Richard Benyon's Westminster Diary, March 12 2009

Richard Benyon MP • Published 12 Mar 2009 12:30 0 Comments

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WE HAVE acquired a growing habit in Britain of making the perfect "the enemy of the good."

An example: Mencap in Newbury has been told that half the staff covering activities must have an NVQ in childcare.

As they don't have enough staff or volunteers with these qualifications they have had to close certain activities that have been a lifeline for hard pressed parents of children with learning difficulties.

Now they have been told that they will need at least one person in charge who has a degree qualification. That means time, money and resources diverted from caring for vulnerable children.

What madness is this? There are times when I feel I have walked onto the pages of a Kafka novel. An organisation that does good is prevented from doing as much good by pettyfogging officialdom obsessed with a tick box, risk-averse culture.

The Government organisation that makes these decrees from on high is Ofsted.

I want to look into the eyes of the bureaucrat who thought such a change was a good idea. I want them to know of the unintended consequences of their actions. Is he or she the slightest bit worried that they may have disadvantaged thousands of vulnerable children and their equally fragile parents?

Some of the volunteers are qualified and practising teachers but their qualifications are not acceptable to the inspectors and box tickers from Ofsted.

A letter from a minister on the subject usually starts with the words, "This Government believes every child matters." Such stunning banality is as much use to us as saying that the Government believes that the sun rises in the east. I live for the moment that a letter from a minister says, "Thank you for drawing this to my attention. It does seem rather daft. I will make changes." What a breath of fresh air that would be.

The reason I raise the issue of Mencap is that I visited this inspirational organisation's Newbury base last week.

Despite the frustrations I have outlined, spending time with the Mencap team and seeing what they achieve is a joy and a privilege. It is a tonic to visit a place with such an energetic can-do culture.

They have so many volunteers they have had to start to ration them and they are constantly looking at clever ways of providing for people with learning difficulties and their families.

This blog appeared in Reading Chronicle 12 Mar 09

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