information for practice
news & new scholarship from around the world 11.23.09information for practice September 2008 archives
September 30, 2008
By the year 2050, Latinas/os will account for one in four U.S. residents and people of color will comprise one half of the total U.S. population. As the complexion of our nation continues to change, we will need to build our cultural knowledge and skills in order to maximize the many advantages of a diverse workforce and citizenry. The future prosperity and wellbeing of this country rests on our ability to embrace diversity, build cross cultural understanding, and vigorously protect the human rights of all individuals. Undoubtedly, the courageous and visionary acts of the anti-violence movement in particular, have contributed to the safety and well-being of countless individuals and families impacted by intimate partner violence. The National Latino Alliance for the Elimination of Domestic Violence (“Alianza”) now calls upon the movement to challenge itself even further and continue its rich legacy of advocacy — by supporting the universal adoption of cultural proficiency standards — across all programs, community organizing strategies, and services. What is required is nothing less than social transformation. To end violence, we must recognize that one size does not fit all. What is required is a diversity of approaches that fully engage communities of color and allies and maximize cultural and community strengths as a fundamental strategy for change.
The number of Americans in poverty climbed by 816,000 in 2007, while the poverty rate remained statistically unchanged, overall median income rose modestly, and the number and percentage of Americans without health insurance fell somewhat, according to Census data issued today. But the poverty rate remained higher, median income for working-age households remained lower, and the number and percentage of Americans without health insurance remained much greater than in 2001, when the last recession hit bottom.
Working with teenage victims of crime and abuse can give rise to difficult issues. Teenagers are developing their individual identities and autonomy, yet they still depend on adults for many physical and emotional needs. When a teenager is victimized, service providers and first responders must find a balance between respecting teens’ rights as victims and acknowledging that, as minors, teens do not have the same rights as adults. This four-part booklet can guide you in examining your agency’s policies for working with teen victims and offer suggestions and best practices. The first two sections will help you respond to initial reports of victimization, while the third offers guidance for providing services to teen victims. The final section gives ideas for conducting outreach to young people and building community partnerships with schools.
On 10 July 2008, the Government adopted an action plan for combating prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes. The plan covers five priority areas: greater protection and support for people at risk, more emphasis on preventive work, higher standards and greater efficiency in the justice system, increased national and international cooperation, and a higher level of knowledge and awareness. Altogether, the Government will be investing SEK 213 million in 36 measures up to the year 2010.
The Department of Health’s consultation paper, The case for change, has opened a debate on the long-term future of England’s care and support system. In this Viewpoint, Kalyani Gandhi and Helen Bowers argue that if social care services are to transform people’s lives, they must be based on a deeper understanding of human relationships and the nature of duty and obligation inherent within them.
September 29, 2008
Overwhelming Needs Remain
Despite the successes fueled by VAWA, FVPSA and VOCA funding, an overwhelming need for services, education and training still remains:
• The cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for direct medical and mental health care services.
• One in every four women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime.
• One in six women and one in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape.
• More than half of all rapes of women occur before they reach the age of 18
This issue brief illustrates the public health importance of intimate partner violence (IPV) among pregnant women and shares promising approaches to the identification, intervention, and prevention of IPV. This issue brief will highlight four local health departments (LHDs) that have integrated screening and violence prevention activities into existing services (such as home visiting programs and family planning programs) for women of childbearing age.
Dental health care professionals should be aware that methamphetamine use is on the rise in the U.S. The allure of this drug is that it is cheap, easy to make and the high lasts much longer than crack cocaine (12 hours versus one hour for cocaine). As well as being a potent central nervous system stimulant that can cause permanent brain damage, methamphetamine use has also been associated with severe oral health effects. Dental professionals should be aware of methamphetamine’s oral health effects and the treatment considerations for users of this drug.
The purpose of this publication is to summarize the research on childhood stress and its implications for adult health and well-being. Of particular interest is the stress caused by child abuse, neglect, and repeated exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). We hope this publication provides practitioners, especially those working in violence prevention, with ideas about how to incorporate this information into their work.
This Research Update explores two major themes: Using evaluation to shape program improvement and planning, and out-of-school time benefits to older youth and their families. We culled these themes from 13 research and evaluation reports added to the Out-of-School Time (OST) Program Research and Evaluation Bibliography in September 2008.
This report, based on information from the survey of English housing, gives an overview of housing in England, including figures on owner occupation, renting, second homes and overcrowding.
September 26, 2008
Between 2000/01 and 2005/06, the number of postgraduates studying at HEIs in the UK rose by 21.5% from 448,696 in 2000/01 to 545,369 in 2005/06. Within this period, the largest growth was in the number of non-EU students, which rose by 51,862 (71.4%), compared with 36,453 of UK students (10.8%) and 8,358 (21.6%) of other EU students. In 2005/06, just under a quarter (22.8%) of postgraduate students were domiciled outside the EU, and one in eleven (8.6%) were from other EU countries. The size of the postgraduate population was less than a third of that of the undergraduate population, but in terms of percentage growth, it had risen more than the undergraduate population during the period 2000/01 and 2005/06, owing to the much bigger growth in non-UK domiciled students amongst the postgraduate cohort. This rise in the number of postgraduates, however, was not constant over the period. Between 2003/04 and 2004/05, there was a 3.2% drop in the number of UK domiciled new starters, although this was followed by a rise again in 2005/06. Amongst other EU domiciled postgraduates, numbers rose only marginally between 2004/05 and 2005/06; at the same time, the number of non-EU postgraduate new entrants fell marginally by 0.1%.
In this working paper, we introduce the Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) evaluation — the first large-scale, multisite experiment that tests marriage education programs for low-income married couples with children. The SHM conceptual framework recognizes multiple sources of relationship strength and weakness, and the project’s program model has followed this framework closely in adapting the content and delivery of marriage education services for low-income married parents. Eight sites (with some sites spanning multiple organizations) are operating SHM programs around the country. SHM is testing a relatively intensive and comprehensive form of marriage education designed specifically for low-income families. Its year-long program model packages a series of marriage education workshops with additional family support, including case management, supportive services, and referrals to outside services as needed. The evaluation includes two interrelated substudies — one focusing on sites’ experiences in implementing the SHM model and the other measuring program impacts on marital quality and stability, child well-being, and a range of other outcomes.
A large percentage of parents who abuse, neglect or abandon their children have drug and alcohol problems. In this two-part series, learn about recent research about substance abuse in the context of the child welfare system, both from the perspective of front-line professionals as well as overall policy.
In order to help strengthen the capacity of scholarship programs to systematically gather and examine data on their recipients, Wilder Research and Casey Family Programs launched the Foster Care Alumni Scholarship Benchmarking Network (Network), a data sharing initiative. The Network consists of a common database into which participating programs pooled data on their programs and scholarship recipients. The participating programs included scholarship programs designed specifically for youth who have been in foster care. This report describes the process of launching the Network and presents preliminary findings based on data collected in the pilot phase.
