News Insight: Lewisham -- growing up in the capital

For a sunny spring day during the Easter school holidays there are surprisingly few children or young people out and about in Lewisham in south east London. But for the forthcoming election, it is issues involving exactly this group that politicians are shouting about.

Traditionally seen as safe Labour territory, the battle in Lewisham is hotting up as uncertainty over the national election result grows and recent tweaks to local boundaries alter constitutency demographics.

Mirroring the problems faced by inner-city areas across the country, Lewisham has struggled with knife crime in recent years, while the borough's teenage pregnancy rates are among the highest in the country. Concerns have also been raised about a lack of jobs or training opportunities for school leavers.

Increasing provision

But there are also success stories, such as the children's social care services, which, under the overall leadership of directly elected Labour mayor Sir Steve Bullock, were recently given a glowing report by Ofsted.

Elsewhere, the £12.5m Lewisham Centre for Children and Young People, completed in 2006 and known as Kaleidoscope, was hailed as the first centre of its kind in the UK to bring together a raft of specialist services including health, disability, mental health, education and social care.

Meanwhile, a visit to the council-run Downham Health and Leisure Centre reveals a plush, modern setting that features a library with ICT facilities for group lessons with children. Patricia Foster, youth IT space team leader at the library, says positive steps have been taken over the past 12 years to increase provision for young people, with film, music and photography workshops all being run from the library.

But there is still a belief that more can be done to engage children in the borough and offer them a brighter future. Patricia Evans, a mother whose child is participating in a project at the centre, says she believes this is something on which politicians need to focus.

"There need to be more youth centres, something for them to do so they don't get into trouble," she says. "With the recession and unemployment they need to make more jobs available and more training that leads to sustainable employment."

It is this belief that more could be done that opposition parties are hoping to seize on. The Downham centre is based in one of the most interesting constituency battlegrounds, Lewisham East, where Labour stalwart Bridget Prentice is standing down, having first been elected in 1992. Since then a Labour majority that once stood at more than 12,000 in 1997 has been reduced to a 6,751 lead over the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats just 725 votes behind in third place.

Lack of role models

Labour candidate and deputy mayor Heidi Alexander is quick to dismiss suggestions the result is a foregone conclusion. She highlights increasing the availability of primary school places and raising the aspirations of young people in the borough as two important steps to be taken.

But she also notes concerns about youth violence. "A small minority is involved in gangs and that is very scary and worrying for parents who are bringing up their children in this area," she says. "The Labour Party recognises that solutions to these problems are very complex, and you need to bring together police, schools and the local community to solve them. I would like to focus on the difficult time when kids go from primary school to secondary school and get in with a new group of people."

In the neighbouring constituency of Lewisham Deptford, Tashomi Balfour, trainee manager with youth work charity Jump 2K, says some young people are entering the gang lifestyle in search of something they are not getting from their family. "Obviously young people wouldn't go into clear danger unless something appealed to them and it is the family unit in the gangs that they find themselves attracted to," he says.

This is something the Conservative candidate for Lewisham East, Jonathan Clamp, recognises. His website claims too many children in the area do not have working role models at home. "According to Lewisham Council's figures, there are as many as 17,000 children who live in households where there is no adult in employment," the site adds.

But, despite the fact that it has traditionally been the Conservatives who have come second in Lewisham East in recent years, this time around it could be the Lib Dems who pose a more serious threat to Labour's dominance in the area.

Lib Dem candidate Pete Pattisson says child poverty is the key issue in the area - pointing to the fact that child poverty in London runs at around 40 per cent but is closer to 50 per cent in Lewisham.

"Under the Labour government, the statistics have got worse," says Pattisson. "Poverty is the root of many of the problems young people face, particularly in relation to housing and educational achievement."

The Green Party, with its candidate Priscilla Cotterill, hopes to make some headway in Lewisham East.

Cotterill's profile on the party's website points to her own voluntary work with children and families.

"She has played a number of voluntary roles in the local community, from facilitating at a Boys' Brigade, to supporting vulnerable families," it states.

2005 GENERAL ELECTION RESULT

Leisham East: Labour majority 6,751

Labour: Bridget Prentice 14,263

Conservative: James Cleverly 7,512

Liberal Democrats 6,787

Green 1,243

Other 1,322

CHALLENGES IN LEWISHAM

Gang violence

Lewisham is one of 52 areas in England and Wales where the government is attempting to tackle knife crime through the Tackling Knives Action Plan.

Teenage pregnancy

Lewisham is among the London boroughs with the highest teenage pregnancy rates. It ranks third for the highest ratio of teenage pregnancies behind Southwark and Lambeth despite a recent fall in conception rates for 15- to 17-year-old girls.

Raising aspirations

Lewisham is one of five areas targeted in the government's Youth Works scheme to give unemployed young people from deprived inner city areas a six-month youth work placement, because it is seen as an area of greatest need.