THIS week marks the beginning of the second session of this Parliament and a Queen’s Speech, which I hope will have social justice and fighting poverty at its core.

In the last Parliament, we saw the Troubled Families initiative serve as a very worthwhile vehicle to tackle complex community problems in a cohesive way.

This week’s speech should both build on this work and place fresh emphasis on life chances.

I was reminded last Friday, in conversation with Andrew Lord of Alabare, of the enormous value that the voluntary sector brings to Salisbury – dealing with people who find themselves in difficulties but always with the ultimate aim of finding them a pathway back to independent living, usually through employment.

I think there are lessons to be learned from the experience of organisations like Alabare. The government must be more entrepreneurial in the way it approaches hard-to-reach groups and take account of the interplay between the different but intricately connected problems of worklessness, family breakdown, poor health and gaps in educational attainment.

It would do well to enfranchise more innovative local pilot schemes, tailored to the needs of specific areas, as well as learning lessons from the experience of existing voluntary sector organisations.

But too often, tight budgets mean immediate costs need to be cut, leading to potential higher costs in the future.

What is needed is smarter budgeting – that uses evidence on what works to establish quantifiable future savings. Sometimes that will mean spending more now to see bigger benefits in the medium to long term.

I hope to make a contribution to the Queen’s Speech debate this week before returning to Salisbury on Friday for a busy schedule of surgery and individual meetings and home visits.