Sandy Davies is the headteacher of Community Links’ school for young people excluded from mainstream school, called Education Links.

For the twenty-third year in a row the national GCSE pass rate rose this year, accompanied by ‘record breaking’ headlines and the usual debate about standards. Keen not to miss out, we’ve got our own record to shout about, and it’s one we’re particularly proud of.

Students at our school Education Links have achieved our best ever results, with a 93% pass rate at A* – G, including a 100% pass rate in English. All our students have been excluded from mainstream education, and many are dealing with very difficult circumstances. Although our numbers might be small – 14 students took a total of 43 GCSEs this year – every single pass is a real testament to the hard work and dedication of young people who haven’t benefited much from mainstream education but, just like everyone we work with, have powerful aspirations and the ability to go on and do great things.

It is also, of course, a tribute to the dedication and professionalism of our staff, many of whom were in a similar situation themselves not too long ago, and who are motivated by a desire to work with young people on whom much of society has turned its back.

Earlier this year, Education Links was formally registered as an independent school with Ofsted, after Community Links’ 15 years experience providing education for excluded students. Last year all our leavers went on to training, further education, or a job, and we have exciting plans to develop the school over the next few years. These record results are only the beginning.

“It’s no secret that David Cameron’s new government is seeking radical and rapid change: by their own admission they are hitting the ground faster than either Thatcher or Blair. With consultations spewing out of every department, on everything from welfare reform to bank taxes to government websites, there is a danger that organisations or individuals with something valuable to contribute will be caught napping, or off on summer holidays, leaving unscrutinised policies wreaking havoc in two years’ time.”

Read the rest of the article here

It’s an exciting piece of work – if you think you might be suitable for one or both, please do download the full details or pass them on to others.

After much concerted lobbying from Community Links, as part of our Need not Greed campaign, we were delighted to see DWP’s 21^st Century Welfare paper include the paragraph:

“As a result [of the complexity of the benefits system] working legitimately is not a rational choice for many poor people to make. Fraud is always wrong, but we must recognise that the benefits system is making matters worse by pushing valuable work, and the aspiration that this can engender, underground.”

This complexity in the system also ensures that twice as much is lost each year in error as is lost to fraud. Tackling these real problems within the system will ultimately be far more successful at bringing down the welfare bill than pandering to prejudice against benefit claimants.

As many have already pointed out, the £5.2bn figure being bandied around is for fraud and error, with error (£3.7bn) far outweighing fraud (£1.5bn). Cameron would claim he has said that all along, but his spin has been enough to deceive the Telegraph, who this morning were claiming that “Mr Cameron discloses that £5.2billion of the £87billion welfare budget is lost to fraudulent claims for tax credit and welfare, while administrative error wastes £1.6billion.”

Secondly, the latest figures I have (for 2006/7) show that 6,756 were successfully prosecuted, a further 12,000 were cautioned, 10,000 received an administrative penalty, 95,000 had their benefit changed but weren’t deemed to have done anything serious enough to warrant any kind of sanction, leaving an enormous 196,000 people who experienced a hugely stressful investigation and were found to have done nothing wrong.

We regularly talk to terrified people who are about to be hauled in front of a Jobcentre advisor and quizzed about their claim. Their only source of income is at risk – that five minute interview could mean the difference between scraping by and being plunge into destitution. And they might only be there because a neighbour has fallen out with them and phoned the benefit fraud hotline, or they had a bit of paint on their hands at their last interview. These advisors, don’t forget, are the same people who are supposed to be supporting people into work.

Even those who are defrauding the system usually do so out of need, not greed – scraping together enough for Christmas or paying for repair of a boiler through a bit of informal work, for example. The structural problems with the benefits system that Iain Duncan Smith has identified, the ones which make it very hard to get into work and render the system so complex it borders on incomprehensible, must shoulder the blame for all the error and most of the fraud. The few cases of blatant greed make the headlines, but don’t reflect the reality for people we see.

If I was Iain Duncan Smith this morning, I would be annoyed. His plans for welfare reform might be uncosted so far and might never make it past the Treasury, but they do represent a thoughtful and detailed attempt to address some of the more nuanced problems with the benefits system. Cameron’s announcement today, on the other hand, is crude, callous politics of the very worst kind – the age-old trick of bullying those least able to defend themselves to unite the rest in opposition. It’s a trick every government tries, usually with asylum seekers, poor migrants, and benefit claimants.

