The Labour leadership and children’s policy

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Carl Purcell
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Alternative Source ◽  
Labour Government ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Universal Approach

This chapter discusses the development of children’s policy during the early years of the Labour Government focusing on the reform priorities of the Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Chancellor Gordon Brown. Blair’s key children’s policy priorities were education reform and tackling ‘problem’ young people. Alongside this the Brown led Treasury pursued a ‘progressive universal’ approach to reducing child poverty involving reform of tax and benefits and investment in public services. It is argued that the Treasury’s control over the departmental spending review process provided it with a more effective lever to influence policy-making in Whitehall departments compared to No 10. It is also argued that the Treasury turned to representatives of children’s sector NGOs to bolster the case for tackling child poverty within government and to act as an alternative source of policy expertise to departmental civil servants and local statutory agencies perceived to be resistant to reform. It was during this period that the Treasury’s flagship Sure Start programme was initiated.

Fiscal Squeeze in the 1990s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hood ◽  
Rozana Himaz
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
New Labour ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Labour Government ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Conservative Government ◽  
Leader Following ◽  
Spending Growth ◽  
First Time

This chapter describes a long-drawn-out fiscal squeeze in the 1990s against the background of another sharp recession triggered by financial crisis. This episode spans the reigns of a divided Conservative Government which was unexpectedly re-elected in the 1992 election after changing its leader following a major tax revolt, but nevertheless succeeded in restraining public spending growth relative to growing GDP, and the early years of the succeeding ‘New Labour’ Government led by Tony Blair after a landslide victory in the 1997 election. The episode is notable for post-election tax hikes by both governments and for the fact that spending restraint plans announced by one government were followed by its successor for the first time since the 1920s—following a so-called ‘bear trap’ approach by the Conservatives, of announcing spending targets beyond their electoral term and challenging their political opponents to either accept those targets or face charges of planning a ‘tax bombshell’.

The impact of algorithmic decision-making processes on young people’s well-being (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elvira Perez Vallejos ◽  
Liz Dowthwaite ◽  
Helen Creswich ◽  
Virginia Portillo ◽  
Ansgar Koene ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Online Platforms ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND Algorithms rule the online environments and are essential for performing data processing, filtering, personalisation and other tasks. Research has shown that children and young people make up a significant proportion of Internet users, however little attention has been given to their experiences of algorithmically-mediated online platforms, or the impact of them on their mental health and well-being. The algorithms that govern online platforms are often obfuscated by a lack of transparency in their online Terms and Conditions and user agreements. This lack of transparency speaks to the need for protecting the most vulnerable users from potential online harms. OBJECTIVE To capture young people's experiences when being online and perceived impact on their well-being. METHODS In this paper, we draw on qualitative and quantitative data from a total of 260 children and young people who took part in a ‘Youth Jury’ to bring their opinions to the forefront, elicit discussion of their experiences of using online platforms, and perceived psychosocial impact on users. RESULTS The results of the study revealed the young people’s positive as well as negative experiences of using online platforms. Benefits such as being convenient and providing entertainment and personalised search results were identified. However, the data also reveals participants’ concerns for their privacy, safety and trust when online, which can have a significant impact on their well-being. CONCLUSIONS We conclude by making recommendations that online platforms acknowledge and enact on their responsibility to protect the privacy of their young users, recognising the significant developmental milestones that this group experience during these early years, and the impact that technology may have on them. We argue that governments need to incorporate policies that require technologists and others to embed the safeguarding of users’ well-being within the core of the design of Internet products and services to improve the user experiences and psychological well-being of all, but especially those of children and young people. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

Changes in the Use of Drugs, Tobacco, and Alcohol among Norwegian Youth from 1968 – 1979

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olav Irgens-Jensen ◽  
Mons George Rud
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Young People ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Way

In order to provide information on the way in which use of drugs - and of alcohol and tobacco -among young people changes over a period of time, the Norwegian National Institute for Alcohol Research has each spring, since 1968, conducted a survey of the youth of Oslo to determine their use of these drugs. The results are of significance not only from a scientific point of view but also from the point of view of practical policy-making. For instance, since 1974 there does not seem to have been any increase in alcohol consumption among the youth of Oslo, a fact which may reflect the measures which were introduced at that time in order to curb alcohol consumption among young people in Norway.

scholarly journals SECULAR STAGNATION: REAL PROBLEMS AND STATISTICAL ILLUSIONS

2021 ◽  
Vol 230 (4) ◽  
pp. 156-178
Author(s):  
J.K. GALBRAITH ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Price Change ◽  
National Income ◽  
Secular Stagnation ◽  
Manufacturing Employment