The document aims to make sure that everyone in a parenting role – mothers, fathers, carers and other adults with parental responsibility – has the opportunity to access support through the challenges of raising a family, improving the health and happiness of children and young people.
This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates for 2006 and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three decades (1972-2006), including characteristics of dropouts and completers in these years. Report highlights include: The averaged freshman graduation rate (AFGR), which provides an estimate of the percentage of public high school students who graduate with a regular diploma 4 years after starting 9th grade, was 74.7 percent for the class of 2005. Students living in low-income families were approximately four times more likely to drop out of high school between 2005 and 2006 than were students living in high-income families. In October 2006, approximately 3.5 million civilian noninstitutionalized 16- through 24-year-olds were not enrolled in high school and had not earned a high school diploma or alternative credential.
September 25, 2008
A snail could crawl the entire length of the Great Wall of China in 212 years, just slightly longer than the 200 years it will take for women to be equally represented in Parliament.
Museums are experiencing what many believe is their biggest culture shift in 150 years. In this Viewpoint, Simon Tait asks: Have we moved into the age of the ‘social museum’? Using detailed case studies of current initiatives, he looks at how far museums now go beyond the display and interpretation of collections; their potential role in local regeneration; and whether they can create a space where social issues can be examined in a way the public finds accessible.
Leaflet for 18-24 year old binge drinkers to encourage them to drink sensibly and to highlight the consequences of drunk anti-social behaviour.
Here is a compilation of important epidemiologic concepts and common biostatistical terms used in medical research. You can use it as a reference guide when reading articles published on MedPage Today or download it to keep near the reading stand where you keep your print journals.
Most communities have education, health, mental health, family support, parenting, child care, and other services that can help support children and families. However, locating those services or even knowing which services to look for is often difficult. The Community Services Locator is designed to help service providers and families find available national, state, and local resources that can address child and family needs.
This paper provides practical guidance for researchers who are designing studies that randomize groups to measure the impacts of interventions on children. To do so, the paper: (1) provides new empirical information about the values of parameters that influence the precision of impact estimates (intra-class correlations and R-squares); (2) examines the implications of planning group-randomized studies for three-level hierarchical situations, using empirical information obtained by estimating two-level hierarchical models (which under many conditions appears to not be problematic); and (3) assesses the implications of the uncertainty that exists when the design of group-randomized studies is based on esti-mates of intra-class correlations. Data for the paper come from two studies: the Chicago Literacy Initiative: Making Better Early Readers study (CLIMBERs) and the School Break-fast Pilot Project (SBPP). The analysis sample from CLIMBERs comprised 430 4-year old children from 47 preschool classrooms in 23 Chicago public schools. The analysis sample from the SBPP study comprised 1,151 third-graders from 233 classrooms in 111 schools in six school districts.
This guidance will help schools support learners with special educational needs and disabilities to understand, prevent and respond to bullying of these children, increase the participation of all learners in the life of the school, promote equality and diversity and develop a non-bullying ethos.
Museums are experiencing what many believe is their biggest culture shift in 150 years. In this Viewpoint, Simon Tait asks: Have we moved into the age of the ‘social museum’? Using detailed case studies of current initiatives, he looks at how far museums now go beyond the display and interpretation of collections; their potential role in local regeneration; and whether they can create a space where social issues can be examined in a way the public finds accessible.
September 24, 2008
The number of Hispanic students in the nation's public schools nearly doubled from 1990 to 2006, accounting for 60% of the total growth in public school enrollments over that period. There are now approximately 10 million Hispanic students in the nation's public kindergartens and its elementary and high schools; they make up about one-in-five public school students in the United States. In 1990, just one-in-eight public school students were Hispanic.
The Lifting the Burdens Task Force Review was led by Chief Executive of London Borough of Camden, Moira Gibb. It focuses on those burdens that are a direct result of the local government/Department of Health relationship as well as those that emanate from the Commission for Social Care . . . . The report makes a total of 19 recommendations, identifying where burdens are occurring and how these can be addressed.
Previous research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that Hispanics are about twice as likely as non-Hispanic blacks and three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to lack a regular health care provider. Hispanics are a diverse community, and the 2007 Latino Health Survey explores not only their access to health care, but also their sources of health information and their knowledge about a key disease (diabetes) at greater depth and breadth than any national survey done to date by another research organization or the federal government.
Child Welfare Outcomes 2002–2005: Report to Congress (Child Welfare Outcomes Report) is the seventh in a series of annual reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services . . . . The reports are developed in accordance with section 479A of the Social Security Act (as amended by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997) and provide information pertaining to State performance on the following national child welfare outcomes:
• Outcome 1—Reduce recurrence of child abuse and/or neglect
• Outcome 2—Reduce the incidence of child abuse and/or neglect in foster care
• Outcome 3—Increase permanency for children in foster care
• Outcome 4—Reduce time in foster care to reunification without increasing reentry
• Outcome 5—Reduce time in foster care to adoption
• Outcome 6—Increase placement stability
• Outcome 7—Reduce placements of young children in group homes or institutions
The following is a protocol to be used when a DCFS Family Service Worker (FSW) or the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division (CACD) Investigator conducts a Child Maltreatment Assessment. The protocol was developed under the authority of ACA 12-12-502 a), which authorizes the director to promulgate regulations to carry out the Child Maltreatment Act. It identifies and defines the various types of child maltreatment a FSW/CACD Investigator may encounter during an assessment. The protocol also identifies when and from whom an allegation of child maltreatment may be taken. Finally, it identifies those conditions, which must be met before an allegation of abuse or neglect can be founded (determined to be true). Now, the FSW/CACD Investigator must show that a “preponderance of the evidence” supports the allegation of child maltreatment. This is a higher standard of evidence and should be understood to mean it is “more likely than not” that abuse or neglect occurred.
An index of states providing online access to licensing standards for residential child placement
facilities.
September 23, 2008
ABS surveys of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population are both complex and expensive due to high levels of screening in non-remote areas. The 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey is using a new geographical unit, the meshblock. This paper outlines the new meshblock design and investigates the accuracy implications of meshblock-level sampling, concentrating on the effects of migration between Census and survey.
In fiscal years 2005 and 2006, ONDCP and SAMHSA did not always adhere to applicable federal internal control standards, statutory requirements, and other guidance during the grant-making process. Standards for internal control in the federal government call for agencies to conduct ongoing monitoring of a program’s performance, but ONDCP did not conduct such monitoring of SAMHSA or the program overall. Thus, ONDCP increased its risk of not providing reasonable assurance that SAMHSA conducted grant activities, such as eligibility screening. Internal control standards also require that agencies maintain documentation that grant applicants met eligibility requirements each fiscal year. While SAMHSA officials said that they screened all renewal grantees for eligibility in 2005 and ONDCP officials said they screened all initial grantees in 2006, documentation indicating that such screening had occurred was missing from 47 of the 66 grantee files GAO reviewed. ONDCP also lacked a process to ensure that all renewal applicants met statutory eligibility requirements.