Before he became party leader, Cameron visited Community Links. The invitation is always open should he wish to return. But if he does so, I’ll make sure he spends a day behind the desk at our New Deal project – the most successful in London and the South East – talking to our advisors about the reality of being on benefits and looking for work. Hopefully he’d think twice before picking on people again.

Lastly, as many people have pointed out, don’t forget about the £70bn in tax evaded each year. Cameron said today that, ‘at a time when we’re having to take such difficult decisions about how to cut back without damaging the things that matter the most, we should strain every sinew to cut error, waste and fraud…’ in the tax system?

UPDATE: My colleague has pointed out the following line from DWP’s 21st Century Welfare paper last week:

“As a result, working legitimately is not a rational choice for many poor people to make. Fraud is always wrong, but we must recognise that the benefits system is making matters worse by pushing valuable work, and the aspiration that this can engender, underground.”

Perhaps someone should tell Cameron…

Jude Simmons is the head of Community Links’ Children, Youth, and Community work.

Our new report, Strengthening Communities, outlines the achievements co-ordinated over just two years by Cecilia Jaros, our part-time community development worker.

We start from the belief that everyone has potential to play a part in their local community themselves, and make things happen. Sometimes people need a little support to identify the right places to get started, people to contact, available sources of funding, or just the confidence to have a go.

Community Links provide the catalyst; we encourage people to organise their own activities. Starting off locally and small scale – holding an event where people can get together and begin talking about the issues that concern them – is sometimes all that is needed to ignite a spark that leads to new community activity. Just filling in a few gaps can ensure the enthusiasm for shared action becomes contagious.

From outside, our area might be identified as one experiencing multiple deprivation, child poverty and a range of other negative issues, but we take the view that our community has tremendous assets. Key amongst them is the energy, enthusiasm and enterprise of people who live locally and, given a bit of support, can make things happen.

Whilst much of our work is intense and at a micro level, often our input will be for only a short time as we put people in touch with each other and watch things take off. However we are equally happy to support people on small scale activity or far bigger more ambitious ventures.  One young lad at one of community hubs was really interested in Street Dance and also concerned about young people on the estate where he lived.

Cecilia talked with him over a period of weeks introducing ideas to him – maybe teaching dance to the very young people he was concerned for. He now has his own street dance group, has fundraised for rehearsal and studio space, performs at events and is going to university to study music.  The difference in this quiet young boy is incredible.

We also helped seven different communities in Newham organise Big Lunch events this Summer, where neighbours get together one Sunday to have lunch outside. This is part of a national event and once the idea was aired with local people they just took over, coming up with a whole load of ideas to get people involved. This event happened with four groups last year and next year I’m sure it will expand again. It has now gained its own momentum with local people, streets, and clubs already planning events for next year.

Our centres or “hubs” house a number of different activities under one roof so progression from one thing to another is easy, organic and not forced. Our approach at all of our centres is to have an open door and welcome visitors just to come in and have a look at what is happening. Often in the remote isolated estates where we work what little activity that does take place is restricted – just for pensioners or just for teenagers. We take the view that any activity is available to all who want to participate, and we’d encourage everyone to take part in setting up something new.

Our centres are also places where we connect with other local agencies and organisations, schoolteachers and heads participate and Police Community Support Officers are likely to be sat across the table and engaged in the same project – not a demanding authority figure. So if a parent needs to speak to the school about behaviour or attendance, it’s likely that one of our staff can make the introduction directly, passing on the connection from one trusted professional to another and widening the circle of social contact.

it is an approach to community development that permeates all we do at Community Links.

Read the report to find out more.

Mo was born in Somalia, came to the UK aged 8, set off in the wrong direction in his first race aged 14, trains just down the road from Community Links at the Newham and Essex Beagles, and is the first Britain ever to win gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m at a European Championship.

This Independent article explains that one of the biggest influences on Mo’s success has been his school athletics coach, who recognised the potential in an otherwise difficult young man, and over several years mentored him towards his first gold medal, ending up best man at Mo’s wedding. We’ve often said and shown how this kind of deeper one to one relationship has the potential to transform lives, and Mo is a high profile example.

