The House of Lords Citizenship and Civic Engagement Committee publishes its report.
The creation of a country in which every one of its citizens feels secure, engaged and fulfilled must be a primary objective of a successful modern democratic nation. This would be a country in which everyone feels that they belong, and to which everyone feels they can contribute.
The Government should also initially change the existing list of values to:
“Democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and respect for the inherent worth and autonomy of every person.”
The values which underpin our society need to be learned and understood. We have found that citizenship education, which should be the first great opportunity for instilling and developing our values, encouraging social cohesion, and creating active citizens has been neglected.
Volunteering is a strength of the UK, but would be helped by more facilities being made available for civic activity. The Government should create an Access to Volunteering scheme and consider including information on volunteering in pensions packs. They should also ensure that front line staff at Job Centre Plus encourage job seekers, who wish to volunteer, to do so.
While there has been a dramatic increase in the level of volunteering among the young, democratic engagement remains stagnant. The turnout in general elections, though improving, is still much too low, especially among the socially disadvantaged and the young.
Communication between citizens and government at all levels is often poor. People, especially in deprived areas, must be made to feel that government is speaking directly to them, working with them and for them, and paying attention to their needs and wishes.
Forming a single society from different generations, sexes, social and ethnic groups, and those of different faiths requires integration—a word which itself can carry threatening overtones of a requirement to surrender aspects of their way of life.
There is a broad lack of vision on the subject of citizenship. There appears to be no clear co-ordination across Government, no real evaluation to find what works, and no long term commitment to initiatives—many of which appear not to outlive the minister who initiated them. There is an urgent need for coherent and sustained action on citizenship. Austerity is not an excuse for doing nothing. As Dame Louise Casey told us:
“You can always do things, and not everything costs money.”
Credits:
Created with images by Calum Lewis - "Tea time" • Morgan4uall - "justice statue dublin ireland goddess justice justice" • Tom Parsons - "Giving" • John Schnobrich - "together now" • johnpotter - "aerial view city" • BiljaST - "english english language language" • iStockphoto - "Secondary School Digital"