Social justice is a matter of life and death. It affects the way people live, their consequent chance of illness, and their risk of premature death. We watch in wonder as life expectancy and good health continue to increase in parts of the world and in alarm as they fail to improve in others.
Regular and consistent face-to-face contact by a child’s caseworker that are focused on the goals established in the case plan or permanency plan directly impact positive outcomes for children and juveniles, including the management of safety, timely achievement of permanence, and improved well-being.
Transitioning into adulthood is challenging for everyone. “Becoming an adult” typically demands a complex set of decisions and steps that an individual has never encountered before: leaving home; living independently; enrolling and succeeding in school; getting to and from home, school, and work; budgeting resources for basic necessities and recreation; making job and career choices; finding a place to live; and developing social and personal relationships. Every decision requires making one choice over another. For most young adults, this process relies on direction and support from family members or other caring adults, mentors, social networks, and other support systems. For the more than three million young adults diagnosed with serious mental health conditions, however, these choices can be enormously challenging. Many experience higher than average academic, social, and employment failure. Although the precise clinical origins of their emotional disturbances can remain complicated and enigmatic, some promising approaches to reversing these negative trends are emerging.
- A majority (53.4 percent) of current alcohol users aged 12 to 20 drank at someone else's home the last time they used alcohol, and another 30.3 percent drank in their own home
- The percentage of underage alcohol users who had their most recent drink in a car or other vehicle peaked at 10.1 percent at age 16 (12.8 percent of females and 7.3 percent of males)
- Among 20-year-old current drinkers, 20.0 percent of females drank in a restaurant, bar, or club the last time they used alcohol compared with 10.2 percent of males
September 22, 2008
California varies widely from county to county in size, geography, urbanicity and demographics. Because of this diversity probation departments are responsive to their communities, developing programs and services specific to the unique needs of their jurisdiction. Unfortunately funding for probation has not kept pace with California’s rapid growth. In California approximately 30% of the existing 300,000 probationers are age 18- 25. This reflects the demographic boom, often referred to as Tidal Wave II that swept through juvenile justice and is now impacting adult services. While the percentage of probationers in this age group may not be much greater than in the past, the numbers certainly are. This document is meant to be used by probation departments in their efforts to implement evidence-based practices in screening/assessment, supervision, case management and treatment/treatment referral.
Topics covered:
- crimes of violence (rape, gender, sexual assault, robbery, assault) and theft (pocket picking, purse snatching, burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft), with data on victim characteristics (gender, age, race, ethnicity, marital status, income, and residence)
- crime characteristics (time and place of occurrence, distance from home, weapon use, self-protection, injury, medical care, economic loss, and time lost from work)
- victim-offender relationship
- victims' perceptions of substance use by offenders and of offender characteristics (age, race, and gender)
- whether crimes were reported to the police and reasons why police response time for reported crimes
This report presents the first information from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual survey of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years old or older. This initial report on the 2007 data presents national estimates of rates of use, numbers of users, and other measures related to illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco products. Measures related to mental health problems also are presented, including data on depression and on the co-occurrence of substance use and mental health problems. Estimates from NSDUH for States and areas within States will be presented in separate reports. A major focus of this report is a comparison of substance use prevalence estimates between 2006 and 2007. Trends since 2002 also are discussed for some measures. Because of improvements to the survey in 2002, the 2002 data constitute a new baseline for tracking trends in substance use and other measures. Therefore, estimates from the 2002 through 2007 NSDUHs should not be compared with estimates from the 2001 and earlier surveys in the series to assess changes in substance use and mental health problems over time.
The World Health Report 2007 - A safer future: global public health security in the 21st century marks a turning point in the history of public health, and signals what could be one of the biggest advances in health security in half a century. It shows how the world is at increasing risk of disease outbreaks, epidemics, industrial accidents, natural disasters and other health emergencies which can rapidly become threats to global public health security. The report explains how the revised International Health Regulations (2005), which came into force this year, helps countries to work together to identify risks and act to contain and control them. The regulations are needed because no single country, regardless of capability or wealth, can protect itself from outbreaks and other hazards without the cooperation of others. The report says the prospect of a safer future is within reach - and that this is both a collective aspiration and a mutual responsibility.
This brief training resource is designed to disseminate vital information about the Transitional Independent Living Plan. Two resources are provided: one for supervisors and managers, the other for child welfare workers. The child welfare worker resource is designed to be conducted by a trainer, or by a supervisor or facilitator. Both are designed to last about one hour, so that they may be provided during a regular meeting, such as a unit meeting.
Concurrent Planning is an important method in providing permanency to children who are in out-of-home care. Workshop outline.
Government statistics indicate that over 500,000 children in the United States spend part or all of the year in substitute care and not with their birth families. This number only continues to rise, as does the need for effective, supportive foster and special needs adoptive families. This booklet is designed to provide information and self-assessment guides to persons considering foster parenting and/or special needs adoption. The information on the following pages will help interested persons make an informed decision on whether to become a foster and/or special needs adoptive parent.
September 19, 2008
This booklet has been produced by the Department of Health, in association with other partners. It aims to help you maintain good health during winter and take advantage of the financial help and benefits available. You’ll find useful tips on heating your home effectively, a large section on financial support available, steps on preparing your home for the winter and advice on staying healthy.
Presents data from the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities about inmates who were parents and their minor children. This report compares estimates of the number of incarcerated parents and their children under the age of 18, by gender, age, race, and Hispanic origin in state and federal prisons in 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, and 2007. It presents the total number of children who were minors at some time during their parent’s incarceration. The report describes selected background characteristics of parents in prisons, including marital status, citizenship, education, offense type, criminal history, employment, prior experiences of homelessness, drug and alcohol involvement, mental health, and physical and sexual abuse. It provides family background of inmate parents including household makeup, public assistance received by household, drug and alcohol use, and incarceration of family members. It includes information on the children’s daily care, financial support, current caregivers, and frequency and type of contact with incarcerated parents.
To evaluate the adequacy and efficiency of preschool education, the RAND Corporation has undertaken the California Preschool Study to improve understanding of achievement gaps in the early elementary grades, the adequacy of preschool education currently given, and what efficiencies or additional resources might be brought to bear in early care and education. In California, there has been only limited information about the nature and quality of the early care and education (ECE) arrangements of preschool-age children — those who are one or two years away from kindergarten entry.
These two-page fact sheets describe Casey's investments to serve children, strengthen families, and improve child welfare systems across the country. They also provide general data about the foster care population in each state.
