THE FLEXIBLE AWARD SCHEME

    CITIZENSHIP UNITS


INTRODUCTION
These citizenship units are divided into a number of headings. Any combination and number of these units may be attempted in any order. Clearly, however, consideration should be given to how you are going to present the course and which subjects will fit best together for your group. Even with a subject such as Citizenship the emphasis should be on creating an interest rather than delivering a rigorous series of facts. Even Citizenship can be enjoyable. The categories are given in the table below and you can jump to that section by clicking on a given subject:
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Discussion & Activities National and Local Government
Parliament Law and Enforcement
Elections International citizenship
Voluntary Organisations Life skills







Discussion & Activities
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Units 1-4 are intended as an introduction to the subject with the discussion concentrating on what the group already knows.Do not present this material but, involve the group in discussion as much as possible. Try probing their knowledge of the subject and attempt to encourage them express their opinions.
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Unit 1: Discuss "The need for rules within society"
Unit 2: Discuss "The need for a ruling body"
Unit 3: Discuss "The need to finance a society"
Unit 4: Discuss "The meaning and nature of authority and means of enforcing rules"
Unit 5: Devise a simple but preferably unfamiliar format for a game, which has up to ten rules. Get the team to play their game and then reconsider how it could be improved by modifying the rules. Choose a rule and ask them to consider the effect of dropping it. Would the game still be playable?
Unit 6: Collect suitable newspaper stories about court cases where the sentence has been reported. Tell the group the crime (but not the sentence) and ask them to act as judges, devising sentences they feel suitable. Compare them with the sentence actually given and ask the group to say if they consider it was too light or too harsh.







National and Local Government
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Unit 7: Investigate the responsibilities of national and local government. Label charts illustrating these. Understand how local government can have a single tier in some places and be multi-tier in others and what that means.
Unit 8: Investigate the major items of national expenditure. See which items were increasing and which were falling over the period 1993-1995, for which data is available. Label the largest slices of the pie chart with their categories. This can be achieved by reading values from the bar chart. Does the group agree with the way the government spends our money? If not what would they change? Investigate what a typical local authority spends its money on.
Unit 9: Investigate how Government raises the money it spends. Label the copy of the chart provided with the government's major sources of income. Discuss how the government can spend more than it raises and say why it does this. What are the consequences of doing this? Get each boy in the group to work out how much tax he pays a week on average. (They will possibly associate tax only with direct income tax and not with indirect tax such as VAT which they all pay.)
Unit 10: Ask the group to play the role of advisors to the Minister of the Environment in a specific situation. The emphasis should be on participation and the reasoning by which they arrive at decisions.

Unit 11: Ask the group to play the role of a local government planning committee making decisions about the design of a new town.
Unit 12: Introduce the group to the PC game SlMcity. It is a computer game that simulates the building and development of a city. Clearly one or more PC's are required. Someone in the group must be familiar with the game to explain the rules. If you have enough PCs split the class into groups of no more than three and let them compete for approximately 15 minutes and then compare how well each group has done. If you only have the one PC available let each group play for 5 minutes and compare results. Observe the decisions they are making and briefly review their strategy afterwards. (Clearly the instructor must be familiar with the game)
Unit 13: Ask the group to play the role of a local council that has to make substantial cuts in their budget. Give the group a list of items and their cost. The total list should add up to more than the total budget. Ask the class to put the items in order of priority and say which they would cut and why.







Parliament
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Unit 14: Understand the different parts of the Houses of Parliament and the role of the Monarch. Understand the relation between Government and the Houses of Parliament.
Unit 15: Understand how laws are made. Write out a (flow) chart showing how a bill (the procedure for making a law) goes through Parliament.
Unit 16: Understand role and powers of the House of Lords. Consider the roles of the Law Lords and Lord Bishops. Discuss whether the Lords should be reformed and if so how and why.
Unit 17: Understand the difference between a written and unwritten constitution. The United Kingdom has an unwritten constitution that is defined by historical precedent but the United States has a constitution that is written. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. Look at a copy of the constitution of the United States find within it the Bill of Rights. Discuss if the United Kingdom needs a similar system.







