CORRESPONDENCE
| Date | 01 December 1953 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1953.tb01715.x |
| Published date | 01 December 1953 |
| Author | K. H. B. FRERE |
CORRESPONDENCE
DEAR
SIR,
It is unfortunate that
Mr.
Heginbotham’s enthusiasm for the Youth
Empioyment Service has made him read my Haldane Essay as an attack
on the present service, and by inference on the local authority Youth Employ-
ment Officers who are largely responsible
for
operating it.
This interpretation misses the essential point that a Haldane Essay
is
an academic exercise and not necessarily an excursion into practical politics.
My
essay (as its title implied) was an attempt to review the history
of
Dual
Control in the Youth Employment Service in order to explain its present
hybrid structure, and to suggest a logical (but not necessarily immediately
practical) improvement of the administrative arrangements.
I
agree with
Mr.
Heginbotham that another big upheaval
so
soon after the many changes
caused by authorities taking up “now
or
never” powers under the 1948.
Employment and Training Act might do the Service more harm than good
-but that does not mean that the present arrangements are perfect. For
example, the recently published report of the National Youth Employment
Council for 1950-53 calls for closer co-operation and integration in the Service
and even mentions
“
the danger of parochialism
of
outlook.”
The improvement of techniques did not come within my terms of
reference, and
I
am certainly averse to stirring up the barren argument
about whether “we
or
they” do this work better solely because we are
central
or
local government officers. There
is
probably much the same
proportion of
good
officers in both camps, and both have their share
of
ineffective officers. My concern was solely that the individual should have
the best possible framework within which to act.
Yours faithfully,
K.
H.
B.
FRERE-
10,’12
Bristol
Road,
21sr
Decernher,
1953.
Weston-super-Mare.
422
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