Is forelock-tugging* still expected of the rude classes?
Somehow, I never got the hang of it myself. No offense meant mind. Perhaps it's in my DNA, the long line of 18th and 19th century "Ag Labs*" that family history research has uncovered; or maybe it's a faulty socialisation at school; or just a character failing - always was a member of the "awkward squad", a contrarian, wouldn't be told.
There's a flip-side to this aversion I have to forelock-tugging. I value the freedom of having my own thoughts, of making choices about my life, of associating with whom I choose ... to collaborate with others on projects that concern and affect us .... like espousing conductive education, insisting that my disabled daughter is entitled to 'a good life', working with others to build Paces Campus ... valuing voting in general elections ...
I'm happy to work with anyone who will work with me. I'm happy to work with anyone who'd like me to work with them (provided it's not illegal, immoral or fattening). And that includes lords and ladies, politicians and the public sector. And the Sheriff of Nottingham if needs be. Just so long as I am not expected to be grateful. To touch my forelock. Then something starts to twitch.
Which brings me to a tweet on Twitter this morning that caught my attention:
"Nottingham. most ambitious plan we've seen for co-located neighbourhood services? .Funded by NHS".
It was the "co-located" that did it. Paces Campus is the co-location, to put it that way, of services for children with disabilities and their families (in the jargon, a "community of interest") with services for the local community (a "geographic community" in the same jargon), and ideally it would be a good cross-sector mix of service providers).
To save you the trouble of checking out the link above (or another link here for more detail if you really must), the £22m Bullwell Joint Service Centre funded by the NHS, it seems, will provide a "one-stop shop" for
"Nottingham City Council services including a new play centre, youth club with indoor and outdoor sports facilities, Bulwell library and community centre and will be the base for the City Council's Bulwell Neighbourhood Management Team. The local Nottingham City Homes housing office will be situated there and there will also be a range of community health services run by NHS Nottingham City and two GP practices, with a total of eight GPs".
No doubt the good people of Bulwell need better services; no doubt the Joint Service Centre will deliver them. And no doubt the Council and the NHS will be pleased and the good citizens ("customers") will be duly grateful. No doubt there will be opening ceremony. Speeches. Will the Sheriff of Nottingham be there? Forelocks touched.
Because search as you will these two articles about this "most ambitious project", you will find no mention of the "ambitious" partnership role played by the the local third sector, voluntary groups, charitable companies, social enterprises or community organisations. True it is that local people have been "consulted", they were allowed to submit their photographs for an exhibition, "a community advisory group has been established to provide a link between the local community and the team responsible for the development of the centre", the views of local people will be "taken into account".
Yet in all the things that matter - the strategic planning, the governance and management arrangements, the decisions about how money is spent, the design of the building, the services to be included, who runs the youth club and the play-centre, it seems the role of local people and their organisations and associations and enterprises is to be merely "customers" - and grateful, of course, to the modern day Sheriff of Nottingham, provider of all good things.
Two twitches of my DNA:
- we really ought to be moving beyond this 19th/20th century model of paternalism in the planning and delivery of local public services
- how should that thought be applied to the running of schools and local education policy?
Notes:
forelock-tugging: a sign of respect and obedience but of subservience - an acknowledgement of the forelock-toucher's humble place in the class structure.
ag labs: a short-hand used in UK censuses for "agricultural labourers"