Letters to the Editor: Intolerance must be challenged

Trevor Grant’s “good practice” article on engaging young people is worrying in its simplicity (‘Engaging the disengaged’, cyp Now, 1 May).

Identifying a disengaged young person on the basis of geography, time of day and the clothes they wear is a recipe for prejudice, which many under-supported young people have experienced in spades.

What of the in-depth analysis of local data and the intelligence that can be garnered from a reasonable length of time spent in the milieu, learning from local actors? What used to be called reconnaissance in the old days is important work – now dangerously neglected, as “time is money”.

Intervening at a group, comm-unity and institutional level is essential to challenging intolerance of young people, and redresses the narrow, individualising, “at-risk” approaches that tend to dominate today.

Graeme Tiffany, vice-chair, the Federation for Detached Youth Work


X-ray pilot was morally wrong

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has stonewalled questions on whether or not it sought the requisite ethical permissions to mount this trial for a month (‘UK Border Agency suspends asylum X-ray pilot’, cypnow.co.uk, 27 April).

It’s ironic that, despite its protestations, it now transpires it was so insensitive to the ethics raised by the trial, it didn’t even bother to obtain ethical consent.

We are pleased the UKBA has halted the pilot, but hope this is not a mere technicality. It is morally wrong, and we do not want to see it resurrected once the chorus of disapproval dies down.

Nushra Mansuri, professional officer, British Association of Social Workers


Children deserve broad horizons

It is acknowledged that admissions into university are disproportionately biased towards privately educated pupils and away from pupils from a black, Asian and minority ethnic or poorer socio-economic background (‘MPs urge priority on early years to boost university prospects’, cypnow.co.uk, 1 May).

The collaborative approach taken by the all-party parliamentary group in its Truths About Social Mobility report is to be welcomed. It recommends that work must be done from the earliest years all the way through education.

If we are to provide our young people with broader horizons, there must be collaboration between businesses, government, education institutions and local communities.

We need to take action today so that in the future we do not have to have this conversation about our universities.

Sandra Kerr, director, Race for Opportunity