The institutions that help children into adulthood are failing

The sociologist Ken Roberts has described the experience of adolescence for children growing up in the mid-20^th century as being like boarding a train together. There would be a job, marriage, children, and a home of one’s own. Changes to the route could be made, but only at planned stops. There were first, second and third class carriages, so for some adolescence was much better catered for than for others.

Many young people were able to move up from third class to second or first. It was the experience of one of my predecessors as MP for Barnsley Central, Roy Mason. He literally worked his way up from the coal face to high government office.

Three generations on, growing up is more like a car journey. The car offers the appearance of freedom, but comes with a much high level of risk. Young people share the same mode of transport but now each travels separately. There is much less sense of sharing an experience. Contact is maintained through the internet and mobile phones.

Today’s path into adulthood is a more bewildering experience than the train ride of 50 years ago. Alongside William Beveridge’s social evils are new ones like loneliness, a sense of meaninglessness, and the decline of community.

The old collectivism has given way to a greater individualism. Millions of young people from low income families have been excluded from new opportunities. For many of them adulthood with its destination of a stable job and a home, marriage and children seems out of reach. The train has left the station.

New Labour in government embraced the car journey. In this newly mobile society, equality would be achieved through education and access to technology and skills. New Labour championed a meritocracy that would create social mobility for the most talented. However, this approach did not create greater equality.

Class still largely defines life chances. The approaches of both David Cameron and New Labour to social mobility have shared a similar failing. Both ignored the economy that was generating increasing inequalities of income, power and opportunity not only between classes but between generations.

Labour has settled into a way of doing politics that reinforces our disconnection from voters. We have lost touch with people’s lives and have suffered two devastating election defeats. We focus on individuals but not on their relationships. Too frequently we end up trying to tackle the symptom rather than deal with the cause.

Institutions shape social order. They evolve in society to govern people’s behaviour. The shift of our economy and society from industrial to post-industrial has left many of our institutions depleted, or redundant. In the decade ahead the challenge for the left is to identify those that are not working and renew them.

These institutions can be grouped into three separate phases of growing up.

The first is the early years of family. Labour’s priority should be to shift spending to invest in preventing the root causes of social problems, through targeted early years’ intervention. We need to provide affordable, high quality childcare, which is guaranteed for all parents of pre-school children from age one. And we need to give fathers the chance to be more involved in early parenting, allowing them time off for ante natal appointments and a four-week paternity leave paid at least at the national living wage.

The second is adolescence and the development of a sense of belonging. Adolescence is a time of change and uncertainty. Creating a sense of identity and belonging are a vital part of growing up. However, adolescents are vulnerable to anxiety, depression or self-harm. One million children suffer from mental illness, and many receive no treatment. It is a scandal. Treatment for mental illness should be as available as it is for physical illness. Approved psychological therapies need to be available in schools to all who need them. Further, the National Citizen Service could expand so that all 16 and 17 years olds get the opportunity to take part in a two-month programme following GCSEs.

The third phase of growing up is the transition into work. In the last decade, this has become more uncertain as more jobs have become low paid, insecure and casualised. Labour should now support extending the national living wage to workers under 25s. And with less than 5 per cent of under 24 year olds, and around 16 per cent of 25-34 years belonging to a trade union, more needs to be done to promote the benefits of trade union membership.

The young are taking the burden of economic insecurity and inequality, and the institutions that once guided them into adulthood are no longer effective. In the decade ahead as new technologies transform work and productivity there will be an opportunity for a great age of reform. Labour must become a credible and effective organisation capable of renewing and reforming the institutions that govern our economic and social life. It is not just the wellbeing of society at stake, but the future of Labour.

This piece is based on a longer piece by Jarvis in the Fabian Society pamphlet, Future Left: Can the left respond to a changing society?