Today, grassroots community and faithbased treatment and recovery providers are concerned about sustaining critical services for individuals and families aff ected by substance abuse and mental health disorders. Time-limited grant funding and categorical funding streams leave grassroots organizations in a constant scramble to find funds and pay rent, utilities, salaries, and program expenses. Relying on grant awards and contracts alone will not ensure a future for such organizations: Once those funds are gone, critical services for clients may cease to exist. Again and again, organizations that rely on funds from grants and contracts come back to the same question: “How do I fi nd the resources to sustain and support my program services over time?”
The overall aim of the project is to assess patterns of family formation and change where families include a disabled adult or a disabled child and the primary focus is on family units which include a dependent child. The research involves assessing currently available literature and conducting data analysis to explore the experience of relationship breakdown in families which include a disabled person, and examining whether there are associations that can be highlighted between disability experiences and relationship transitions. There is little British evidence looking at the effect that being a disabled adult, or having a disabled child, has on rates of family break-up or on re-partnering or having children. This study fills this significant gap in our knowledge.
September 18, 2008
This report examines the impact of social care personalisation in rural areas on resource allocations, community social cohesion and the social care workforce. It considers the role the voluntary sector can play in supporting the personalisation of social care and the opportunity for local government to work in partnership with outside agencies, including rural interest groups, on the personalisation of services.
This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper updates CBO’s previously published long-term projections of the Social Security program’s finances. The projections cover the 75-year period spanning 2008 to 2082.
Working with Sallie Mae, Gallup has successfully developed the first mathematically representative picture of how the average American family pays for college. However, presenting a clearer picture of how well the nation’s system of financing higher education is functioning for American families is not enough. There are a number of compelling questions that should be explored based on what American families revealed in this study.
From April to July 2008, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old increased by 1.9 million to 21.0 million, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. July is the traditional summertime peak for youth employment. This summer's increase in youth employment was lower than last year's 2.3 million increase. Unemployment among youth increased by 1.2 million between April and July 2008; this was more than twice the increase in youth unemployment during the same period in 2007.
This report addresses the unique challenges for practitioners in developing, strengthening, and disseminating evidence-based practice (EBP) for children, adolescents, and their families. . . . The report covers:
- a brief history and the key assumptions of EBP
- developmental considerations for children and adolescents
- the critical issues affecting the dissemination and implementation of EBP
- an approach to practice that consists of observation, inquiry, and evaluation
- recommendations for research, education, practice, and policy
Describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of four prominent Children’s Advocacy Centers and comparison communities in coordinating child abuse investigations and providing victim services. The Bulletin examines the role these centers play in child abuse investigations and suggests ways that the centers could improve services in the future.
The context for this report is provided by the short-, medium- and long-term Government targets first to reduce, and ultimately to eliminate, child poverty by 2020. The detrimental effects of poverty on children’s development are well established: children growing up in poverty, especially persistent poverty, do less well at school, have poorer health and often end up in poorly paid jobs or unemployment as adults. Moreover, a lack of income can mean that children are unable to participate in social activities in the same way as their better-off peers are able to do. However, it is the nature and size of the link between changes in family income and incomerelated measures on the one hand and child outcomes on the other, particularly educational and behaviour outcomes, that form the essence of this report. In addition, more limited evidence is provided about the effects of economic changes experienced in childhood and these same children’s incomes in adulthood. This focus on change in income (and in outcomes) over time rather than on levels of income at a particular point in time, is predicated on the view that this is the most appropriate method of separating genuine causal effects from processes of self-selection and choice. The approach does, however, carry with it a number of methodological challenges. The findings have been generated from sophisticated statistical analyses of three longitudinal datasets: the British birth cohort study that started in 1970 (BCS70), the more recent Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) that started in 2001, and the National Pupil Database (NPD) – the administrative dataset generated from school records and pupils’ test scores.
September 17, 2008
This report summarises the findings of two qualitative research projects that have been commissioned by the Housing Corporation to improve our understanding of BME tenants:
- ‘Drivers of satisfaction amongst black and minority ethnic (BME) tenants’ exploring why satisfaction levels are lower amongst BME tenants
- ‘Culturally sensitive service provision in social housing’ examining the level of importance placed by BME tenants on the provision of culturally sensitive services
From January 2005 through December 2007, 3.6 million workers were displaced from jobs they had held for at least 3 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported . . . The number of displaced workers was about the same as the level (3.8 million) recorded in the previous survey that covered the period from January 2003 to December 2005.
Over the last 25 years homeless families with children have emerged as a distinct subgroup of the U.S. homeless population. In 2007, between one-third and one-half of all homeless persons in the United States were members of families with children. Among homeless women, approximately two-thirds were living with minor children, 80% of whom were under eleven years of age. The increase in family homelessness over the last quarter century has coincided with a growth in the number of single-parent families and a general decline in social support networks for such families.
In recognition of the changing landscape of Alzheimer's disease, with a growing constituency of people in the early stages, the Alzheimer's Association launched its national Early Stage Initiative in 2006. The cornerstone of this Initiative is an advisory group of people with earlystage Alzheimer's that serve as spokespersons, advocates and advisors to the Association, offering first-hand insight into the experience of a person with Alzheimer's. During the first year of the Initiative, members of the Early Stage Advisory Group clearly indicated that it was important not only to listen to them as representatives of people with the disease, but that the experiences and perspectives of those nationwide would be equally insightful, suggesting a need to cast the net much wider to capture as much input as possible. Therefore, we explored ways in which to facilitate an active dialog directly among those with Alzheimer's nationwide. Ultimately, the Alzheimer‟s Association decided to host a series of early stage town hall meetings around the country to give voice to people with early-stage Alzheimer‟s, allowing us to listen and learn about their experiences and perspectives on the disease. This series of town hall meetings stands as the first-ever nationwide discussion about Alzheimer‟s disease by people with Alzheimer‟s disease.
The Effective Pre-school and Primary Education 3-11 project (EPPE3-11) is a longitudinal study using multi-level modelling to investigate the effects of home background, pre-school and primary education on pupils’ attainment and social / behavioural development.
In his recent review of the future role of the social rented housing sector, John Hills (2007) observed that levels of worklessness within the social rented sector are disproportionately high, even when taking into account the relatively high levels of disadvantage apparent among the tenant base. This report presents the key findings to emerge from a study commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that set out to explain the relatively high levels of worklessness apparent within the social rented sector.
September 16, 2008
This report covers the treatment and conditions of the growing number of older prisoners in England and Wales.
Between 2006 and 2007, real median household income rose 1.3 percent, from $49,568 to $50,233 . . . . a level not statistically different from the 1999 prerecession income peak. This was the third annual increase in real median household income. Compared with 1967, the first year for which household income statistics are available, real median household income has increased 29.6 percent.
