Rebels with a cause can beat moral crisis

When the banking crisis first struck, in 2008, there was a short moment when we could have rethought much of how we all bring up our children and young people. It seemed so obvious to some of us that this was not just a financial crisis, but a moral crisis. Yes, the national budget was clearly shot to ribbons and the financial sector had clearly been deeply irresponsible.

But perhaps all of us should have carried some of the blame – the way in which collectively we have promoted growth as the ultimate end, the way in which we have allowed materialism and possessions to become the theme tunes everyone whistles.

We allowed our world to develop where celebrity is often valued above morality – we have maybe railed against it, but we still allowed it to happen.

Back in 2008, I wondered whether we could use the moment to create something good. I recalled the famous speech that Tony Blair gave, shortly after a previous world-changing moment in 2001, when he shared with his party conference his ambition for a radical rethink around international relations.

He said then: "This is a moment to seize. The Kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us re-order this world around us."

In international relations, no such rethink really happened, I fear. And in our sector, in 2008, we also failed to step up to the mark. We failed in two major areas.

First, we failed to plan together how to manage the inevitable reductions in budgets. After a decade of growth, it was clear that we would have to face a decade of reduction. The previous government failed to acknowledge this and, therefore, did not provide the leadership that could have enabled us to
work out together creative ways of doing more with less.

Then the new coalition government arrived, imposed reductions much faster than expected and failed again to provide leadership in the thinking. Cue a burst of competitiveness between health and local authorities, and overt rivalries between charities. Cue a headlong rush by many local authorities towards short-term easy cuts, especially in early intervention services.

Second, we failed to face the moral challenge. What role could our schools play in promoting a different morality among the coming generation, so they manage to lead our country better in the future? Could we rethink the support we give to today’s families and today’s young people, so they might develop
a value base more likely to promote the survival of our species and the creation of a more sustainable society in the UK?

Instead, we have a curriculum review that seems rooted in 20th century thinking, and little else new.
We failed. Many people – politicians, and children’s sector leaders – used the reductions in budgets as an excuse for not being able to change things. But we don’t need money to bring about changes. We need the will and we need the ideas.

In the late 1940s, after the massive economic destruction of World War II, our nation reconstructed itself. With budget deficits that dwarfed today’s, the leaders then created the welfare state.

They constructed the NHS. New organisations were established from the wreckage of war, to promote international understanding, to defend human rights and promote the new values. Amnesty International was born, as was Oxfam, and the United Nations. People did not think about what could not be achieved – they took an idea and made it real.

It is that spirit that we need in our sector today. We need some real pioneers, ready to start up something new and challenge the orthodoxies that brought us to today’s sorry economic and moral state. We need rebels, ready to promote ideas that may take a generation to bear fruit. Out with the old –
in with the new.

Sir Paul Ennals is chair of the Children’s Workforce Development Council