Tackling Child Poverty In The UK

1436 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impacts of Child Poverty

Until recently, tackling child poverty in Britain has been primarily associated with the UK Government. Previous Prime Minister, Tony Blair, made a pledge in 1999 to eradicate child poverty within a generation. This UK national commitment to tackling child poverty was reinforced further in 2010 with the passing of the Child Poverty Act 2010, which commits the UK government to make substantial progress toward ending child poverty by 2020 and requires each of the devolved national governments to demonstrate how they will contribute to this outcome (J. H. McKendrick, S. Sinclair, 2012).
The Government believes that there is a need for a revised set of measures that reflects the evidence about the underlying causes of poverty, but has not yet set …show more content…

This could be put in practice in communities all over the UK as a way of tackling poverty. They came up with the ‘School Effectiveness Framework’ (SEF) in 2008 which puts schools in the front seat for reducing inequality and recognising social disadvantages in children throughout their academic lives. They introduced a programme towards Eradication in 2012. This involved ensuring that action was taken to break the unacceptable link between poverty and low attainment and underachievement. In order to do this, they should ensure that children are given the right support at the right time during their school experiences. There is also a strong case for doing more in order to provide early interventions and to increase family support. For example, all low-income families/parents should be given access to proven programmes to help support their child’s early development and learning. With programmes such as these, it will help to prevent the children from falling behind their peers and classmates just because of their income status. In this way, communities should seek to address the poor education outcomes of those living in disadvantaged homes. Therefore, more research should be taken to ensure that all future programmes can be based on firm evidence of what works for those living in poverty and that resources are channelled into the most appropriate and effective interventions. To do so, they should be carrying out research on families who live in poverty at the moment, because as stated before by JRF, (2008) those living in poverty are the ones who know best about their own needs and what would be helpful to

Show More
Related

  • A Comparison of Early Years Curricula in England and Scotland with a Focus on Planning and Assessment

    2091 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...an they improve outcomes for disadvantaged children? International Journal of Early Years Education, 15(2), pp.171-180. [Online] Available at: www.informaworld.com (Accessed 29 April 2011)

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Cultural Diverty And Poverty

    1670 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even the mere inequality of wealth in a child’s social, cultural, or educational setting can have effects on a child’s peer to peer interactions, hierarchical structure and their ability to achieve. Gorard 2010 as discussed in Victoria Cooper, 2014 (p160), links poverty and or social deprivation with lower academic results. In the Xiao Bo case study by Child poverty research and policy centre, 2013 (Heather Montgomery, 2014) it demonstrates the multifaceted effects of poverty on a child, such as the stresses it places on the family to educate children, pressure on the children themselves to succeed in education to enable them to assist with family finances and lifestyle, the compromises and sacrifices made as a family unit in lifestyle and financial planning in order to pursue education of the child, as well as demonstrating the wide range of instigators that create inequalities of wealth, such as political/policy decisions, loopholes in aid assistance, cost of education and unequal access to resources. In 2001 the Millennium development goals were set out in response to the millennium summit of the united nations to reduce poverty and its associated issues, of the eight goals, the first goal was to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, demonstrating the comprehension of the wide ranging affect of poverty on children and society as a whole, and an understanding that poverty ‘Damages children in every way’ as stated by Unicef

    Read More

  • A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poverty

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    To start off the full title of Johnathan Swift’s writing is "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for making them Beneficial to the Publick." From just reading the title in the book “A Modest Proposal”, I was thinking it was a story about romance and how a gentleman proposed marriage to his female lover. His proposal, in effect, is to fatten up these undernourished children and feed them to Ireland's rich land-owners. He does this to illustrate how backwards and bad the state of Ireland is and the social classes. For these reasons, he looks at the politicians to blame for the poor conditions because of the apathy they presented while in the decision making process, to resolve the conditions. Jonathan Swift he says that the people, politicians, and English were all to be at fault for the terrible state and poverty of Ireland.

    Read More

  • Janson And Fraser On Poverty

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition to providing alarming statistics about the rate of childhood poverty, Jenson & Fraser highlight how much poverty can adversely affect the outcomes of children both directly and indirectly by impacting them at a familial and community levels (31-34).

    Read More

  • Child Poverty In America

    1493 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people in the U.S. believe poverty is a major issue in other countries but fail to realize that there are high poverty rates at home as well. When looking at poverty there are many age groups that are affected at different levels, and one of the age groups that is dramatically impacted is children under the age of 18. This age group is specifically a sad one due to the fact that they cannot rely on themselves to get out of poverty. This results in many struggles for children and relying on programs and organizations for the help that they need. Although 21.1 percent of kids are ravaged by the struggles of poverty, many organizations are seeking to positively impact this issue through

    Read More

  • All Kids Should Take Poverty 101 Analysis

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Especially in regard to educating children in poverty so they will not fall behind. Helping adults to understand how to help these children is vitally important because those in poverty have different needs and require a different means of motivation, “if poor people were exactly the same cognitively, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally as those from the middle class, then the exact same teaching provided to both middle-class students and students from poverty would bring the exact same results (Jensen).”

    Read More

  • Low Income Education: The Limitations Of Low-Income Education

    1635 Words  | 4 Pages

    Low- income children 's school districts often lack the money to provide these children with resources, and therefore the children will not get these resources any other way. Devarics (2011) stated, "Only 22 percent of local districts reported offering pre-kindergarten or other early learning programs for low-income children" (para.8). Denying this resource affects the many children who reside where that 78 percent of local districts do not offer pre-kindergarten, because many go to kindergarten not knowing minimal skills required. As a consequence, this postpones their education even further. Moreover, Davarics (2011) also stated, "Many schools aren 't educationally where they need to be, which ultimately means many students won 't graduate ready to succeed in a career or in higher education," (para.11). Many low-income schools do not offer activities such as, art, music or sports, because of the lack of money, facilities, or staff. They are not supplied with the right tools and have poor access to computers and Internet. They also do not offer rigorous courses at many of these schools, and have less qualified, trained, and less experienced staff that cannot proficiently teach such courses. Going to school with these disadvantages, can make these children unmotivated to continue an education where there will be little educational progress.

