full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Hilary Cottam: Social services are broken. How we can fix them

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Well, the first thing I learned is that cost is a really slippery concept. Because when the government says that a family like Ella's costs a quarter of a million pounds a year to manage, what it really menas is that this sytesm csots a quarter of a million pounds a year. Because not one penny of this menoy actually touches Ella's flaimy in a way that makes a difference. Instead, the system is just like this costly gyroscope that spins around the families, keeping them stuck at its heart, exactly where they are.

And I also snpet time with the frontline workers, and I learned that it is an impossible staouiitn. So Tom, who is the social worker for Ella's 14-year-old son Ryan, has to spend 86 percent of his time servicing the system: meetings with colleagues, filling out forms, more meetings with colleagues to discuss the forms, and maybe most shockingly, the 14 percent of the time he has to be with Ryan is spent getting data and information for the system. So he says to Ryan, "How often have you been smoking? Have you been drinking? When did you go to school?" And this kind of iaonterticn rlues out the possibility of a noarml conversation. It rules out the possibility of what's nedeed to bliud a relationship between Tom and Ryan.

Open Cloze


Well, the first thing I learned is that cost is a really slippery concept. Because when the government says that a family like Ella's costs a quarter of a million pounds a year to manage, what it really _____ is that this ______ _____ a quarter of a million pounds a year. Because not one penny of this _____ actually touches Ella's ______ in a way that makes a difference. Instead, the system is just like this costly gyroscope that spins around the families, keeping them stuck at its heart, exactly where they are.

And I also _____ time with the frontline workers, and I learned that it is an impossible _________. So Tom, who is the social worker for Ella's 14-year-old son Ryan, has to spend 86 percent of his time servicing the system: meetings with colleagues, filling out forms, more meetings with colleagues to discuss the forms, and maybe most shockingly, the 14 percent of the time he has to be with Ryan is spent getting data and information for the system. So he says to Ryan, "How often have you been smoking? Have you been drinking? When did you go to school?" And this kind of ___________ _____ out the possibility of a ______ conversation. It rules out the possibility of what's ______ to _____ a relationship between Tom and Ryan.

Solution


  1. spent
  2. system
  3. build
  4. interaction
  5. normal
  6. situation
  7. family
  8. money
  9. rules
  10. needed
  11. means
  12. costs

Original Text


Well, the first thing I learned is that cost is a really slippery concept. Because when the government says that a family like Ella's costs a quarter of a million pounds a year to manage, what it really means is that this system costs a quarter of a million pounds a year. Because not one penny of this money actually touches Ella's family in a way that makes a difference. Instead, the system is just like this costly gyroscope that spins around the families, keeping them stuck at its heart, exactly where they are.

And I also spent time with the frontline workers, and I learned that it is an impossible situation. So Tom, who is the social worker for Ella's 14-year-old son Ryan, has to spend 86 percent of his time servicing the system: meetings with colleagues, filling out forms, more meetings with colleagues to discuss the forms, and maybe most shockingly, the 14 percent of the time he has to be with Ryan is spent getting data and information for the system. So he says to Ryan, "How often have you been smoking? Have you been drinking? When did you go to school?" And this kind of interaction rules out the possibility of a normal conversation. It rules out the possibility of what's needed to build a relationship between Tom and Ryan.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
million pounds 3
find work 3
social problems 2
ella lives 2
social services 2
spent time 2
critical resource 2
welfare states 2
older people 2
collective relational 2
beveridge models 2
bring people 2


Important Words


  1. build
  2. colleagues
  3. concept
  4. conversation
  5. cost
  6. costly
  7. costs
  8. data
  9. difference
  10. discuss
  11. drinking
  12. families
  13. family
  14. filling
  15. forms
  16. frontline
  17. government
  18. gyroscope
  19. heart
  20. impossible
  21. information
  22. interaction
  23. keeping
  24. kind
  25. learned
  26. manage
  27. means
  28. meetings
  29. million
  30. money
  31. needed
  32. normal
  33. penny
  34. percent
  35. possibility
  36. pounds
  37. quarter
  38. relationship
  39. rules
  40. ryan
  41. school
  42. servicing
  43. shockingly
  44. situation
  45. slippery
  46. smoking
  47. social
  48. son
  49. spend
  50. spent
  51. spins
  52. stuck
  53. system
  54. time
  55. tom
  56. touches
  57. worker
  58. workers
  59. year