Call for respect and end to �dependency culture�
By Rachelle Money

It may be too late to save Vicky Pollard, but teaching young people manners and an appreciation of other people's feelings will improve Britain, according to one charity leader.

Shaun Bailey, co-founder of children's charity My Generation, will tell the Social Evils Debate, a conference to be held at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh this week, what many grown-ups have long suspected - that young people are too selfish and should be taught about responsibility.

He told the Sunday Herald: "Manners teaches empathy. Manners is about respect. It's about seeing that other people's needs should come before your own. One of the real problems has been that it's all about them young people, and actually it's not."

Bailey also believes decades of political policy have led to fear and mistrust in British society. "Those on the left point to when Thatcher came into power and there was the birth of individualism, but those on the right look at the dependency culture. My community has suffered because so much in the last 10 years has been done in the name of the poor, and it has been anything but beneficial to the poor," he said.

As a Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Hammersmith, West London, Bailey believes it is society's dependency on the state which has led to communities feeling unable to help themselves.

With 18 years experience working in the poorest communities, he has come to the conclusion that projects need to help a range of people, rather than focus purely on young people.

He said: "We have a football club, and everyone was surprised when we set up the 25-and-over team first. Everybody said what about the kids,' what about the kids?

"These kids are trying to be these men, so we should concentrate on helping the adults first. Adults have a duty of care not just to their own children but to the children in the community."

He added: "What you find is nine times out of 10 adults want to do it but it comes back to dependency; the government has made us dependent on them. You can't talk to a child now without having a CRB Criminal Records Bureau, which vets those working with children. That's put a barrier between us and children when actually the most effective welfare system is your family and wider community."

Tomorrow Scottish children's minister Adam Ingram will make an announcement regarding Scotland's version of the CRB, Disclosure Scotland.

It is expected Ingram will tell parliament that a strengthened disclosure scheme will be launched to ensure those who may pose a danger to children are identified more quickly.

Since disclosure checks came into force in 2002, they have been blamed for discouraging adults from volunteering with young people.

Ingram said: "I know how valuable the work done by volunteers and helpers across Scotland is in helping to give our children the opportunities they deserve. Fun and challenging activities are part of growing up and essential to development so we have a duty not to needlessly hinder those who genuinely want to help our children with excessive bureaucracy.

"Robust safeguards must be in place for those at risk yet we must also ensure we foster a proportionate approach to vetting, with a simple and streamlined disclosure process that delivers a fair and consistent system that will be easy for people to understand and use."

The Social Evils Debate will be held on Thursday and is organised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.