Interpretation: This report indicates that substantial variations in health-risk behaviors, chronic diseases and conditions, and the use of preventive health services exist among adults from state to state and within states and underscores the continued need for prevention and health promotion activities at the local, state, and federal levels.
Youth are the tribes’ most precious resource. American Indians and Alaska Natives rely on their youth to carry their tribes and traditions into the future. Unfortunately, violent crime, substance abuse, and mental health issues prevent some tribal communities from upholding thatresponsibility. By holding the focus group, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention gathered information that it hopes will result in more responsive programs and ultimately ensure a brighter future for many of these children.
The Children's care monitor 2008 is our first annual report of what children and young people living away from home or getting help from children's social care services have told us about six things that are important to their lives: keeping safe, bullying, having a say in what happens to them, making complaints and suggestions, education, and care planning for people being looked after in care. The monitor provides children's own evaluation of the state of social care as they experience it.
This report draws upon evidence from the national evaluation of community strategies to consider how equality and diversity are addressed within community strategies in a selection of local authorities between 2003 and 2007.
September 15, 2008
This report presents findings from research to establish whether giving young people control and decision making power over resources in their local area led to an increase in provision of quality positive activities and the levels of participation by young people.
In 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 36.5 million people, or 12.3 percent of the population, lived at or below the offi cial poverty threshold, roughly the same number as in 2005. The majority of the Nation’s poor were children and adults who had not participated in the labor force during the year. However, 7.4 million were among the working poor—those who spent 27 weeks or more in the labor force, working or looking for work, but whose incomes still fell below the offi cial poverty level. These individuals represented 5.1 percent of all persons aged 16 years and older who were in the labor force for 27 weeks or more in 2006, down from 5.4 percent the previous year.
Hallam University were commissioned to undertake a literature review of international evidence of workfare programmes. Three countries were chosen as offering interesting and relevant examples of workfare type programmes: the US, Canada and Australia. It was clear from the outset that it would not be possible to import wholesale programmes from other countries into the UK, but that there would be key lessons.
As a result of the generally low quality of child care in the United States and the increased emphasis on accountability in education policy, quality rating systems (QRSs) are proliferating in the child-care arena. QRSs assess child-care providers on multiple dimensions of quality and integrate these assessments into an easily understood summary rating (such as from 0 to 4 stars). These ratings are intended to help parents, funders, and other stakeholders make more informed choices about child care and to encourage providers to improve. Most QRSs are actually QRISs — quality rating and improvement systems — since they include feedback and technical assistance to help providers improve the quality of their care. However, there has been very little empirical examination of the validity of these systems — how reliable their multiple components are, how effective they are in helping providers to improve the quality of care they provide, and how much children benefit from such improvement. This study assesses the QRIS developed by Qualistar Early Learning, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado that was one of the first organizations to create a QRIS.
This report presents RAND Europe's analysis of data generated by the Vital Communities programme between October 2005 and August 2007. The Vital Communities programme provides creative and artistic activities for children, their families, and wider communities in nine locations across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. RAND Europe was asked to evaluate the available evidence and data from a rigorous and analytical point of view in order to examine the effects attributable to the Vital Communities programme.
This code of practice contains guidance on the deprivation of liberty safeguards for professionals involved in administering and delivering the safeguards and for people who are, or could become, subject to the deprivation of liberty safeguards, and for their families, friends and carers, as well as for anyone who believes that someone is being deprived of their liberty unlawfully.
September 12, 2008
Californians make more than 10 million visits to hospital emergency departments annually. Many of these could be avoided with timely care from family physicians or outpatient clinics. This issue of California Counts presents a comprehensive portrait of emergency department care from several perspectives. Among its findings: The Central Valley and Los Angeles are home to some of the most crowded emergency departments in the state; patients with Medi-Cal coverage visit emergency departments more than do the uninsured; and Hispanics and Asians are less like to use emergency care than whites.
This study is about understanding the relationship between recent immigration and social cohesion in the context of other social and economic transformations that affect everyday life for everyone living in the UK. Current public debates often associate increasing ethnic diversity resulting from immigration with the erosion of social cohesion. This research suggests that issues of deprivation, disadvantage and long-term marginalisation, unrelated to immigration, must also be considered – as well as how people relate to each other – to ensure social cohesion.
Families and their children experience poverty when they are unable to achieve a minimum, decent standard of living that allows them to participate fully in mainstream society. One component of poverty is material hardship. Although we are all taught that the essentials are food, clothing, and shelter, the reality is that the definition of basic material necessities varies by time and place. In the United States, we all agree that having access to running water, electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephone service are essential to 21st century living even though that would not have been true 50 or 100 years ago.
Adult obesity rates increased in 37 states in the past year, according to the fifth annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2008 report from the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Rates rose for a second consecutive year in 24 states and for a third consecutive year in 19 states. No state saw a decrease. Though many promising policies have emerged to promote physical activity and good nutrition in communities, the report concludes that they are not being adopted or implemented at levels needed to turn around this health crisis.
Provides information on the estimated number and characteristics of children who were sexually assaulted in the United States in 1999. This Bulletin is the seventh in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) series. Information on sexual assault was gathered from NISMART–2 interviews with victims and their families.
September 11, 2008
Includes: Total Population, Age and Sex Distribution, Median Age, Children (under 15 years of age), Children Aged 0-4 Years, Working Age Population (aged 15-64 years), Older People (aged 65 years and over), Sex Ratio
Approaching poverty and deprivation in the context of place is an increasing focus of regeneration policy. How can integration be strengthened between social and economic interventions for deprived places, and what are the key challenges to more effective delivery? This paper summarises evidence about the underlying forces affecting place-based economic deprivation across Britain, and explores how interventions aimed at both people and places can be strengthened to tackle disadvantage.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) regularly prepares long-term projections of the future paths of revenues and outlays for the Social Security program. This latest report presents projections for the 75-year period from 2008 through 2082. . . . The projections differ somewhat from earlier results because of newly available programmatic and economic data, updated assumptions about future demographic and economic trends, and improvements in CBO’s models. Such long-term projections are necessarily uncertain; nevertheless, the general conclusions presented here hold true under a wide range of assumptions.
Homelessness encompasses a variety of situations. It can refer to long term homelessness, short stays in shelters, or living in non-traditional housing. Many families move in with relatives or friends – doubling-up – to avoid becoming homeless. The cause of homelessness varies greatly from state to state, but past research has generally focused on one of two theories of causation. While one area of research has concentrated on city-level factors as the main cause of homelessness, another has focused on individual and family characteristics. Because of limitations in data, these two perspectives have rarely been studied in conjunction with one another. This brief is based on analyses of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study that examines the relative contribution of both family- and city-level factors in predicting family homelessness and doubling-up.