The changing economic structures, increased complexity and social requirements of advanced societies have rendered the statistical foundations of the National Income and Product Accounts highly problematic as a guide to policy-making. Discussions of “secular stagnation” and low productivity growth are predicated on these problematic measures, including the measures of price change that are used to distinguish “real” from “nominal” changes. This paper explores the consequences for measurement and for policy of the rise of the decline of manufacturing employment, the rise of services, and the rising need for public goods, public services, and investments aimed at sustainability and at the quality of life.

scholarly journals The Role Of Education Reform In Uzbekistan In Reducing Youth Delinquency

2020 ◽  
Vol 02 (11) ◽  
pp. 73-78
Author(s):  
Tojibayev Bakhromjon Turabayevich ◽  
◽  
Azimov Ashirali Mexmonboevich ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Young People ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Education Reforms ◽  
Youth Delinquency

The article assesses the importance of education in the modern world and its role in reducing youth deviation as a social institution. Education reforms in Uzbekistan emphasize the quality of reducing the deviation of young people by increasing the efficiency of "human capital".

scholarly journals Giving Consumers of British Public Services More Choice: What can be Learned from Recent History?

2003 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
PERRI 6
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Choice ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Political Risk ◽  
Recent Experience ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
Individual Consumer ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
British Prime Minister

British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in the autumn of 2001 that he wanted to extend individual consumer choice in the public services (Blair, 2001). What do we know from recent experience about the conditions under which such policies can be sustained? In this article, the experience of individual consumer choice over the last ten, and in some cases, fifteen years, is compared across nine fields of British public services. The article identifies the policy goals for introducing choice, considers how far they were typically achieved, and identifies problems and unintended side-effects, including distributional problems, inefficiencies and one type of political risk. This provisional evaluation is based on a widely ranging review of literature spanning several disciplines. The principal products of the argument are two detailed tables, setting out, respectively, the degree to which the goals seem to have been achieved for each choice programme, as far as the available literature can tell us, and how far distributional, efficiency and political risk problems have dogged consumer choice in each field. In the discussion section, trends and variations are summarised. Finally, some lessons are drawn from the comparisons, for policy makers who may be considering the further extension of consumer choice in public services.

Saying and Doing

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 710-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Bessant ◽  
Karen Broadley
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Legal Requirements ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Out Of Home Care ◽  
Espoused Theory ◽  
Right To Participation ◽  
Official Recognition

Modern policy-making communities repeatedly proclaim the idea and value of participation and ‘listening to children and young people’. We note the growing official recognition of children and young people’s right to participation in policies relating to child protection and out-of-home care. Indeed, taking their views into account is mandated in many countries with domestic and international legal requirements accompanying the policy commitments to its value. In this article we explore the disparity or tensions between the ‘espoused theory’ and the ‘theory-in-use’ within child protection. We observe a gap between what policy-makers and practitioners say is the practice and what is actually done, and consider whether there is an effective commitment to the participation of children in child protection. While we rely primarily on Australian and English material, we suggest the arguments and findings presented here have a general international relevance.

Supporting school leavers in areas of deprivation into initial positive leaver destinations

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen McKinney ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
Kevin Lowden ◽  
Michele McClung ◽  
Lauren Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
School Leaver ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The City ◽  
Detrimental Impact

The contemporary attempts to tackle poverty and child poverty in the United Kingdom have been seriously hindered by the effects of the economic crisis (Hirsch, 2008a; Mooney, 2011). The prevailing discourses of the recession and intergenerational poverty can lead to a view that the effects of child poverty and the consequent detrimental impact on school education and future prospects for some young people are intractable (Sinclair & McKendrick, 2009). There can be insufficient emphasis on the successful attempts, however fragile, to intervene in the cycle of deprivation. This article reports on research conducted in two contrasting groups of secondary schools in the city of Glasgow, located in areas of deprivation, as they work to secure initial positive school leaver destinations for young people. This small-scale case study highlights the importance of a strong leadership vision committed to initial positive school leaver destinations, but complemented by distributed leadership and support from external partners to enable sustained successes. It also highlights the importance of individual attention to all young people to support and motivate them and the effectiveness of intervention at an early stage.

Getting to a Wealthier and Fairer Scotland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Keating ◽  
Robert Liñeira
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Division Of Powers ◽  
Scottish Government

Scotland has some of the prerequisites for a social investment state. Yet the division of powers between the Scottish and UK levels in relation to taxation and welfare is not optimal. The Scottish Government has reformed its policy-making structures but still has shortcomings in planning for the long term. While public opinion in Scotland supports spending on public services from which citiziens benefit, it is only slightly more favourable to redistribution than in England. The experience of other counrties shows that citizens will support public spending and the resultant taxes if they know that they will get good services.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document