Mentoring deserves an audience

It is easy to mock the idea of ministers and Downing Street advisers ‘mentoring’ problem families. But the idea is onto something important. First of all, a lot of what these families need is help from someone who understands how to get on in the world. Someone there pushing and prodding them to start applying for jobs would be a healthy development. Second, as Alice Thomson points out in The Times today (£), it would act as a social bridge between the two nations of modern Britain. 

As with so many ‘big society’ schemes, this idea runs slap bang into the problem of how time poor most professional people are. But restoring the social fabric in this country is going to require creating a great sense of community.