Provides an overview of research on the deterrent effects of transferring youth from juvenile to criminal courts, focusing on large-scale comprehensive OJJDP-funded studies on the effect of transfer laws on recidivism. The Bulletin reviews all of the extant research on the general and specific deterrent effects of transferring juveniles to adult criminal court.
While politicians from all parties are committed to tackling relative poverty, the debates lack a robust definition of a minimum income standard (MIS), below which people’s incomes should not fall. This study devised a minimum income standard for Britain based on what members of the public said, and shows the cost of covering basic goods and services for different household types. The project blends the best elements of the two main methods that have been used to develop budget standards in Britain in recent years. It reconciles the views of experts with those of ordinary people, allowing budgets based on social consensus to be tested against expert knowledge and research. As such, the MIS represents a new and important tool for informing social policy in order to promote fairness and well-being in Britain.
September 10, 2008
This report assesses key small area datasets for target setting, performance monitoring and wider contextual analysis. It is one of two reports published from the Neighbourhood-level Indicator Datasets project, which is aimed at local authorities and their partners wishing to use neighbourhood-level data.
This study aimed to:
- identify and evaluate research on forms of financial exclusion;
- create a database of current work across the UK aimed at those vulnerable to financial exclusion;
- appraise relevant policy initiatives, identifying those vulnerable groups left out of current initiatives, either entirely or partly;
- assess which groups are likely to remain excluded and how policy-makers and practitioners can address their needs.
This study examines person-centred support, a key new concern in public services. It does this by bringing together for the first time the views, ideas and experience of service users, face to face practitioners and managers. Government is committed to ‘personalisation’, ‘self-directed support’ and ‘individual budgets’ in social care, aiming for increased choice and control for the people who use services. This is a move away from traditional, 'one-size-fits-all' approaches.
Health and social service workers often have to decide whether parenting is appropriate. Similarly, policy-makers planning services for families need information about parenting norms and detrimental parenting. This report is intended to provide support for such decision-making, so as both to reduce the risks to children and avoid inappropriate censuring of parents. It examines parenting in Britain during early and middle childhood within different social and cultural groups. It also looks at how parenting develops and changes over time.
Despite the efforts of the child protection system, child maltreatment fatalities remain a serious problem.1 Although the untimely deaths of children due to illness and accidents have been closely monitored, deaths that result from physical assault or severe neglect can be more difficult to track because the perpetrators, usually parents, are less likely to be forthcoming about the circumstances. Intervention strategies targeted at solving this problem face complex challenges.
The NSDUH Report: Inhalant Use and Major Depressive Episode among Youths Aged 12 to 17: 2004 to 2006
- In 2004 to 2006, 1.1 million youths aged 12 to 17 (4.5 percent) used inhalants in the past year, and 2.1 million (8.5 percent) had experienced major depressive episode (MDE) in the past year
- The rate of past year inhalant use was higher among youths aged 12 to 17 who had MDE in the past year than among those who did not (10.2 vs. 4.0 percent); an estimated 218,000 youths had used inhalants and experienced MDE in the past year
- Among the youths aged 12 to 17 who had used inhalants and experienced MDE in their lifetime, 43.1 percent had their first episode of MDE before initiating inhalant use, 28.3 percent used inhalants before they had their first episode of MDE, and 28.5 percent started using inhalants and had their first episode of MDE at about the same time
September 9, 2008
In 1979, federal taxes claimed 8 percent of the income of households in the lowest quintile of the income distribution. Over the following three decades, the average effective tax rate (ETR) - taxes as a percentage of income - fell by nearly half to 4.3 percent in 2005. Most of the decline resulted from a sharp drop in the individual income tax, primarily due to expansion of the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit (CTC). Because the EITC is refundable and the CTC is partially refundable, they can reduce a household?s tax liability below zero and generate a net payment.
This month is the 12th anniversary of the federal welfare reform law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which marked a turning point in the political debate about shifting public assistance toward a system of temporary support with a concerted focus on moving recipients into the labor force. One of the most controversial features of the 1990s welfare reforms was the imposition of time limits on benefit receipt. The landmark 1996 welfare law prohibited states from using federal TANF funds to assist most families for more than 60 months. Proponents of welfare reform argued that the time limits in the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), would send a firm message to recipients that welfare is intended to be temporary and that, when presented with a deadline, recipients would find jobs or other sources of support. Conversely, critics pointed out that many welfare recipients have low levels of education and skills and other personal and family challenges that make steady work difficult, and they predicted that time limits would cause harm to many vulnerable families.
The project’s aims were:
- To encourage participation in and understanding of the policy-making process by women living in poverty, using participatory methods.
- To help women living in poverty to understand policy debates, explore policy solutions and engage with policy-makers directly.
- To improve the evidence base that informs policy-makers by enabling direct dialogue with women living in poverty.
- Ultimately, to develop more effective policies as a result.
All 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories have mandatory child abuse and neglect reporting laws that require certain professionals and institutions to report suspected maltreatment to a child protective services (CPS) agency. Examples of these mandatory reporters include health care providers and facilities, mental health care providers, teachers and other school staff, social workers, police officers, foster care providers, and daycare providers. The initial report of suspected child abuse or neglect is called a referral. Approximately one-third of referrals are screened out each year and do not receive further attention from CPS. The remaining referrals are "screened in" and an investigation or assessment is conducted by the CPS agency to determine the likelihood that maltreatment has occurred or that the child is at risk of maltreatment. After conducting interviews with family members, the alleged victim, and other people familiar with the family, the CPS agency makes a determination or finding concerning whether the child is a victim of abuse or neglect or is at risk of abuse or neglect. This determination often is called a disposition. Each State establishes specific dispositions and terminology.
Regeneration strategies for deprived areas are currently under review. To date there has been little if any direct evaluation of the contribution of transport services to local regeneration. This study evaluates the benefits – both monetary and quality of life – of transport services to the people who use them and to the local practitioners responsible for the wider regeneration of these neighbourhoods.
Examines satisfaction with law enforcement from the perspective of all primary caretakers who contacted police when one or more of their children experienced a qualifying episode in the Second National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway, and Thrownaway Children (NISMART–2) National Household Survey of Adult Caretakers.
September 8, 2008
Designed to promote retirement saving, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 clarified auto-enrollment, auto-contribution, and auto-investment rules in employer 401(k) plans. Early evidence suggests that the legislation boosted these plan features and increased employee participation in 401(k) plans. It is too soon to gauge the act's ultimate success, however, because it hinges on the number of new participants that will eventually amass substantial account balances. Adding to the uncertainty, the recent LaRue Supreme Court decision, which highlights the legal liability that employers face as plan fiduciaries, could undermine future retirement security by making some employers reluctant to sponsor plans.
