Lesley Riddoch: Constitutional change won’t help kids

Published on Monday 20 February 2012 12:32

Early years care must be properly funded, but it wouldn’t take a referendum to do so, writes Lesley Riddoch

Will independence stop Scottish babies being born with genetic damage caused by poverty? If Scots can possibly tolerate another question, this one might radically focus popular debate.

We’ve had Alex Salmond’s independence question. We’ve had a possible second devo max question. We’ve had a weekend to mull over David Cameron’s recent non-question, and the taxman’s PAYE questions about Rangers FC.

The question we have not yet asked is one which can put the dry mechanics of constitutional debate into a human context and get top political Scotsmen to focus on life, not power.

Not my words but those of Alan Sinclair, a founder of the Wise Group – Scotland’s largest social enterprise – and adviser to the last UK government on skills and training. After being awarded a CBE for his efforts, Sinclair had a Damascene conversion to the cause of early years intervention and coined the phrase about Scotland trying (and failing) to retrofit life skills on to damaged teenagers instead of equipping them properly from birth. He also observed that countries with the most evidence about the benefits of early years intervention – Britain and the US – have done least about it, while those with fully-funded early years care for decades – the Nordics and north Europeans – gathered the smallest evidence base before deciding to act.

In short, Sinclair suspects the laudable-sounding search for more evidence is acting as a dead hand on progress in Scotland – which sits, after all, in one of the wealthiest nations on earth.

It’s surprising, then, that this Work Foundation fellow has just completed a study to see how “just get on with it” nations like Finland and the Netherlands work better for children. His report published today, Early Years and Transformational Change, suggests constitutional change could be far less important for our children than a straightforward change in political priorities which could start tomorrow.

Family centres exist in most Dutch neighbourhoods – the centrepiece is a mother and baby wellbeing clinic which delivers support from birth until school age. Clinics are staffed by doctors who attend to health, social and emotional development, motor skills, language and general health, and nurses who concentrate on baby care, parenting, feeding, toileting and sleeping. Support starts early and is truly comprehensive for all babies and all parents. From this solid base of trust gained through regular and personal contact in a universal system, special help can be offered when it’s needed.

Sinclair observes: “The health system in Scotland looks at technical health. In Holland, it looks at the child in the round: its development, language, emotional life and how its parent(s) do or don’t cope.”

Similarly, in Finland, a maternity grant is made available to all mothers on condition they register the pregnancy and attend the local health centre. This “everyone” system of health-based care allows the most needy “someone” to be reached quickly without stigma or overbearing surveillance. In Scotland, health is a totally devolved area of policy – although the conditions attached to maternity grants are currently reserved to Westminster. Reform Scotland has proposed this split should remain in its submission to the Scotland Bill consultation. Mind you, without clear plans on tackling child poverty, why would control of maternity benefit look like a power worth fighting about? This is precisely where the current constitutional debate is failing us – powers first and purpose second.

During his inquiries, Sinclair asked a colleague who spent half her life in Holland and the second half in Scotland to sum up the difference between the two nations. “In Scotland you tolerate children,” she said, “in Holland we love children.”

It hurts to hear that. But her anecdotal evidence is backed up by international study. In 2007 Unicef published wellbeing statistics through 40 different measures. Holland came top with Finland slightly behind. The UK ranked alongside Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – ex-Soviet satellites. An estimate put Scotland below the UK score. How will the status quo, devo max or independence change this?

Last year, I asked then children’s minister Angela Constance when early years care and intervention will be properly funded. She said we must wait until Scotland becomes independent and controls all fiscal levers and all available income streams. I asked if that meant another set of Scottish children will meantime grow up without a fighting chance of happiness or equality. The long pause that followed (along with both questions) were omitted from the final broadcast because the BBC now limits “random” mention of independence in non-news programmes.

This is precisely the wrong way around. Can constitutional change improve literacy, health, business innovation and children’s wellbeing? And how – beyond the oft-presumed post-independence feelgood factor?

Brazil is the eighth-largest and fastest-growing economy in the world. It gained independence from Portugal in 1822. It is also the world’s most unequal society according to the “Gini coefficient” inequality index. Two hundred years of independence haven’t tackled that.

Mind you, just five places behind sits the UK – the most unequal society in Europe. Three hundred years of political union haven’t tackled that either. As things stand, an independent Scotland would usurp Britain’s inequality crown. Mind you, devolution alone is just as unlikely to create a new dynamic for social change.

So here’s the thing: Constitutional experts want to know whether a yes vote in the referendum without Section 30 powers would constitute a legal mandate for separation. I want to know how independence will transform Scotland through an early years revolution.

I’ve a good idea whose question is likely to be super-served with answers, column inches, analysis and energetic obfuscation in the months ahead.

