Pleasing and progressive – King’s Speech shows courage and feeds some hope

Access to affordable and supportive housing plays an integral role in enabling people to move away from addiction and crime. (Funding for social housing was cut by more than 60% in 2010; cuts to supported housing was a victim of austerity measures introduced by the coalition government that year.)  This means that too many people leave prison with no fixed abode or pushed into inappropriate housing that does little to remove people from negative influences that have resulted in criminality in the first place.

As a result, we witness a revolving door in and out of the justice system. Housing that’s supported with strong healthcare, access to support and plans for long term stable, independent living will reduce crime in communities.

The announcement to build more homes is a positive step forward, and we welcome the continued focus on addressing long-term causes of homelessness and the inevitable cycle of addiction, and crime as part of this revolution in housing. It will be interesting to see how this debate is progressed in the House of Lords on Wednesday 22 July

Employment rights was given similar high-level footing at the start of the King’s Speech and then later in referencing the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, which was pleasing to hear and we hope it will be addressed head-on as we progress through the year. The intention to create a new body, ‘Skills England’, formed through partnerships, will bring about much-needed reform to the apprenticeship levy allowing young people to access the sort of skills that the country is crying out for – it can’t come soon enough.

Equally, it’s about securing more funding to build adult skills so people from disadvantaged backgrounds can get better qualifications to get better jobs.  We know the deep connection between poverty, addiction and crime.

Decent employment, career opportunities are central to giving people other options, rather than the criminal gang that may have been targeting and exploiting young people in their community for decades. Central to this is hope – hope that a decent living is possible, and that skilled work can be accessed through training and skills even if, (or especially if), opportunities of education have been missed during school years.

Careers education plays a significant role in harnessing ambition, and turning negativity into energy and commitment that can transform lives and end cycles of offending, or intergenerational insecure work and unemployment. We will be watching the Employment Rights Bill closely to see how it can support people facing barriers to employment to access work fairly.

As for the Mental Health Bill, it is a relief to hear that mental health will be given the same focus and attention as physical health – at long last. The Mental Health Act (MHA) is set to be modernised through legislation, which is something that The Forward Trust and all mental health charities will be keen to get involved with considering the difficult issue of addiction, co-occurrence and support.

We agree that reforming of the Mental Health Act is long overdue and are pleased to hear that offenders with identified mental health problems will be offered care as quickly as possible.

We would, however, like to see this incorporate increased routes to support and treatment for people living with addictions. Addiction is a serious mental health condition. It is long overdue its place in the wider context of mental health from data gathering and prevention strategies, and we are keen to support the new government to progress this.

Following the justice announcements last week, we are hyper-focused on how prisoners are empowered and enabled to turn their lives around. What happens after prison is critical to a productive and long-lasting outcome (for everyone). How we make prisons a place of rehabilitation and transformation needs to be at the forefront of policymakers’ minds. Not only to change cycles of offending, but to make communities safer and reduce crime.

So, an encouraging and timely agenda from the King’s Speech today and yes, there is a lot of work to be done but we have to start somewhere. And we believe that this speech shows an ambition to start the work. We look forward to its development and to the next stages of addressing poverty, crime and addiction in the UK.