Equal access to the right to vote is a crucial part of maintaining a true democracy. Voting allows people to play a part in deciding the direction of their communities by voicing their opinion on issues that are important and relevant to their lives. Each election, low income and homeless individuals vote at a lower rate than people with higher incomes, despite the fact that many policy decisions directly impact people who are economically disadvantaged. Currently, issues such as raising the minimum wage and funding certain social welfare and housing programs are being debated in the U.S. Congress and in communities around the country. In order for our government to truly represent the people, citizens must vote-- especially those who are economically disadvantaged. For years, homeless citizens have had obstacles to registering. In the 1984 case Pitts v. Black, 608 F.Supp. 696 (S.D.N.Y. 1984), a federal court in New York explicitly found that homeless persons could not be denied the right to vote just because they did not live in a traditional residence. Courts deciding subsequent cases from around the country came to similar conclusions. Although it has been established that homeless individuals do not need to live in a traditional residence to register to vote, other obstacles remain. Today, many homeless and low income individuals may not have the appropriate identification documents required by some states to register or to vote. Furthermore, many individuals who are experiencing homelessness may lack the resources to educate themselves about candidates or may not be able to get to the polls on Election Day.
U.S. public policy has increasingly been conceived, debated, and evaluated through the lenses of politics and ideology. The fundamental question—Will the policy work?—too often gets short shrift or even ignored. A remedy is evidence-based policy—a rigourous approach that draws on careful data collection, experimentation, and both quantitative and qualitative analysis to determine what the problem is, which ways it can be addressed, and the probable impacts of each of these ways. Examples of how evidence informs good policy and lack of evidence can invite bad include health insurance coverage, education, sentencing policy, and redress for housing discrimination.
- Because poverty exacts such a high toll on our society, it is critical that we measure it in a meaningful way so that we can address it and measure the degree to which our anti-poverty policies are successful.
- The National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) 1995 recommendations for improving the official poverty measure offer the most promising – and efficacious – approach to creating a more accurate measure of income poverty.
- In a wealthy, advanced industrial society such as ours, it is imperative that we supplement measures of income poverty with additional indicators of the health and well-being of our nation’s citizens, especially our youngest.
Parent education is designed to strengthen and support families and communities to prevent child abuse and neglect. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as reauthorized by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003, identifies parent education as a core prevention service. A significant number of Community-Based Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention (CBCAP) grants are funding parent education programs as stand-alone efforts or as part of more comprehensive strategies. Successful parent education programs help parents acquire and internalize parenting and problem-solving skills necessary to build a healthy family. Research has shown that effective parent training and family interventions promote protective factors and lead to positive outcomes for both parents and children
These are challenging economic times for America’s families. Low- and moderate-income workers are seeing their wages stagnate or decline, while the cost of basic necessities continues to rise. The economy is losing jobs, unemployment rates are rising, families are losing their homes, and food and gas prices are skyrocketing. Forgotten in the policy discussions about these new economic realities is the profound effect that economic hardship can have on children. Ongoing exposure to economic hardship, especially when children are young, can compromise their development – limiting their opportunities, academic achievement, and future health and productivity. Research consistently shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to make ends meet. Currently, 39 percent of America’s children are living in families with low incomes, that is, incomes under twice the federal poverty level, or roughly $42,000 for a family of four in 2008. This kind of widespread economic hardship has the potential to hinder our nation’s competitiveness in the global economy.
This letter and annex set out the existing policy and legal framework for the transfer of learning disability social care funding and commissioning from the NHS to local authorities with effect from 1 April 2009. The annex provides guidance on what is covered, what primary care trusts and local authorities need to do and the timescale for the transfer. The proposed transfer was set out in Valuing People Now.
September 5, 2008
The assessment of young children's development and learning has recently taken on new importance. Private and government organizations are developing programs to enhance the school readiness of all young children, especially children from economically disadvantaged homes and communities and children with special needs. Well-planned and effective assessment can inform teaching and program improvement, and contribute to better outcomes for children. This book affirms that assessments can make crucial contributions to the improvement of children's well-being, but only if they are well designed, implemented effectively, developed in the context of systematic planning, and are interpreted and used appropriately. Otherwise, assessment of children and programs can have negative consequences for both. The value of assessments therefore requires fundamental attention to their purpose and the design of the larger systems in which they are used. Early Childhood Assessment addresses these issues by identifying the important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and the quality and purposes of different techniques and instruments for developmental assessments.
This summary sets out the main findings from a review of the recent literature on strategies to tackle illicit drug markets and distribution networks in the UK. . . . The main literature searches for this review were conducted during late September 2007 using a number of search terms and bibliographic data sources. In drawing together the evidence for this review we aimed to answer four broad questions:
· What is the nature and extent of the problem?
· What are current UK responses?
· What are effective strategies for dealing with these issues?
· Where are the gaps in our knowledge and understanding?
The indicators and background measures presented in America's Children in Brief all have been used in previous reports by the Forum. Indicators are chosen because they are easy to understand; are based on substantial research connecting them to child well-being; vary across important areas of children's lives; are measured regularly so that they can be updated and show trends over time; and represent large segments of the population, rather than one particular group. The indicators are organized into seven sections, each focusing on a domain relevant to children's lives: Family and Social Environment, Economic Circumstances, Health Care, Physical Environment and Safety, Behavior, Education, and Health.
Research on immigration and the uninsured: Research is mixed on how immigration has contributed to the increase in the uninsured population: One study concluded that immigrants who arrived between 1994–1998 accounted for the majority of the growth in the uninsured population, but a similar study concluded that they are not a significant reason for the growth of the uninsured.
Children are a declining priority in the federal budget—a trend that shows no signs of stopping. In 2007, the federal government paid out $2.7 trillion through spending programs and disbursed roughly another $1 trillion through the tax code. Rapidly expanding entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—and the country’s defense system consumed the largest shares of the budget, while spending on children remained essentially stagnant and did not keep up with growth in the economy.
Casey’s mission is clear and outcome-driven: By the year 2020, we will see the number of children and youth in foster care safely reduced by half. To make this vision a reality, the states and the federal government must significantly change the way child welfare is financed so that it facilitates measurable outcomes. To best serve vulnerable children, youth and their families, child welfare systems need to interface with various other human service agencies. It is critical to align federal funding streams to avoid duplication and unnecessary complications in the lives of our most vulnerable citizens.
September 4, 2008
This resource guide is primarily designed to be of use to classroom- or practice-based educators involved in teaching and assessing partnership work to social work students at qualifying level. This includes lecturers and practice educators as well as people who use services and their carers. It will also be useful to other audiences, including: educators from related disciplines teaching partnership work; classroom and practice educators at postqualifying levels; external examiners and others involved in quality assurance of qualifying education; and, to employers and managers.
In 2006-07 there were 8.1 million households in Australia, of which 72% (5.8 million) contained one or more families. Families, as counted in the survey, are defined as:
- two or more persons, one of whom is at least 15 years of age, who are related by blood, marriage (registered or de facto), adoption, step or fostering; and
- who are usually resident in the same household. . . .
