Saturday 2 July 2011

Sensible Safety Net, Or Pointless Waste Of Money?

Teenage mothers with troubled backgrounds will get nurses to help them bring up their children.
Yes. Really.
The £1.5 million scheme is aimed at breaking cycles of poverty, antisocial behaviour and child abuse.

The West Sussex County Council programme will see 100 first-time mothers under 20 getting regular visits from their own nurse for their first two years of their child’s life.
After that, they are presumably free to go back to their inadequate lifestyles.
The women chosen will have no qualifications, low income and little support from family or friends. They are also likely to have suffered mental health problems or depression.
I had to re-read this – the first scan I took, I thought they were talking about the people they’d be recruiting as nurses..!
The cost will be met by the county council and the NHS.
No. No, it won’t. It’ll be met by the poor bloody taxpayer, as usual.

The only thing to decide is if this will result in a net gain for those taxpayers, and if it does, is the payoff worth it, or are there other considerations that might necessitate a different tack?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shortly after my son was born a "health worker" type appeared at the door. She then proceeded to lecture me about various things and the only thing stopping her being frogmarched out was my wife's "don't-you-dare-do-that" glare. When she got on to healthy eating I could take no more, because our state employee was about five feet and I would estimate about seventeen stone ~ you know the type, they no longer walk they shuffle/rock along.

So I asked her if she ate healthily or exercised regularly. Not used to being challenged, she said it wasn't about her. So I wondered if the credibility of the message was harmed by someone who does not appear to take notice of the advice. She actually said "Do as I say, not as I do" My mother used to say that to me when I was five. I thanked her for coming and showed her the door. Her protestations that she "had not finished" fell on deaf ears.

So I am not entirely sure that the nurses themselves will be shining examples.

Anonymous said...

The cost will be met by the county council and the NHS.

Both of which generate enormous sums of autonomous revenue, right?

My wife and I are middle-class (just) and are about to terminate her pregnancy because we cannot afford another child. I'm sure that nobody reading this will not appreciate just how ghastly and how awful this decision has been.

What are we to do? We cannot afford a place that's big enough because the house prices have been blown out by people who don't pay rent. I'm just about selling my kidney to prevent our first-born being sent to the local madrassa. It gets a bit sticky selling the other one.

I am delighted that the taxes we pay to keep us just above the breadline will look after the next generation of ASBOs to come along. And they'll do fuck all for us. The welfare state is going to kill this foetus, not us.

I want to know why these feckless retards weren't counselled to get rid of their damned unwanted babies. I want to know why money is being extracted from people who'd be relatively good parents to those who present a risk. I want to know who let this situation arise, and then eviscerate them and their offspring in an act of vengeance.

Sorry for being a bit emotional.

Captain Haddock said...

"Teenage mothers with troubled backgrounds will get nurses to help them bring up their children...."

" ... or are there other considerations that might necessitate a different tack" ?


How's about compulsory sterilisation for all those fitting the criteria ?

Saves the already hard-pressed Taxpayer a fortune, whilst cleaning up the gene pool .. Win, win I'd say ..

Anonymous said...

If the state constantly wipes these peoples arses then they will just keep having children.If the first one was really hard work they might not want any more.Just a thought.
Jaded

Ranter said...

I note the paper did not allow comments for this article, thankfully this blog does!

There really needs to be a programme of compulsory sterilisation across the UK.

Cue gasps of outrage from Grauniad types!

Captain Haddock said...

@ Ranter ..

"Cue gasps of outrage from Grauniad types" !

Which is precisely where the programme ought to begin ..

Then we might be able to see a little common sense, rather that dreary, endless PC crap ..

Anonymous said...

I would not be in favour of sterilising them. But any mother of a new-born should be required to demonstrate that she already has a home in which to raise her child, and an income to provide for its needs. Even if that means living with her parents.
Failure to do so should result in the baby being placed for adoption.

Many of these babies are only being born to act as a meal ticket, to unlock the free council house, and benefit income. Take that incentive away, and the teen pregnancy rate will drop significantly.

Monty

blueknight said...

For a moment I thought this was the same West Sussex County Council that has to cut £75M over the next three years.....

Anonymous said...

I remember reading a book years ago where everyone was sterilised by something in the water. When you wanted a child, provided you had the means to support it and be a responsible parent you were given the antidote. Sounds like a good idea to me.

Anonymous said...

Servants for the lower classes - bound to be a vote winner.

JuliaM said...

"She actually said "Do as I say, not as I do".."

I admire your restraint. She'd have exited my door at a very much faster speed than she came in!

" I'm sure that nobody reading this will not appreciate just how ghastly and how awful this decision has been."

Quite so. And the knowledge that you are making the right decision is not helped by the fact that those making the wrong decision are constantly protected from the consequences, is it?

You have my deepest sympathy for this awful choice you must make.

"If the state constantly wipes these peoples arses then they will just keep having children.If the first one was really hard work they might not want any more.Just a thought."

But a damned sensible one.

"For a moment I thought this was the same West Sussex County Council that has to cut £75M over the next three years....."

Why, I guess you might be right.

Anonymous said...

Do not they realise that these proposals will just feed the next cycle of poverty, child abuse and anti-social behaviour.

Not getting pregnant while in your teens is surely one of the better ways of escaping the benefit-dependant life that probably awaits these girls.

People say that the lower-classes don't have the same opportunities in life as others, but sometimes they limit those life chances through having a baby when they are nowhere near ready, financially, logistically and mentally.

Anonymous said...

>Do not they realise that these proposals will just feed the next cycle of poverty, child abuse and anti-social behaviour.

It's force of habit. This is the bedrock of socialism - it needs poor people.

@JuliaM - thank you.