...for Work and Pensions (DWP), 2004) there has been a significant decline in child poverty in the UK. According to the ‘Households Below Average Income’ survey 1994/95 – 2011/12 (HBAI), carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions, 2012, around 1.1 million children had been brought out of poverty between the period of 1998 - 2012. However, there are still approximately 3.6 million children living in poverty in the UK (HBAI, 2012) which is costing the UK around £25 billion each year (Child Poverty Action Group, CPAG, 2012). Much research has been carried out on child poverty, but as Magadi (2010) points out, very little is known about the extent and reasons as to why children are in severe poverty. This research will set out to discuss the major influences on child poverty at local and national level as well as addressing what measures are being taken to deal with the issues of severe child poverty within a primary setting. Although income is a major contributing factor to poverty, Perry (2002) suggests that it should take in to account a variety of factors due to its multi-dimensional nature (cited in Magadi, 2010, p.298), such as material deprivation. Material deprivation identifies those who are unable to afford things that many people take for granted such as holidays, hobbies and leisure activities or not being able to afford to replace worn out furniture or electrical goods. Measuring poverty on income alone can only lead to an inaccurate calculation of a household’s...
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...Poverty Questions 1A) – The number of children living in poverty before housing costs is significantly (about 1.2 million) lower than after housing cost. This is a trend that is kept constant over the decade as the number of children living in poverty before housing costs in 2006 is about 2.8 million and the number after housing costs is 3.8 million, showing that throughout 1996 to 2006 the number of children living in poverty is higher after housing costs. The number of children living in poverty is reduced by 2006, both before and after housing costs as in 1996 the number of children living in poverty before housing costs is 3 million and is reduced to 2.8 million by 2006, whereas the number after housing costs is 4.2 million in 1996 and reduced over the decade. 1B) – Absolute poverty is when an individual or household lives below the poverty line, usually when their income is insufficient for them to afford basic shelter, food, clothing and other necessary commodities needed to live. Relative poverty is when people are poor in comparison to others or compared to the national average. However, relative poverty can vary depending on what it is being compared to, whereas absolute poverty would be the same regardless of the position of others in that society. Absolute poverty shows that individuals may not be able to access basic commodities to suffice their basic needs. Due to various benefit systems being available in the UK, absolute poverty is fairly rare and the data...
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...Childhood and education: changes and challenges Dr Nick Lee Institute of Education, University of Warwick February 2009 Summary The first section of this paper will describe the child-centred social investment thesis developed by Esping Andersen (2002). This thesis has been a strong influence on UK government educational and child-related policy over the last decade. Some of the resulting current UK policies will be examined, and their success or failure so far will be explored. It is crucial to note that these policies involve the increasing integration of health, welfare and educational resources in the common purpose of increasing children’s social and cognitive capital. This survey will reveal the key trends and drivers that policy makers are currently responding to as they shape children’s lives. Given that steps taken today may well have effects lasting decades, the guiding social, technical and economic assumptions currently made about the future need to be identified and critically examined. Section Two will set these assumptions in the context of major global trends and signals including issues of demographic change in less and least developed world regions, climate change, energy and food security and financial conditions. The key question here will be whether the bases of current policies address the range of possible futures of yesterday or the range of possible futures of today. Section Three will draw on this material to compose a set of issues that are likely...
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...a strong social infrastructure. British education and health delivery systems are among the best in the world. Government focuses on income inequality and plans to ease in 2020 to eliminate child poverty. The establishment of a single European markets, may be positive, because some young people may migrate to the United Kingdom, to offset the problem of an aging population. Current strengths Current challenges ▪ Strong education system ▪ Healthcare services ▪ Child poverty ▪ Relatively high dependency ratio Future prospects Future risks ▪ System of "managed migration" ▪ Supporting low and middle incomes ▪ Challenges of an aging population ▪ Rising inequality Current strengths: For the healthcare services: British health system is one of the world's most successful social enterprises. This is due to participate in advanced medical infrastructure and the private sector. Public health expenditure on traditional British had been very high, and helped maintain quality and efficiency. Britain, the European Economic Area, all residents, and qualify for NHS treatment and the United Kingdom bilateral medical agreements. The system has established itself as one of the best in the world. Current challenges For the child poverty: Government to develop the elimination of child poverty by 2020, according to the government-defined objectives - Children living in relative income are considered poor if their family income is less than the median national income‖ 60%. According...
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...Examine the state and extent of poverty in the UK Absolute poverty measures the number of people living below a certain income threshold or the number of households unable to afford certain basic goods and services. Whereas, Relative poverty measures the extent to which a household's financial resources falls below an average income threshold for the economy. Although living standards and real incomes have grown because of higher employment and sustained economic growth over recent years, the gains in income and wealth have been unevenly distributed across the population. Poverty is caused by both a low real national income relative to a to a countries total population size and by inequalities in the distributions of income and wealth. The former leads to absolute poverty for most of a countries inhabitants, whereas the latter causes relative poverty. Discussions surrounding poverty in the United Kingdom tend to be of relative poverty rather than absolute poverty. The poverty trap affects people on low incomes. It creates a disincentive to look for work or work longer hours because of the effects of the tax and benefits system. For example, a worker might be given the opportunity to earn an extra 50 a week by working ten additional hours. This boost to his/her gross income is reduced by an increase in income tax and national insurance contributions. The individual may also lose some income-related state benefits. The combined effects of this might be to take away over...
