It begins with the success, or failure of attachment. Understanding the factors which promote success, or cause failure, should underpin childcare policy.
Attachment is the strong emotional bond that develops between infant and caregiver, providing the infant with emotional security.
By the second half of the first year, infants have become attached to familiar people who have responded to their need for physical care and stimulation. How this attachment develops has been a topic of intense theoretical debate.
Sir Richard Bowlby, is one of a group of childcare specialists who have raised concerns as to the long-term welfare of children under 3 years of age placed in inadequate day nurseries.
In his main report, Sir Richard highlights the problems associated with Separation Anxiety
We've locked up children
The primary cause for concern
Child use of antidepressants up four-fold
One million children living in violent homes
Oliver James
Atttachment Theory: Links
Separation anxiety
Babies and toddlers between the age of 6 and 30 months who do not receive sensory evidence (sight, sound, touch, smell or taste) that any of their known and trusted attachment figures are present, will have an instinctive feeling that the situation is becoming dangerous. This will induce some level of fear and raise their cortisol levels.
At this age their emergency response to fear is flight-towards an attachment figure, and the longer there is no sensory input from a trusted attachment figure, the greater the level of danger sensed, especially if the surroundings are not very familiar.
When left by their primary attachment figure, most babies and toddlers who have not had the opportunity to develop a secondary attachment to one carer, will initially protest by crying and searching for their attachment figure.
When this does not result in reunion, the instinctive reaction of some babies and younger toddlers is to become a bit subdued or withdrawn, (although others appear to manage better).
This compliant behaviour is usually seen as the toddler settling in and accepting their new surroundings, but their level of cortisol is often elevated which indicates that they’re stressed, and if they then sense danger some may ‘freeze’ or ‘still’. This situation is more common in group settings which lack continuity in personalised care-giving.
Sir Richard draws the following conclusions:
Many toddlers’ receive a risk factor at home from insecure attachment, and another risk factor from any sort of childcare where there is not a ‘good enough’ secondary attachment figure.
These two risk factors are becoming normalised within society and are hidden contributors to children’s future social and emotional problems.
A combination of three or more risk factors has a high probability of producing increased levels of behavioural problems and emotional instability.
By reorganising childcare to provide secondary attachment bonds for babies and toddlers we can remove one increasingly common risk factor. Several childminders can work co-operatively in professionally supported and monitored groups or networks; parents could be allowed to use their childcare allowance to pay grandmother or other relative to care for their child, or a parent could choose to use the allowance to stay home themselves.
In a society which encourages both parents to work outside the home while their children are under three, it is attachment focused childcare arrangements that have a crucial role to play in facilitating the healthy emotional development of children.
It is in our power to provide this if we care enough about our children’s wellbeing. It can be done!
Survival or development? The infant policymaker
Babies haven’t changed much for millennia.
Give or take a few enzymes this perfectly designed little bundle of desires and interests has not needed to evolve.
He’ll be fine provided there are some people there to care for him.
If not, evolution has taken care of that too.
You live in a cruel world and treat him roughly: he will develop into a compulsively self-reliant and ruthless individual with little concern for others.
Mean societies produce mean people ...
Family & Parenting Institute
Has the Coalition abandoned Children? MaternityWhere now for UK parenting?
Attachment Theory - Links
Attachment Theory
Ethological Attachment Theory
Attachment Theory in Childcare
Attachment Styles
Child poverty warning as cuts threaten to close 3,500 Sure Start centres
Naomi Eisenstadt, Sure Start's first director at its launch in 1998, said ...
"The original aim of Sure Start was to help that bottom 30% of families living in poverty, getting money into the areas where the poorest people lived, supporting whole communities in areas where you could improve social mobility. Helping people mix and support each other, building communities.
"But now there seems to be a policy shift with a lot of language being used about instead helping just the neediest, the most disadvantaged, the bottom 1% to 3% essentially, the very hardest to reach and I think that is potentially very destructive.
"You take services that are already spread very thin and spread them even thinner."
Obs 13 Nov 2011 Has the Coalition abandoned children? Third Meltdown Log
Four-in-10 disabled children 'in poverty'
Four in 10 disabled children in the UK live "in poverty", according to the Children's Society.
In the population as a whole, about one-in-three children lives in poverty.
The charity is calling on the government to rethink planned changes to welfare benefits in the UK, saying more than 100,000 disabled children could lose up to £27 a week ...
