government and social policy

Living well with dementia: a national dementia strategy: a briefing from a housing perspective

'Living Well with Dementia' sets out the government’s strategy for helping people with dementia and their carers over the next five years. Its aim is to ensure that significant improvements are made to dementia services across three key areas: awareness and understanding; earlier diagnosis and intervention; and quality of care. This briefing summarises the key points of the strategy, covering in greater depth elements which are relevant to the housing sector.

Child Poverty Act 2010

The Child Poverty Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 11th June 2009 as Bill 112 Session 2008-09. "The Bill would provide a statutory basis to the commitment made by the Government in 1999 to eradicate child poverty by 2020." It "places a duty on the Secretary of State to meet four United Kingdom-wide income poverty targets by the end of the financial year 2020".

Cost-effectiveness and mental health

This report asks why cost-effective analysis is useful in the field, considers it in relation to other evaluations, and discusses depression treatment, intervention for child and adolescent mental health problems, hospital closure and helping decision makers connect with the evidence, ending with recommendations on stakeholder relevance, expanding the evidence base, expanding and adapting existing evidence, methodological challenges and improving linkages and exchange between research and policy-making.

Aiming High for Young People

In 2007 the Government launched a 10-year plan for young people. Its full title was ‘Aiming High for Young People: A Ten Year Strategy for Positive Activities’. This document outlines the commitments made within the plan and how the Government plans to implement these. It includes contact information so that young people can get involved and give their opinions.

Social Work Inspection Agency: Performance Inspection Summary: East Ayrshire Council 2009

The Social work Inspection Agency (SWIA) is carrying out performance inspections of all local authority social work services in Scotland. This leaflet summarises some key findings of the inspection of East Ayrshire Council’s social work services, which are set out in the full report published in June 2009.

Breakthrough Britain: ending the costs of social breakdown

This report from the Social Justice Policy Group, chaired by Iain Duncan Smith, identifies five 'pathways' to poverty and makes proposals for tackling them. These pathways are: educational failure, family breakdown, economic dependence, indebtedness and addictions. A sixth section considers how the third sector might be better supported to help people escape poverty.

Towards a popular, preventative youth justice system

In 1998 Labour made significant reforms to the youth justice system. A decade later these have failed to reduce offending. This report proposes ways in which the youth justice system could reduce offending, as well as ways of creating public confidence in the system. Contents include: why we need a new approach to youth justice; a tale of two targets - why a new approach is needed; objectives, barriers to, and new principles of youth justice; can a new direction be preventative?; will the public support popular preventionism?

Review of the Scottish Drugs Forum

The overall aim of this review was to establish the effectiveness of SDF in delivering its aims and objectives, in particular the extent to which it provides value for money in respect of funding received from the Scottish Government; and to evaluate the current and future capacity of the organisation to deliver value for money in light of the new strategic approach to tackling drug use in Scotland.