The left must be concerned with the state of the state

The appalling conclusions coming out of the report into child sexual abuse in Rotherham should concern us all. On an individual level at least 1,400 people have had their lives shattered. These people were some of the most powerless and often the most reliant on the services provided for them by the state. They have been let down and let down badly.

So too were many of the front line workers within the state apparatus who tried to support them within the system and found the system working against their ability and desire to do so.

If – like me – you believe in the state as a tool with the power to do good, then we too should feel let down. But vitally, we are not the victims. We cannot act like we are under attack and we cannot respond by blindly circling our ideological wagons.

There will be those who will use this tragedy to attack the size of the state and its role in our lives. As they did with the NHS in the Mid Stafford case. And when we are talking about cherished institutions then it is natural for us to wish to defend them. Natural but wrong. The response to the right using this as an attack on the state as a tool is not to defend it where it has failed but to learn from those failings.

When the state goes wrong, those who most believe in it as a good should be the last to defend those mistakes. We should instead be the first to ask for action, answers and improvements.

I don’t believe the answers lie in a smaller state,  but I do believe it lies in an improved and improving state. One which has a different and more equal relationship with those who depend on it. The state has a great deal of power. Where this become hoarded for the protection or convenience  of state actors and systems it become remote from the needs of the individuals it services.

Ultimately, the best role of the state is to enable and empower in a way that no other mechanism has the ability to do. That is vital to improving the life chances of our people and ensuring that it can continue to do so means recognising where it’s power should be, where it can be given away and where it can and must be improved.

The power of the state must be devolved. Oversight of the state must be more widespread. Silos must be broken down to match the experiences of those who use multiple services. The most important person in any system must be the user at the heart of it. The child in residential care must always have more power over their life than the Director of Children’s’ Services. The many excellent DCSs I have met would be the first to agree with me.

The best defence of the state is to get it right as often as possible, to accept that when it goes wrong it must be fixed in an open and transparent way and to never protect the system at the expense of the people.

Emma Burnell is Contributing Editor of LabourList