In “Britain’s Everyday Heroes” a book we published three years ago with then PM Gordon Brown we celebrated the work of Dave Green, a local man who has been a coach with Newham and Essex Beagles for over fifty years, volunteering to support others and sharing his passion for athletics with succeeding generations. Dave has worked with hundreds of young people.  Some, but by no means all, have gone on to be champions but each was treated seriously and supported by Dave – he said “ We have had youngsters over here who have been in trouble, but it has worked out once you get them really interested. A lot of them are good kids anyway right from the start. The kids that come on their own are the ones that really need to be looked after more, because they have no encouragement from their families or anybody else… The kids are all very keen, and the more input you give to them the keener they get.”

The coaches running our own sports day – most of whom first got involved when they came along to play as kids – are having a similar effect on the lives of the hundreds of young people taking part. They might not all go on to win gold, but they’re all benefiting from the kind of tailored, encouraging support that most people take for granted from friends and family, but some live without.

When east London won the Olympics bid we said we wanted to see young Newham residents running the Olympics and running in the Olympics, not just picking up the litter. Sadly, Mo (and let’s claim him as an east Londoner), might be the exception in a borough where most have found it hard to get jobs or get involved in the games. In Newham – the youngest and most diverse borough in the UK – Mo the young, black immigrant growing up in a poor household would not stand out. But the uniqueness of his story, both amongst the UK’s potential Olympians and those running the games,  shows just how far we have to go before the Olympics really do transform east London.

The danger, as always, is that those with least to start with – often those that come through the door of Community Links – end up no better off. On the Today programme this morning, Newham’s Mayor Sir Robin Wales spoke up for 18,000 people in Newham who have never had a job, and it was pointed out that so far only 4% of the construction jobs on the Olympic site have gone to previously unemployed east Londoners.

Last week I went to a talk about the Olympics, given by an incredibly enthusiastic Newham Council employee. We were on top of a tower block not far from the site, with a group of young jobseekers on our back-to-work scheme. The views were fantastic, but many of the young people felt like it was a long way away. Shahid told me:

“I’m looking forward to watching it on telly, and coming down to Stratford to see the atmosphere. There’s going to be a lot of different people coming from all over the world – it’ll be nice. Job wise, Jobcentres all talk about it, but there’s not much information. I don’t know what the first step is. The only thing I’ve done is go into Newham volunteers. I haven’t heard of anyone getting a job. It hasn’t had any impact – I’ve got lots of friends and families around this area, I’ve lived here my whole life, and I haven’t got any connections with anyone who’s involved in the Olympics. “

When east London won the bid, we hoped people from Newham would be running the Olympics and running in the Olympics, not just picking up litter. Yet even litter picking is proving an elusive aim. Developers find it hard to recruit and retrain young local people who have often not been employed before. As the Mayor pointed out, this should be a spur to providing more intensive in-work support, overcoming these hurdles, not abandoning Newham’s youngsters altogether. Our recent research with young unemployed people in Newham showed that young people overwhelmingly want to work, but are held back by a lack of jobs and a lack of proper support.

If the new houses being built on the Olympic site are filled with people moving in to the area, and the jobs at Westfield don’t go to local jobseekers, then a once in a generation opportunity will have been lost. Tower Hamlets residents saw almost no gain from the development of Canary Wharf, as the much heralded but deeply unambitious ‘trickle down’ benefits to local people failed to materialise. The rhetoric around the Olympics has been much more positive, but there’s still a way to go before it becomes a reality.

We hope that in the Autumn of 2012, you will we be able to stop every resident in the five Olympic Boroughs, ask them ‘how did the Olympics impact on you?’, and get an enthusiastically positive response – whether it’s a new house, a new job, new shopping opportunities, new attitude to sports and healthy living, or just a new and positive experience. That would be a truly powerful legacy, but there’s a lot of work to do before it’s realised.

Matthew Taylor says the RSA could be called the think tank for the Big Society so closely are the visions aligned. So could Community Links and, I suspect, a lot of other organisations. This might signal an opportunity or it might be a warning. Few can dissemble from the warm words but is it really possible in practise to please so many people?