At the moment, families with a disabled child may currently be entitled to support through the disability elements of child tax credit.
Under plans set out for Universal Credit, this support will be given through what is is called "disability additions", within household benefit entitlements.
The government plans to halve the maximum level of support provided through the disability additions - from £54 per week, down to £27 per week ...
BBC NEWS 07 Oct 2011
A 'modern and compassionate party' Has the Coalition abandoned children? Third Meltdown LogTake a pay cut, or else ...
UK children stuck in 'materialistic trap'
Anita Tiessen, deputy director of Unicef UK, said that much of the problem was the "long working hours of British families. Parents have a much greater pressure in fulfilling the commitment to their children. They try to make up for this by buying their children branded clothes, trainers, technology."
By comparison, this "consumer culture" does not exist in Sweden or Spain.
In Scandinavia, child care duties are more equally shared and family time is prioritised.
In Spain, where women tend to stay at home there is a great reliance on the extended family with grandparents and uncles and aunts helping out with children.
"Consumer culture in the UK contrasts starkly with Sweden and Spain, where family time is prioritised, children and families are under less pressure to own material goods and children have greater access to activities out of the home," said the report ...
Gdn 14 Sept 2011 Neoliberal Consumer Culture Third Meltdown Log
A very neoliberal catastrophe Family BreakdownChildhood being eroded by modern life
Erosion of childhood
Cycle of 'compulsive consumerism' leaves British family life in crisis
Unicef Child well-being report
Junk culture 'is poisoning our children'
Sure Start cuts to hit poorest hardest
Figures from the House of Commons library shows the funding for services such as Sure Start and childcare is being slashed on average by £50 a child next year despite the prime minister's assurance that children's centres would not suffer from government spending cuts.
In some of the most deprived areas of the country, such as Merseyside's Knowsley and London's Hackney, budgets for the early intervention grant, which covers childcare as well as teenage pregnancy services and other youth support schemes, will be cut by £100 a child ...
Ryan Shorthouse of the Social Market Foundation says that the Tories did promise to keep Sure Start centres going:
"The government should have ring-fenced the budget as the Conservatives had promised to do before the election.
"They could have directly funded children's centres but now local authorities are making cuts it is childcare and youth services that are being cut."
Guardian 03 Mar 2011Cuts and closures
Nursery charges rise twice as quickly as wages
The survey by the Daycare Trust, the national childcare charity, shows that despite the downturn, nursery fees for a child of two or more have increased by 4.8% since last year, "far exceeding the growth rate of 2.1% for the average wage in the same period" ...
In London, the average cost of 25 hours' nursery care for a child under two is £118.54, equating to £6,164 a year.
By contrast, the same provision in the north-west is £82.70 a week, or £4,300 a year.
The survey ... found significant rises in costs for all forms of childcare, although the expense varied considerably between regions ...
There has also been increasing concern about the government's plans to reduce the childcare element of the working tax credit, which from April will cover up 70% of childcare costs for poor working families, rather than the current 80%.
"Once this change comes into place, some families will effectively have an extra £546 a year added to their childcare bill," said Shukla.
"Yet parents in the UK already spend an average of one third of their net income on childcare costs – more than in any other OECD country." ...
Guardian 09 Feb 2011Daycare Trust
Child poverty still defaces Britain
What is Poverty?
And almost 2m are unable to go online at home, according to leading digital education charity, the E-Learning Foundation.A million UK children 'lack access to computers'
Does this pass the poverty-inequality test?
It also claims those from the poorest families are two-and-a-half-times less likely to have the internet at home than children from the richest homes.
The government would not comment on the findings.
The E-Learning Foundation ... has analysed the latest government spending survey.
It found that while computer access is growing in better-off households, those from low income families are being left behind ...
In November more than half of teachers who took part in a survey for the Times Education Supplement said pupils without access to internet or a computer at home were hampered in their learning ...
BBC NEWS 28 Dec 2010 Inequality Poverty or Inequality?More than 3m UK children have no internet access at home, warns charity
Pupils without internet 'disadvantaged in education'
Poorer pupils to be given free laptops
[Frank Field] asserts:Frank Field's poverty report challenges 'welfare state sacred cows'
"A healthy pregnancy, positive but authoritative parenting, high quality childcare, a positive approach to learning at home and an improvement in parents' qualifications, can ... trump class background and parental income."
Field argues:
"By the age of three, a baby's brain is 80% formed, and his or her experiences before then shape the way the brain has grown and developed.
