Questions
by Paul Hazelden

Introduction

Our aim at Crisis Centre Ministries is to build relationships with the people who comes to us, with the intention of being able to help them move forward and discover a better life.

Inevitably, quite a bit of our work involves helping people get access to the help which is provided (or which is supposed to be provided) by the state. And we find that various bits of the system do not work the way we understand they should, or the way they should work sometimes seems wrong.

We do not want to pretend we have all the answers. But we cerainly have a number of questions. And by asking these questions, and by using them to build a dialogue with the people who can influence, change or help to shape the system, maybe we can play some part in helping build a system which works more effectively to help those who it is supposed to be helping.

The Issues

The key areas where we have concerns and questions can be summarised as follows.

• Policies and procedures associated with using the Criminal Records Bureau ('CRB').
• The provision of alcohol and drug treatment in Bristol.
• The introduction of the 'Individual Budget'.
• The support given in Bristol to homeless pregnant women.