portugal is | :56:11. | :56:15. | |
that money has been switched from prison places to treatment and it | :56:15. | :56:21. | |
is not as soft option. Young people are required if they are addicted | :56:21. | :56:25. | |
to go for treatment. It is like alcohol consumption on the | :56:25. | :56:30. | |
Continent. Things that work at what do not necessarily work here. That | :56:30. | :56:36. | |
experiment in Brixton did not work at all, in fact it failed. Can I | :56:36. | :56:43. | |
put that right? When cannabis was put down to class C, the trend in | :56:43. | :56:48. | |
cannabis use was already going down and it continued to go down well | :56:48. | :56:56. | |
cannabis was placed at Class C. For some absolutely bizarre reason the | :56:56. | :57:00. | |
Home Secretary of the time panicked and said I think we will put it | :57:00. | :57:04. | |
back up to Class B, that Home Secretary has recently said it was | :57:04. | :57:09. | |
a mistake and she very much regrets it. The fact of the matter is, | :57:09. | :57:14. | |
lower legal penalties or better still, administrative penalties, | :57:14. | :57:18. | |
we're not talking about selling these things in shops or on the | :57:18. | :57:24. | |
high street or anything like that, the fact is, decriminalisation of | :57:24. | :57:27. | |
use and focusing on treatment and focusing on it as a psychological | :57:27. | :57:34. | |
problem, it is it is a health problem, does reduce use of drugs. | :57:34. | :57:38. | |
One last question. David Cameron made it clear that he will not | :57:38. | :57:42. | |
entertain discussion of your suggestions. But you think it is so | :57:42. | :57:48. | |
politically unpalatable? I think there has been a lot of | :57:48. | :57:50. | |
misunderstanding and media confusion and hype about the | :57:50. | :57:54. | |
subject which has been very unhelpful. I have been very | :57:54. | :57:58. | |
encouraged this week by the media coverage of this subject. There | :57:58. | :58:03. | |
seems to have been a lot of good factual material going out into the | :58:03. | :58:08. | |
media. In time, we know privately all the politicians in all the | :58:08. | :58:12. | |
different parties agree with us, that these take a realisations | :58:12. | :58:16. | |
would be a good idea. Regulation of the least harmful drugs would be a | :58:16. | :58:21. | |
good idea. They'll all say that privately but at the moment there | :58:21. | :58:29. | |
are not ready to do it. I'd be very much for joining us. David Cameron | :58:30. | :58:34. | |
said that he agreed on the home affairs committee but now he will | :58:34. | :58:39. | |
not suggest it, things changed. cannot comment about what he said | :58:39. | :58:43. | |
in 2002, what I can say is that I disagreed with everything we just | :58:43. | :58:48. | |
heard. It is not true that politicians are saying one thing in | :58:48. | :58:55. | |
private and another in public. sure there are a lot of things | :58:55. | :58:58. | |
politicians say in private they do not in public. Politicians are not | :58:59. | :59:03. | |
going around saying that we must decriminalised but not saying it in | :59:03. | :59:10. | |
public. Many politicians agree entirely West the man who said that | :59:10. | :59:14. | |
if we decriminalise we encourage it and drugs ruin lives and families. | :59:14. | :59:19. | |
I think to send out the wrong signal and a life easier access, | :59:19. | :59:24. | |
which all the people in Britain are saying, would be completely wrong. | :59:24. | :59:29. | |
She sounded incredibly reasonable though. I think what she was saying | :59:29. | :59:33. | |
about getting to young people was the key issue. We have to bring | :59:33. | :59:37. | |
about the education aspect of it. To educate at an early age about | :59:37. | :59:42. | |
the damage that drugs can do. I do not think this Government is put in | :59:42. | :59:48. | |
enough time and effort into teaching children about social and | :59:48. | :59:53. | |
health issues. They're only dealing with the academic subjects. The | :59:53. | :59:58. | |
Health and well-being of children is an important issue. We will have | :59:58. | :00:02. | |
more from both of her guests and a moment but it is already time for | :00:02. | :00:12. | |
:00:12. | :00:21. | ||
our round-up of the week's Bailiffs came in to arrest | :00:21. | :00:26. | |
protesters. If we had ten people digging it their own tunnels we | :00:26. | :00:32. | |
could have turned it around. Police and Crime Commissioner says that | :00:32. | :00:38. | |
her plan for or extra staff will cost the council tax payer less | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
than a penny at the. Campaigners working to reverse the | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
decision at Hastings hospital met with Jeremy Hunt to call for a | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
Government review. Drivers will have to slow down in | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
Brighton and Hove. A 20 mile an hour zones beat Len it was agreed | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
for or central roads. People are more likely to walk and people are | :01:00. | :01:06. | |
more likely to survive a collision. A but no slowing down for the | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
tourism trade. Despite the recession and the | :01:08. | :01:11. | |
unpredictable weather it has enjoyed a boom for the last two | :01:11. | :01:21. | |
:01:21. | :01:23. | ||
The campaigners had been affected is that the last we will hear from | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
them? I certainly hope so, it is their right to protest but it is | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
our right to build that road. It is going to be good for the area and I | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
am glad it is going ahead. A lot of coverage the what especially of the | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
women taking part in protest. It has been interesting, hasn't it? | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
Yes, I do not know why so many women were in the protest but women | :01:44. | :01:51. | |
do like to be outspoken, look at us today. Talking about roads, Maggie | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
Jones, it has been controversial, but hard to argue with the Green | :01:56. | :02:03. | |
Party on this one, isn't it? Yes, it and it is back -- and it is | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
exactly what the Labour Party discussed years ago. We do need a | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
more sensible speed limit. On the a Rhodes b do need to be more sense | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
to do it. I know that some people on buses are or worried about it. | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
We need to have another look at it but certainly in residential areas. | :02:21. | :02:26. | |
A Jew like to see more in Hastings? Yes, I think it is very good, | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
anything that makes it safer it is good. | :02:29. | :02:33. |