    Read More

  • Poverty And Child Development Essay

    937 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poverty is “the inability to acquire enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter” (Gosselin,2009). This social disadvantage limits one’s ability to receive a quality education and it is a constant problem throughout the world accompanied with“deleterious impacts on almost all aspects of family life and outcomes for children”(Ravallion,1992). Poverty is a main factor that affects normal human growth and development in a variety of ways, primarily impacting children’s early development, social behaviour, health, and self worth.

    Read More

  • Child Poverty Presentation

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    Slide 1- what is child poverty: When you hear the term child poverty what comes to mind? ( first ask the audiences opinion, then state my own opinion) Child poverty denies children with the basic needs to survive, expand and flourish, it also deprives children from having equal opportunities such as attending school, having a roof over their head or having a warm meal to eat. Children that unfortunately face poverty have a higher chance of being abused, discriminated or exploited due to their poor living circumstances. "Poverty shows a strong association with child maltreatment, particularly neglected. The NIS-3 study, for example found that children from families with an annual incomes below $15000 in 1993 were 22 times more likely to be harmed by child abuse compare to a families with an annual income above $30000." [1] ( Once I am finished explaining I will play the introduction video to child poverty)

    Read More

  • Reducing Poverty : Poverty And Poverty

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people do not realize that there are tens of millions of people in America who are living in poverty because they are stuck on the fact that America is one of the richest nations. People who are living in poverty barely have enough money to survive on basic necessities like food, shelter and electricity. They often have a hectic schedule filled with work, school, or other activities that they have to do in order for them to live a somewhat stable life. Unfortunately, there are others who are living in poverty that may be ill or disabled and barely able to survive even if they are receiving money to help with their situation. There are a few programs that help those in poverty with their financial problems, but they only help them to a certain extent. Changes need to be done to help alleviate the poverty rate because these people should not have to deal with all of these hardships or have such a negative perspective of life. Therefore, America can reduce its poverty by raising the minimum wage, making health care more accessible, and by making child care more affordable. These solutions will be a great start to reducing poverty and they will lead America into a brighter future.

    Read More

  • Poverty And Poverty

    1830 Words  | 4 Pages

    Poverty is an ever-growing problem throughout our modern world, with millions living in its extremes. There are many consequences of poverty and the way they affect children and family life is absolutely detrimental. Poverty can be simply defined as “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions” (Encyclopedia Britannica 2014). There are two distinct variations of poverty – absolute poverty and relative poverty, which will be further discussed throughout this essay. The total number of people worldwide who live on less than $2.50 (the bare minimum of the poverty line) is 3 billion (Global Issues, The Human Development Report, 2012). According to many, there are a varied number of consequences for those who live in poverty, especially children and families. The effects of poverty have proven to have detrimental effects on child development and the nature of family life. Saunders (2005) reiterates these factors of poverty in his book “The Consequences of Poverty”. This essay will state the many aspects of poverty and the detrimental effects its holds within child development, family life and the health of indiviudals.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Poverty on Children

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    When analyzing children growing up in poverty a lot of factors come into play such as their physical, psychological and emotional development. To grow up in poverty can have long term effect on a child. What should be emphasized in analyzing the effects of poverty on children is how it has caused many children around the world to suffer from physical disorders, malnutrition, and even diminishes their capacities to function in society. Poverty has played a major role in the functioning of families and the level of social and emotional competency that children are able to reach. Children in poverty stricken families are exposed to greater and emotional risks and stress level factors.

    Read More

  • Negative Effects Of Early Education

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    Early education includes all children from birth to age eight. Opting to provide excellent early education comes with many opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are losing potential gains when choosing one option versus the other. Anything other than giving children excellent early education comes with an opportunity cost that does not look forward to maximizing the future of next generations. It is important to include education early on in a child’s life to help secure the positive effects this will have on their development into adulthood. Though the opportunity cost of poor early education is great, the external benefits are greater with positive results. These benefits lead to a lasting success of academic and employment success

    Read More

  • How Poverty Affects Academic Performance

    2579 Words  | 6 Pages

    Living in poverty exposes children to disadvantages that influence many aspects in their life that are linked to their ability to do well in school. In the United States of America there are an estimated 16.4 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). “The longer a child lives in poverty, the lower the educational attainment” (Kerbo, 2012). Children who are raised in low-income households are at risk of failing out before graduating high school (Black & Engle, 2008). U.S. children living in poverty face obstacles that interfere with their educational achievement. Recognizing the problems of living in poverty can help people reduce the consequences that prevent children from reaching their educational potential.

    Read More

  • Child Poverty in New Zealand

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    Child poverty is a major and complex issue that New Zealand faces today. The degree is far more severe than the public's perception and it is a problem that we cannot afford to ignore. A combination of factors contributes to child poverty, from individual causes at the micro level to the macro collective government involvement. This occurs partly due to social construction and it is potentially avoidable. The consequences can impact on both individual and to a great extent affect significantly on the country as a whole. If the issue is not resolved, the inequality will continue, if not worsen and becomes an ongoing intergeneration cycle. 'The poor get poorer and poorer', children can easily fall into the poverty trap where it becomes nearly impossible to reach an end to this issue. The consequences of the disparity have a major outcome on the societal level.

    Read More

More about Tackling Child Poverty In The UK

Open Document