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...The Social Context of Childhood Describe and analyse how social factors impact upon children and young people and consider how your setting and practice responds to it. The concept about the nature of childhood has changed in significant ways over time. According to James & Prout (1997) the beginning of the twentieth century has marked what they refer to as 'Century of Child'. This is the time when children were acknowledged as the future of every country. Serious attention was paid to things such as children’s health and education. Also many campaigns were formed to relieve child poverty, which led to the first major success of the Family Allowances Act (1946). This act offered a regular sum for second and subsequent children to be paid to the mother, raising the living standards of children and providing a better quality of life. However over the years particular attention has been paid to the environment that children live and the impact that it has upon their development and life chances. Bronfrebnner (1979) looks at the environment as a layered complex where each layer has an effect on child’s development and life chances. He believed that interaction between factors in the child’s maturing biology, his immediate family/community environment, and the social background fuels and directs his development. Bronfrebnner (1979) continues that modifications or conflict in any one layer of child’s environment will flow through other layers. Furthermore Paquette...
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...in some cases vulnerable 2 year olds) in full time childcare- equating to time spent at primary school Raising Attainment amongst disadvantaged children The Scottish government state, that the root of some educational problems, stem from children in severe poverty, who have messy home lives & poor diets. A hungry child cannot fulfill their education to the best of their ability and a child who is distracted at home cannot focus on learning. Their main aim is to change the tax & benefit system – tackling poverty will allow more parents to work and provide a better life for children who will then in turn have more time to focus on school and nursery Protecting free tuition in Universities The Scottish government claims to protect free tuition fees for Scottish students and still provide supports for living costs University is one the main focuses of the Scottish economy following independence. The proposal is to remain the same by charging students from other parts of the UK to study for Scotland. This policy recognizes the requirement to keep a mix of students so that the Scottish people benefit from a free education and the universities benefit from a contribution from Students from other parts of the UK and further Apprentiships ‘New Modern Apprenticeship’ would increase year by year with 30,000 modern apprentices to become available by 2020. Since taking office, the Scottish government have increased apprentiships by 10,000 places. They believe this...
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... Sex tourism is evident through many different forms, but the most popular ways it is evident is through pornography, prostitution, and human trafficing. This trend is one of the main sources of revenue in Thailand. It holds 6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) which is just over $31 billion. Sex tourism started when the “American military on rest and recreation leave during the Vietnam War from 1962” (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking UK). The US States Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report (2005) stated that the “widespread sex tourism in Thailand encourages trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation.” This describes sex tourism as being a business related area, trying to convince people that it is an ethical way of making profits and revenues to boost Thailand’s economy. Sex tourism is not an ethical method for bringing revenue into the country because of the severe exploitation of children, and women, and it promotes the intentions of molestation. Thailand is known as the second biggest country for child sex tourism. Child prostitution “deprives children of their childhood, human rights, and dignity” (Lau, C. 2008, p. 144-155). Studies have shown that there is a range of 60,000 to 200,000 children, eighteen years of age or younger that are involved in the sex tourism industry in Thailand. The children are not only Thai children, but also foreign children that are trafficked into the country. They come from the neighbouring border communities...
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...in developing countries they are seen to be there through extreme poverty often caused by natural disasters or wars. Corsaro (1997 cited in Wyness 2006, p 79) believed child poverty would lead to those children entering ‘dangerous adult territory’, which could involve gangs, drug...
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...disadvantage Research paper for Ofsted’s ‘Access and achievement in education 2013 review’ Professor Chris Pascal and Professor Tony Bertram UK Research Team: Sean Delaney, Selma Manjee, Marjory Perkins and Manja Plehn International Research Team: Alice Bennett, Carol Nelson, Sarina Razzak and Maureen Saunders Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) © Centre for Research in Early Childhood (CREC) 2013 The views expressed in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of Ofsted. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to Elizabeth Boulton at publishing@ofsted.gov.uk or Aviation House, 125 Kingsway, London WC2 6SE This publication is available at www.ofsted.gov.uk/accessandachievement. No. 130155-RR-005 In June 2012, Sir Michael Wilshaw, HMCI, stated his determination to address the issue of narrowing the gap of educational achievement between disadvantaged pupils and others. To support this intention, The Centre for Research in Early Childhood has been commissioned by OfSTED to conduct a review looking at the impact of Early Childhood Education (ECE) initiatives to combat social and economic disadvantage, both in the UK and internationally. This paper: Examines the impact of national and international initiatives in ECE over the last 10 years on the a...
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...mistake to think of ethnic groups as always being defined by physical features such as skin colour. Although many ethnic minority groups in the UK are non-white, this is not applicable to all groups. According to Crystal (03), well over 100 languages are in routine use in the UK. Today, children from minority backgrounds make about21% of the pupils in English schools. The level of achievement of different ethnic groups varies greatly in Great Britain. This may be due to factors such as home background, class, language and in-school factors. Recent studies highlight the effects of racism. It is believed that ethnicity influences such factors, leading to an impact upon their education. When ethnic minority students do underachieve in education this may be explained partly by social class disadvantages and partly by educational disadvantages related specifically to their ethnicity. Although members of ethnic minorities are found throughout the UK class structure, Afro-Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin students are especially likely to be found in the lower sections of the working class and to experience poverty. Social theorists working with a relative definition of poverty usually define poverty to exist where individuals are receiving an income below 60% of the median income in the UK as a whole and relative poverty in the UK can be shown to be widespread; approximately 20% of Whites, 25%...
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...Structural Adjustment Program, marking with a shift from protectionist policies to promoting free trade and economic growth. This essay will illustrate the pros of GDP growth and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) manifested in economic globalisation of Nigeria, but evaluation will be made on the societal impact into the economy, such as income inequalities and labour exploitation. Capital inflows into Nigeria had grown immensely over the last decade in the process of economic liberalisation. It was considered as the 120th freest economy in the 2013 Index (Index of Economic Freedom, 2013). The FDI reached 11billion USD in 2009, ranking Nigeria at 19th to receive the most FDI in the world. Most prominent investors include USA Chevron Texaco and UK Shell penetrating the oil sector. China was becoming an important source of FDI recently, seeking to expand trade relationships, and Chinese investment reported worth 6billion USD. These investments were injections to enhance the capital of Nigeria, bringing about foreign expertise and technology, and also encouraged job creations, raising standard of living. Economic globalisation implied free trade that brought definitive advantages to Nigeria economy, particularly in the aspect of GDP growth. Although Nigeria’s overall...
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...Poverty and Social Inequality ‘Inequality remains a significant part of life in contemporary Britain’ Some argue that Britain is the most unequal society in Western Europe, Research conducted by Sutton Trust from 2010 suggests that poverty affects children’s ability to do well in schools, the study indicates that just 45 per cent of children from poorest fifth of families were ready to read daily by the age of three compared to 78 per cent of children from richest fifth of families. This proves that British society is unequal; there are social groups that have access to better standards of living than others (Morning Star Online 2010) In order for Inequality to take place, some people need to have more than others, creating boundaries in society that stop some people from getting equal status despite their work and effort. There are several ways of measuring social class, subjective method simply is based on people’s perception of what social class they should be in. However it is quite vague as some people may be middle class and have a lot of money whereas other might have education, lifestyle and manners of the middle class but are poor. Where objective method takes things into account like occupation, unemployment, income, education and so on therefore it is more reliable way of measuring social class. In order to measure social class effectively, stratification is needed to enable evaluation of inequalities; best way to do it is consider morbidity and mortality factors...
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...Examine changes in the patterns of childbearing and childrearing in the UK since the 1970s Since the 1970s, there has been less of a need to have as many children because many things have changed since the war. The 1970s rise in lone motherhood was largely a consequence of increasing divorce rates. Many of the traditional ideas on how children should be made and brought up have changed or evolved into new concepts that might have been a taboos or stigmatised in the 70s. The reason for and the result of these patterns range widely. Infant mortality rate lowered a lot of births in the UK because more births were successful and more children were surviving to childhood and adulthood. This caused more parents to have less children so they can focus their love and attention on the children they have. When the IMR was high in the UK, the parent would have many children for work purpose and they would not care if the one child died because they could just replace that one. Children were used for mostly work and to get money, but since the act that stopped children working under a age, children were then becoming the child centre of the home, the parents would see their child more and the child would then need the mother or father to help the when they are at home, this lead to lower IMR. Childbearing is having children and one of the greatest changes is the growing rate of children being born outside of marriage. Over four in ten children are now born outside of marriage...
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...Gurinder K. Fnu Soc&101 The Culture Of Poverty and the theory of Functionalism Background: In 1959 a sociologist, Oscar Lewis investigated poverty and its trends amongst society. Lewis came up with a theory commonly known as the ‘Cycle of Poverty’. The cycle of poverty is the term used to refer to the phenomenon in which poor families become trapped in poverty for generations. This is because they have no access to long-term education and no long-term financial guarantees. The cycle of poverty suggests young children who are born into poverty will remain in poverty because they lack the ability to go to school and receive no education, their families are not financially stable (no clean clothing, a poor diet, lack of hygiene, etc.). The ability for them to break out of this cycle is limited, and in some cases simply not possible. The structural-functionalist approach to stratification asks the question: what function or purpose does stratification serve? The theory's answer is that all parts of society, even poverty, contribute in some way or another to the larger system's stability. Structural-functionalists maintain that stratification and inequality are inevitable and beneficial to society: the layering is useful because it ensures that the best people are at the top of the hierarchy and those who are less worthy are at the bottom. Those at the top are given power and rewards because of high abilities, and the high rewards exist to provide incentive for qualified...
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