Last year, Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, promised more outreach workers to help the very poorest in Britain. That, of course, is not the Tory way. And now they think they’re certain to win the next general election, they’re no longer pretending to be David Cameron’s compassionate new Conservatives. Maria Miller, Shadow Minister for the Family, let one cat out of the bag with her plan to scrap outreach workers. Tim Jeffrey, chief executive of Spurgeons, the Christian charity that works with children, young people and families, said: “Our experience of running dozens of centres is that the most vulnerable will not always seek out services. Through building long-term, trusting relationships, outreach workers are invariably the vital link to hard-to-reach parents.” Let’s hope people remember that at the next election.