Lone person households comprised 25% of Australian households in 2006-07, with 2 million people, or 10% of the Australian population (in private dwellings) living alone. There were more women than men living alone. Neither the proportion of lone person households, nor the greater proportion of lone women compared to lone men, has changed over the last decade
Presents information for 52 state parole supervising agencies at midyear 2006, including the California Youth Authority and the District of Columbia. This report describes, by state, where these agencies were located in each state's administrative structure, the number of adult parolees, and probationers, if any, under supervision, and the number of separate offices the parole agency operated. National estimates are presented for the number and type of staff employed by parole supervising agencies and of parole supervision caseloads. Use of drug abuse testing, various treatment programs, and the availability of housing and employment assistance programs are documented.
Child poverty matters because children who live in poverty lack many of the opportunities and experiences of their peers, and can suffer hardship, deprivation and exclusion. These negative experiences can lead to worse outcomes in childhood and beyond. Child poverty has effects that go beyond the individual: poor children tend to have lower educational attainment, and low skills and productivity will stunt economic growth, limiting the UK’s ability to compete in the global economy. Poorer outcomes for children and families place extra burdens and costs on public services, such as health care and children’s services and affect everybody’s day to day experiences of safety and well‐being. Communities suffer through increased deprivation and inequalities which reduce social cohesion. Ending child poverty will therefore bring benefits to children, families, society and the economy in the UK.
Children and young people face all sorts of pressures and it may be that your child is feeling pressure to follow friends who are in a gang. You can help your child make the right choice. By recognising the signs and seeking help, you could make a positive step towards changing the course of your child's life.
Every year, more than 100,000 children in foster care are available for adoption. Many spend more than five years waiting for permanent, loving homes. Between 2000 and 2007, more than 20,000 children were joined together with their forever families as part of National Adoption Day activities.
This study assesses the social and monetary value of public transport initiatives in four deprived areas of England in order to identify who benefits and how they benefit in relation to wider social inclusion objectives.
September 3, 2008
Priorities for action describes how an increasing number of people living in rural communities are working with local and regional partners to develop innovative solutions to address poverty in rural England.
This report provides a rural perspective to inform policy makers and practitioners working to reduce financial poverty. It presents the latest statistical evidence of the scale and depth of rural financial poverty and recommends priorities for action to guide their work.
This study was commissioned to provide an early evaluation of some of the measures of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. The report focuses on the three measures of the Act that were implemented during the evaluation period:
- making common assault an arrestable offence*
- making it an arrestable, criminal offence to breach a non-molestation order
- extending the civil law on domestic violence (to ensure cohabiting same-sex couples have the same access to non-molestation and occupation orders as opposite sex couples, and non-molestation orders are available to couples who have never cohabited).
HandsOnScotland is an online resource for anybody working with children and young people. The website provides practical information and techniques on how to respond helpfully to children and young people's troubling behaviour, build up their self-esteem and promote their positive mental wellbeing. HandsOnScotland was developed by Playfield Institute (NHS Fife) in partnership with Barnardo's and the University of Dundee.
Adoption is an institution that fulfills several purposes in contemporary American society. It provides parents for infants who are relinquished by birth parents (1) and for children whose parents have died or had their parental rights legally terminated. It provides individuals and couples a means to bring children into their families when they are unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term due to fertility difficulties (2,3). And, it can serve to provide a legal relationship between an adult and a nonbiological child for whom the adult is already caring—a stepchild, a child related by blood or marriage, or a child not related in any manner to the adopter and his or her partner—the adoption occurs to formalize the parent-child relationship, not necessarily to fulfill the adult’s desire to raise a child.
For most of the twentieth century, Australian adoptions occurred within a closed system whereby adoption records were sealed and kept secret (Swain, 1992). The original birth certificate was amended so that it contained the adoptive parents’ names (Brodzinsky, 2005) and there was a general belief that adoption should be just “like building a family biologically” (Hartman, 1993, p. 87). Many countries have since moved to various kinds of open adoption policies (Brodzinsky, 2005). Since legislative changes in Australia in the early 1990s, adoptees and birthmothers have been able to access identifying information once the adoptee reaches 18 years of age. For adoptions that occurred prior to these changes, information can still be accessed when the adoptee turns 18, though legislation in some states also allows either party to lodge a veto against the release of such information. As a result, some adoptees are still denied access to their own identity and background, thus continuing the legacy of secrecy from the closed era.
The current social care transformation policy has at its heart the personalisation of services so that people can choose the type of support that is more suited to their individual needs and preferences. This knowledge review focuses on an approach to delivering mental health services that is vital to achieving personalised support for those accessing opportunities for employment, education and meaningful occupation.
September 2, 2008
This report assesses the impact of the end of life care strategy, which sets out the current status and challenges to the delivery of end of life care, and how improvements can be made.
The Modernising Allied Health Professions Career (MAHPC) work is a workforce initiative to maximise the contribution AHPs can make to transforming health and social care. There was a need to develop a flexible and responsive approach to allied health professions careers that reflects the diversity of the professions and the location and sectors they work in whilst, at the same time, maximising their potential to contribute to transforming patient care and promoting health and well-being.
- Approximately one in six people in England experiences some form of mental health problem at any given time, with some groups more vulnerable than others.
- The traditional skills of social work remain important and social workers have a distinctive role in multi-agency settings.
- Social work needs to develop practices which help people with mental health problems identify and realise their own needs.
- Social work has a significant role to play in coordinating efforts to support individuals and groups who may often have negative experiences and perceptions of mental health services.
Every woman in the United States participates in a daily beauty pageant, whether she likes it or not. Engulfed by a popular culture saturated with images of idealized, air-brushed and unattainable female physical beauty, women and girls cannot escape feeling judged on the basis of their appearance. As a result, many women feel chronically insecure, overweight and inadequate, as these beauty images apply to an ever-shrinking pool of women. Moreover, the diet, cosmetic and fashion industries are often too willing to exploit these narrow beauty standards so women and girls will become cradle-to-grave consumers of beauty products, cosmetic surgery and diet programs.
The State of Working America 2008/2009, released by the Economic Policy Institute in an online preview version, provides a detailed picture of the 2000-2007 business cycle, its impact on America’s working people and families, and its implications for the current downturn. In this 11th edition, EPI economists Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz update and expand on previous volumes with the latest data and analysis in a new introduction and commentary, plus chapters on jobs, wages, family income, and income mobility.
Concern has been expressed about the number of adults with learning disabilities receiving various forms of supported accommodation services who are living away from the communities to which they belong (ie, are ‘placed out-of-area’). This knowledge review brings together knowledge from research and practice on commissioning person-centred, cost-effective, local support for people with learning disabilities who are labelled as having complex needs and/or challenging behaviour.