Lorely's Life

Written by Lorely Burt MP and published in Solihull Observer on Thu 27th Apr 2006

I was intrigued to receive a phone message from the Sunday Times this week. It read 'As Solihull has one of the best records of good youth behaviour in the country, they'd like to talk to you about how Solihull has achieved this'.

This sent me scurrying to my contacts in the Police and Solihull Council: what statistics were these? Why didn't I know about this wonderful news? They knew they had achieved good results in their measured performance indicators, but were as mystified as I was.

Well apparently, Solihull has only about one fourth of the young criminals per head of population compared with some areas like Newcastle. The article wasn't published last Sunday, so I'm unable to verify these statistics, but it would seem to be the case that youngsters in the Borough of Solihull are amongst the best behaved in the country.

So I had to consider for this reporter why this might be. The reporter asked me whether the provision of good youth leisure facilities had contributed to the good behaviour. Since we have amongst the lowest spend on youth facilities in the country, I retorted that I thought our youngsters behaved well despite, not because of, the leisure provision they receive.

So why are our youngsters, North and South of the Borough, better behaved? We often hear people moan 'It's all down to the parents'. Well for once let's give some recognition to the care and discipline exerted by our parents in Solihull. Only a tiny proportion of our children ever offend, so the main tribute must go to parents.

I also think that the way we deal with youngsters once they are identified as offenders is important. Children who offend usually have many other problems including health, family and housing. The Youth Offender Team provides a multi-agency approach in which Probation, Police, Anti-Social Behaviour teams, Social Services and Youth Services to all come together to tackle the individual's problems instead of passing him or her from one agency to another.

Finally, I think a huge part of the difference between Solihull and other places is the people who live here. We are proud to live in this Borough, and in the main we pay a premium to do so. We care about our environment, and that includes a very low tolerance of anti-social behaviour.

We are also pretty vocal, and when we're not happy we are not shy to get onto whichever authority is responsible to sort it out. We expect good service, and in the main we get it.

We all have our occasional grumbles, but for once let's be thankful for where we live, for those agencies who strive to serve us to the best of their abilities and for our neighbours who report crime and anti social behaviour and who won't - and don't - put up with it.