I would first of all say that the problem we have as elected individuals in government—I don't know, and I assume it must be the same over here—is that we have very short time scales. The fact is that in the U.K. a government is elected for up to five years, but every year we have a budget and every year we have to look at making that budget work. That is 12 months, so basically government works on a 12-month cycle.
I don't know of anybody out there who works on a 12-month cycle, in the sense that lives are not lived for 12-month stretches; they're lived for longer. Let me give you an example of how that affects things.
I've just done this work with Graham Allen on early intervention for children, nought to three, which I think, by the way, is the single most important thing about family structure--getting kids balanced and right from day one, and trying to stop young girls having children early and blighting their lives. All of this is part of it. But I know that this program to put those broken families right is going to take a minimum of 15 years. I know of no government that has ever thought 15 years ahead. Most governments I know find it difficult to look at five years ahead, even three years ahead, and in some cases, when they get into difficulty, three weeks ahead. So that's what makes this a big problem for us as politicians.
I'm trying to take an area like this and persuade government and my own side and the others who are in politics to try to put this on one side of party politics and somehow accept that for the next 15 years, if we can agree that early intervention is a critical area, then these programs--we agree we can differ perhaps about some of the programs and we can set the values right. Somewhere along the line, we need to commit to a process of work that actually takes us through, regardless of who's in power, for maybe the next three or four elections.
You will see returns in two to three years and five years and eight years, but in truth, to take a child from nowhere to 15, 16, and 17--that's when you will see what happens to them as they form the next generation. First of all, there will be fewer lone parents in terms of teenage pregnancy. Then they will be more likely to form relationships, which is what happens after the early intervention program is successful. They will be less likely to be in crime, less likely to be unemployed, and more likely to stay at school. All of those things you will see gather through as they go. I know this because I've seen these programs at work elsewhere.
If you go to Colorado and have a look at what's going on there, they've been doing this for 20 or 25 years. It's quite breathtaking what Nurse-Family Partnership can show on their test groups, but it's taken them a long time to do it. It's done hugely through the voluntary sector, but with state government support and help. It takes some brave politicians to make those decisions.
My focus is that if there's anything to be done, it's the long-term stuff on early years. All the rest of the work we talk about here could be done now, but this is stuff that will take a period of time.