Thus far we’re promised some old ideas rebranded Big Society – the social investment bank for example , some reworked – the social action day was consumer tested last year and rejected , some relatively small new ones – funding the training (though not the employment) of community organisers for instance and, today, four Economy Size Societies in the Eden Valley, Windsor , Sutton and Liverpool. Worthy initiatives perhaps but scarcely amounting yet to a brave new vision. The more ambitious iterations of the Big Society are less clear and more worrying – Andrew Lansley claimed the label for his NHS reforms as did Michael Gove for independent schools.

Here my concern is less about the producer interests of the organisations on this patch – third sector agencies and social enterprises may well grow the business, but much more about the best interests of our service users, particularly the most excluded.  Some of the services on which the most vulnerable are most dependent are clearly threatened and could, under the cover of the Big Society, diminish significantly over the next couple of years. Not necessarily but very possibly.

Arriving for work at Community Links in Canning Town this morning I passed a long queue of people waiting for advice or practical support in this, one of the UKs most disadvantaged communities. The questions I ask of every government programme are the same today as everyday. “How does it meet their needs? How does it tackle poverty, not just money but poverty of opportunity, and what more could be done?” I’m not sure that what I know about the Big Society, or what its leading minister, Francis Maude, had to say about it last week,  helps me with the answers.

Criticism at this stage is of course just as empty as wide eyed enthusiasm. It simply isn’t yet time for the jury to return. We could however be thinking more about the criteria for   judgement, the basis on which we might   appraise the Big Society , challenge it, build it. Our Chain Reaction network has begun this work with a statement of principles sketching our vision of the good society, outlining the principles that might underpin that vision and suggesting the expectations, for ourselves and for government that might flow from this analysis.  We put forward this vision, these values and these expectations for ourselves and for government as a set of principles that might guide the judgements that we make and the work that we do.

We share it as a work in progress and invite others to contribute.

In a time of austerity, government can ill-afford the estimated £13 billion in public finance costs that will be incurred by the 2008 NEET cohort over their lifetimes. The blight on individual lives is even more appalling, young men who were NEET are three times more likely to suffer from depression, and five times more likely to have a criminal record, than their peers.

This week Community Links publish our new survey of young people not in employment, education or training. Our research suggests that the vast majority want a job and are actively looking for work.  All but two of thirty five NEET young interviewed were keen to work and actively looking for a job. A significant number were also highly qualified but struggling to find work in an increasingly competitive employment market.

“I’ve applied for loads of jobs but I’m up against people with lots more experience who are going for the same jobs as me,” said one young man with ten GCSEs, three ‘A’ levels and a BSC in Computing and Business. “I’ve been to graduate careers fairs where I’m competing for entry level positions with people who have been made redundant from Lehman Brothers and other big firms. It’s incredibly hard to get your foot on the ladder.”

The label NEET covers a diverse group; whilst just over a quarter of the young people interviewed had five or more grade A-C GCSE’s, a similar number had no qualifications at all. More than half of those with no qualifications had been excluded from school.

Only half of the young people who took part in the survey were claiming benefits, relying instead on support from family and friends. The absence of the most basic level of financial support made it extremely difficult for some to stay in education.  One 17 year old described how he had enrolled on a full time course but could not find the £20 per week needed to pay his travel costs. Poverty had a big impact; there have recently been calls to reduce or cut benefits for young people who refuse work or training. But a lack of cash is the very thing causing some young people to fail. Some who simply could not afford the cost of travelling to college, for instance, were abandoning education as a result. One 20 year old woman described how she had been unable to complete a Business Studies degree because she was sharing a two bedroom flat with eight other family members. “Five of us sleep in one room,” she said. “There was just nowhere to work or think and after 18 months I had to leave the course.”

Others from poor backgrounds were giving up on higher education because they were afraid they would be unable to repay high levels of debt accrued to cover tuition fees and living costs.

A more generous level of support for young people in education and training could cut the risk of young people becoming unemployed for extended periods, and reduce the long term cost to society. Taking away financial support by cutting benefits or other punitive measures is likely to have precisely the opposite effect to that intended and lead to greater demands on public finances in the long term.

Read the full report.