Alex Salmond was right when he dismissed David Cameron’s gentlemanly sabre-rattling over the loss of UN Security Council membership in an independent Scotland. Scots are more concerned with the impact of independence on their everyday lives.

So I want to know how babies, children and young mums will gain resources, attention, respect and profile as the direct result of a yes vote in the referendum. I’d like the same question answered by supporters of the status quo.

And if those answers reveal unity across the constitutional divide through manifest lack of interest, I will conclude, like Sinclair, that Implementation Deficit Syndrome is Scotland’s real constitutional problem – nothing more and nothing less.

Comments

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30

florian albert

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 09:34 PM

I find that a comment posted on Monday has been removed. I am genuinely bemused. I made, what I regard as legitimate criticisms of Lesley Riddoch's article. I pointed out; that she was as guilty as any other for concentrating on the constitutional issue to the exclusion of all else; that she was suggesting other countries, very different to Scotland, as role models; that her support for 'early intervention' was based on faith not evidence. You can disagree with, and dispute, each of these views but I can't see they merit being deleted.

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29

Danielrober2

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 08:51 PM

# 28 Tolmie ........................ To those of us with kids its good to see articles on other subjects. Some people what to build glory, take on history or burn the candle both ends and in the middle. Many more of us just want a decent country for our kids, which is fairly and clearly governed. It may be boring but helping parents early on helps build a better place to live.

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28

Tolmie

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:51 AM

Dear Scottishperson newspaper, please stop publishing this rubbish. Your ever-declining readership isn't a sign that people are stupid, but a sign that you are out of touch, not to mention a bit p1sh.

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27

famous15

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 12:00 AM

In certain European countries children are exploited for alms. Here we have a strange story of children being exploited to save the Union Dividend . I do not fully trust Riddoch or her motives here..In fact I do not fully understand what she wishes us to do. I think also that multitasking is not only possible but desirable;we can pursue constitutional change and rescue our children from the neglect of over half a century.

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26

Lies and stats

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11:13 PM

The disgraceful level of poverty in this country is the responsibility of Westminster not Holyrood. Once the coalitions welfare changes are in place it will only get worse. So I don't understand the article we won't get any change other than a worsening oneuntil we can set our own priorities as a country.

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25

Anagach

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 08:54 PM

Implementation Deficit Syndrome is Scotland’s real constitutional problem ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Not really. The poverty and failure to build a better system to deal with it are results of the current system, Independence may change that, certainly if Scotland learns from the smaller nations Netherlands, Finland, etc that will help, but one thing is for certain, the current system should be doing so much better but probably wont change.

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24

flyinngscott

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 08:04 PM

Headline scaremongering hootsman, par excellence. Why not go the whole hog, and say Independence will result in babies dying by the thousands. Why not headline " Rangers tax fiddling means poor families starve" ?

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23

Ron Greer

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 07:19 PM

22---The way this problem was dealt with by Westminster before devolution and by Holyrood afterwards has been deplorable. I am not an SNP man and their version of a 10% scale model of the Titanic, hiiting a 1o% scale model iceberg is not my idea of a solution, let alone Nirvana. To that extent I agree with you. The SNP is reneging on the social inequality issue just as much as Labour did and frankly I don't think the coalition are even at square one, or even care much. Bufotrd von Stomms experience with the bureaucracy is mirrored in other areas of the administration. With independence there will be no hiding place and the SNP will be brought to account,

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22

The Tin Man

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:47 PM

20 Ron Greer: as the article points out, it has nothing to do with procrastination about the current location of various parliamentarians, because it is real politics about things that actually matter, and, in this instance, the The people we elected to the Edinburgh parliament are entirely responsible.

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21

Ron Greer

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:42 PM

18 I agree with your last sentence, but it is one of the main arguments used by Unionists in attacking the concept of an independent Scotland and I was merely being sarcastic.

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20

Ron Greer

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:39 PM

18---Good to know that Scotland as an indepoendent nation would not be 'too small' to provide good early years education.

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19

florian albert

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:05 PM

Comment removed by moderator

18

The Tin Man

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 06:01 PM

17 Ron Greer: The infrastructure is a lingering benefit from the USSR, paying for the best places is market capitalism. It has nothing to do with State population size, and quite frankly, that is a most bizarre, and blinkered argument.

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17

Ron Greer

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 05:35 PM

15----Aye you'd think the only broadminded internationalist country in the world ( Engelbritland) could do better than countries even smaller than Scotland. Perhaps its because they became independent and used their own resources to prioritise their own solutions to their own problems?

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16

allymax

Monday, February 20, 2012 at 02:49 PM

Oh-oh, look-out; Lesley Riddoch trying to scare the voters, and fleg' the bairns!

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