Section:GDN 1N PaGe:31 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/8/2019 18:28 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Wednesday 7 August 2019 The Guardian •31Opinion
David BrindleNew minister has her
work cut out to ensure
charities don’t fall off
a cliff , post-Brexit
T
his week marks 12 months since publication
of the civil society strategy , committing
the government among other things to
work “alongside” charities to build a future
in which they could thrive. But even the
kindest observer would struggle to point to
any signifi cant progress.
The strategy promised charities “eff ective
involvement” in policy-making and a reaffi rmation
of their right to campaign. There would be a revival
of grant funding, as opposed to contracts for service
delivery, and increased distribution of dormant assets to
help sustain local initiatives. It was all positive stuff , if
not startlingly original, but little has come to pass amid
the turmoil of Brexit.
A measure of where charities stand in the political
pecking order was revealed when it took Boris Johnson
a full week to get round to appointing a civil society
minister. Diana Barran , a Tory peer, was eventually
handed the responsibility in one of the last twe aks to the
new administration. To have your
minister batting in the Lords rather
than the Commons is far from ideal,
albeit not unprecedented for the
voluntary sector.
The good news is that Lady
Barran, who also inherits the briefs
for loneliness and youth, is steeped
in the sector, having founded and
led domestic abuse charity SafeLives
and been a trustee of Comic Relief.
She comes well-regarded.
Sector leaders can also draw
comfort from the fact that the civil
society role has been decoupled from sport, making it
more focused. Barran’s predecessor, Mims Davies , who
has been moved sideways to a job at work and pensions,
always seemed drawn more to the sporty bits of her
unwieldy portfolio, which had been assembled around
the particular interests and talents of her predecessor,
Tracey Crouch.
Davies held the brief for less than nine months,
and Barran is the fi fth civil society minister since- Given the state of politics and the likelihood of
an early general election, it’s asking a lot to expect
Barran to put her stamp on the role in what may well
prove another short tenure. Yet there is an issue of the
moment that could win Barran her spurs. Charities
and voluntary organisations are increasingly anxious
about the loss of European Union funding after Brexit
and ministers’ continuing failure to produce plans to
replace it.
A “ shared prosperity fund ” was promised in the
Tory manifesto in 2017, and has been reannounced
several times since, but a proposed consultation has
failed to materialise. The fund would fi ll the gap that
will be created if and when the UK is no longer eligible
for its €2.4bn (£2.2bn) share of EU structural funding ,
designed to reduce inequalities. This includ es cash from
the European Social Fund (ESF), which supports many
charity-led projects in deprived areas.
Battling ESF bureaucracy has often proved deeply
frustrating, however, and a more user-friendly
replacement would be widely welcomed.
With her experience of grant funding, Barran has a
golden opportunity to help to end the uncertainty for
charities working in some of our poorest communities
– and to show an upside to life outside the EU.
David Brindle is the Guardian’s public services editor‘A shared prosperity
fund was promised
in the Tory manifesto
in 2017, but a proposed
consultation has
failed to materialise’Mentoring
How older
people are
helping care
leavers fi nd
their feet
Jessica MurrayD
espite the age gap,
Kai Anderson, 20,
and Honor Atkinson,
54, have plenty in
common. They both
enjoy gardening,
dogs and going for coff ee, and with
Anderson expecting his fi rst child,
they have even bonded over nappy
choices, as Atkinson has three
children and three stepchildren.
Atkinson is Anderson’s “grand-
mentor”. She’s part of a project
that pairs up volunteers aged 50
and over with young care leavers in
England to support them on their
route to independence. Describing
the moment they fi rst met, Atkinson
says: “Kai stood out for me because
of his charisma. He’s very articulate
and also very proactive. He knows
what he wants, he just wasn’t sure
how to get there at the time.”
The scheme, run by Volunteering
Matters, a charity founded in 1962 to
make volunteering more accessible
and eff ective, aims to replicate
the grandparent role to draw on
the benefi ts of intergenerational
relationships. Volunteer manager
Kelly Israel says: “Grandparents
are one generation removed, and
they come with life skills, patience,
resilience and determination. It’sthis perfect blend and dynamic – it
just works.”
The grandmentoring scheme
started 10 years ago, and is now
running in eight locations in
England, including in Milton Keynes
where Anderson and Atkinson live.
The charity works in partnership
with local authorities , and this year
expects to match up 500 young care
leavers and grandmentors. Anderson
was referred by his personal advis er,
who took over from his social worker
when Anderson left the care system.
Anderson says the fact that Atkinson
is giving up her time free of charge
is important. “A lot of the time, I
fi nd myself reluctant to engage with
someone who’s just working with me
9-5. This is a lot more laid back and
there’s integrity behind it.” He meets
Atkinson weekly for a catch-up, but
will also message her in between
whenever a problem crops up.
Anderson was taken away from
his mother when he was three and
moved in with his grandparents.
“I did quite well academically and
socially, and it wasn’t until my
grandad passed away when I was 14
that everything went downhill in my
life,” he says.
“So mental health, drugs,
homelessness, poor education- it was self-destruct mode and I
couldn’t see myself coming out of it.
A lot of professionals I was working
with kind of gave up on me.”
He eventually ended up in semi-
independent supported living, where
he stayed until he was 18. When that
support ended, he managed to fi nd
his own place to stay, but until he
joined the grandmentor scheme,
he says, he was struggling with his
mental health.
▲ Honor Atkinson, who has
become a volunteer ‘grandmentor’
to 20-year-old Kai Anderson
PHOTOGRAPH: ALICIA CANTER/THE GUARDIANVolunteers aged 50-plus
are paired with young
adults to help them en
route to independenceClare in the community Harry Venning
Five months into their mentor-
ship, Anderson is transformed.
He’s working in a job he loves, as a
behavioural mentor in a high school, a
role Atkinson found and encouraged
him to apply for. He’s learning to
drive, saving money and organising
antenatal classes in preparation for
the birth of his daughter.
Atkinson says: “He’s become
calmer, he worries less about things,
and he has more confi dence. It’s
a supportive relationship, but it’s
about helping him to achieve his
goals himself.” A trained counsellor,
Atkinson says she loves working
with young people. “They keep me
young, and I love their vibrancy.
[The mentees] are in this situation
through no choice of their own, and
I wanted to do something to help get
them out of that, and achieve their
full potential.”
Volunteering Matters says 82%
of young people involved in the
grandmentors programme are in
education, employment or training
six months after leaving the care
system, compared with just 29% at
the start of the programme. With
40% of care leavers in England not in
education, employment or training,
the charity is in discussions with
other local authorities about rolling
the scheme out more widely.
Back in Milton Keynes, Anderson,
is positive about the future. “Now
I feel a lot happier, I can sleep a
lot easier. If I am worrying about
something, I can talk to Honor about
it and know that I can fi nd a solution.”РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS