This Round-up draws on the findings of seven reports about how to take forward different aspects of a child poverty strategy; examines the impact of current policy; and suggests what is needed to ensure the target is met.
This resource from the BBC website presents a major thirty-part narrative history series exploring British childhood and the experience of British children over the last thousand years. Open2.net, the online learning portal from the Open University and the BBC, has also produced a stimulating site to accompany the series, which can be linked to from this BBC webpage.
Website of End Child Poverty, the campaigning group whose objective is to eliminate child poverty through public education, forming partnerships between the public, private and voluntary sectors to achieve this end and pressing government for more action.
The current fuel poverty situation is outlined, including legislation and schemes designed to mitigate it. Some suggestions as to how practitioners can help clients to help themselves with this issue are made.
On 11 March 2009, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation hosted a symposium on Basic income, social justice and freedom, jointly organised with the University of York's School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy. Based on themes from the work of eminent political philosopher Philippe Van Parijs, it discussed his argument for the introduction of a basic income paid unconditionally, without work requirements or means tests.
VotingAge is a campaign by older people to promote the needs and concerns of older people to political parties. This document contains the findings from regional consultation events and lays out the main areas of concern for older people and the changes they believe politicians should make to improve the quality of life for older people.
The Government is determined to work in partnership with parents and with communities to ensure that every child gets the best start in life and the ongoing support they and their families need to allow them to fulfil their potential, irrespective of race, gender, background or circumstances.
This discussion paper sets out further detail about how the Government plans to implement the recommendations of the Gregg Review on personalised conditionality and support (published in December 2008). In particular it focuses on the supportive framework we want to put in place to help many more parents with younger children and Employment and Support Allowance claimants to prepare for work. Putting this framework in place should ensure further progress in our aim to support families, promote employment and eradicate child poverty.
The report describes the current strengths and weaknesses in policy provision to combat child poverty when parental employment is constrained and is a timely analysis given the approaching 2010 deadline for halving child poverty from 1999 levels. The analysis uses original and unique tax-benefit modelling of current provision across a range of low-paid and out-of-work family profiles.
To identify predictors of perinatal and infant mortality variations between primary care trusts (PCTs) in England prognostic multivariable mixed models were used. For each PCT, data on the number of infant and perinatal deaths, ethnicity, deprivation, maternal age, PCT spending on maternal services, and "Spearhead" status (those PCTs with the worst health and deprivation indicators requiring special attention) were collected.