LAW & ENFORCEMENT
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Unit 18: Understand the difference between criminal and civil law and how it is administered. Discuss an example of each which you might easily find in the newspapers, or make up a list and ask them to say which category they fall into. Understand the system of courts and, using some examples, discuss how different types of cases would be dealt with under this system
Unit 19: Discuss how making an activity illegal makes it both

- harder

- easier

for police to control. Discuss the American experience of the "prohibition" in the 1920's when alcohol was made illegal by changing the constitution of the USA. Was it a success or failure?







ELECTIONS
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Unit 20: Understand the function of constituencies, parliamentary candidates, MPs and the Electoral roll. Discuss what happens when you go to vote. Draw a map of your local constituency and record the most recent poll results.
Unit 21: Discuss some different possible electoral systems (e.g.

- first past the post

- single transferable vote

- multiple MP constituencies.)

Ask the group to choose which system they think is fairest.

Investigate the new electoral system that has been adopted for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.

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Unit 22: Investigate political parties that have fielded candidates locally. (E.g. Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Welsh Nationalist Unionist, SDLP, Green Party) Discuss what they stand for and the major differences between them. Ask the group to say what they would stand for if they were to form a party. Create a name, some sound bites and policies for this new party;






INTERNATIONAL
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Unit 23: Investigate the United Nations. Find out when and why it was formed, and briefly say what it does today. Who belongs to it, and how is it paid for? Discuss what the role and need for the Security Council. Which countries are members? Understand why the former League of Nations that preceded the UN failed to stop the Second World War and was disbanded. Mark on a world map some of the trouble spots in the world today where the UN is playing a role.
Unit 24: Investigate the Commonwealth of Nations. Who belongs to it and what is their traditional link with Britain? Who is the head of the Commonwealth? What is its purpose and why are more nations applying to join?
Unit 25: Many developing nations have not adopted democratic government. They may have a one party state or a personal dictatorship. Get the group to consider why Mussolini was so popular in pre-Second World War Italy. Ask them to consider the advantages and disadvantages of democracy versus dictatorship recording the answers on a flip chart.







VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS
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Unit 26: Consider the service given by each of the following voluntary organisations:

St John's Ambulance Service

The Lifeboat Institution

The Special Constabulary

Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)

Discuss the commitment required of members of each of these organisations and compare this to the commitment required of a BB officer.

Unit 27: Investigate the role of non-governmental organisations such as OXFAM and the Red Cross in international crises. Discuss why it is an advantage that the work they do is not sponsored or controlled by a government or country.
Unit 28: Create a local map showing the local services and facilities (e.g. doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, dentists, vets, "drop-in" centres, Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, churches, charity shops, footpaths, etc.
Unit 29: Compile a list of local voluntary agencies in your area from the NCVS list under relevant headings (e.g. youth, disability, education, and family support). Try to decide if your area is well served or whether there are important gaps in provision.







LIFE SKILLS
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Unit 30: Look at the advantages and disadvantages of buying and renting a home. Look at the different types of mortgage that are available and the differences between banks and building societies.
Unit 31: Investigate different ways of borrowing money and the consequences. (E.g. Credit cards, banks, and building societies). Understand the difference between secured and unsecured loans and the advantages and disadvantages of either.
Unit 32: Investigate the legal responsibilities of owning and running a road vehicle, including tax, insurance, and M.o.T. certificate.
Unit 33: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of car ownership. Understand the effect of cars on the environment. Calculate the true financial cost of using a car per mile and compare it with the cost of public transport. What is the proportion of car ownership per household? How could local public transport be improved? Choose a local journey of about 20 to 40 miles and investigate the different ways of making that journey and list the advantages and disadvantages of each method.