"That is not to say, of course, it is all over by then, but ability profiles at that age are highly predictive of profiles at school entry."
He argues there is little sign that schools close these attainment gaps, with children who arrive in the bottom range of ability tending to stay there.
He proposes:
• parenting classes throughout school life, arguing that Britain believes parenting is learnt through osmosis;
• a new index of life chances that can be monitored annually;
• a focus on foundation years equal to primary and secondary schools;
• a rationalisation of children's services, including post-natal work, from the womb to going to school;
• a working-class version of Mumsnet, the online forum for parents;
• kite marking children's tv programmes to help speech development.
He says:
"This goal of changing the distribution of income will be achieved by ensuring that poorer children in the future have the range of abilities necessary to secure better paid, higher skilled jobs."mariansummerlight
3 December 2010 7:55AM
Income is the most relevent factor in relation to poverty - it is how it is mneasured.
If people cannot afford the basic esseintials of life no amount of 'life chances' indices is going ot make an ounce of difference.
The reason Labours anti poverty measures failed is because they set a bar and then cut out of work benefits to subsidise low pay.
They did nothing to raise the bottom level or redistribute wealth so there was no improvement overall.
Because they followed Thatcherite policies and allowed business to pursue short term profit at the expense of the wider economy and society.
Our economic base narrowed, the pre Thatcher peak of unemployment (1m+) has become the base line and has been above that level for over thirty years.
Because of these two factors our skill base has also shrunk and generational welfare dependency has become an issue - it never was previously.
There have been cultural changes as a result of systemic poverty and these do impact negatively on peoples lives and their ability to improve themselves, these consequences of failed economic and social policy do need to be addressed.
But treating the consequences alone and not dealing with the structural causes is like treating the pain caused by a brain tumour with aspirin.
Until these structural causes are addressed the above is just a thinly veiled attack on those at the bottom and provides ideological support for pushing the poorest deeper into abject poverty.
socialistMike
3 December 2010 9:41AM
The welfare state was designed when all politicians agreed on their main duty - provide full employment.
But Thatcherism decided to get rid of that aim and, in the process, made the welfare state unfit for its new purpose : dealing with the disasters of the market.
That's the basic problem. Because politicians stopped prioritising work and employement, the welfare state was subjected to strains it wasn't designed to cope with such as long-term unemployment, generational unemployment and lack of opportunity.
But these strains have been interpreted as 'the whole system is wrong' and needs 'reform'. In reality, our leaders want to get rid of the welfare system because it stands in the way of low employment and high insecurity as a policy.
What they should do instead is return to policy that works in our interests, not the interests of footloose capital that seeks to exploit us without contributing anything to our society.
Guardian 03 Dec 2010 Crackdown on Welfare Deprived Children 'Reserve Army'New mothers and fathers should have parenting classes
Child benefit should be frozen, says Frank Field
Frank Field to lead independent review into poverty in Britain
Frank Field
Child poverty: study shows fifth of UK youngsters severely affected
Project charting health and education prospects for 14,000 UK children finds child poverty on the rise ...
The London University's Institute of Education researchers found that despite governments having spent billions to eliminate child poverty since 1999:
• Almost one-fifth of seven-year-olds live in severe poverty – homes where the total income, including benefits, is less than £254 a week. The UK average income for a family with one child is a £563 a week, say researchers.
• Almost three-quarters of children whose parents are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin live in poverty – homes where the total income for a family with one child is under £330 a week. This is largely because of high unemployment rates for mothers and fathers, the researchers say.
• Just over half (51%) of black seven-year-olds and just over a quarter of white seven-year-olds live in poverty, with three-fifths from these groups in single-parent families.
• Seven-year-olds are most likely to live in poverty in the north-east (40%) and least likely in the south-west (22%). The figure for London was 36%.
• Just under 7% of seven-year-olds living in poverty do not have two pairs of all-weather shoes, according to parents. Just under 50% do not get pocket money.
The number of children living in poverty is likely to be rising, said Professor Heather Joshi, the study's director.
"Our study captures how things were in 2008. This is not encouraging for child poverty today because worklessness is the most common indicator of poverty and our unemployment rate has gone up since then.
"Poor housing, low levels of qualifications among parents and low family income tend to be the key indicators of disadvantage." ...
Guardian 15 Oct 2010 Growing Inequality with Neoliberalism Child Poverty_Dinner with Dave
New mothers let down by postnatal care
Many new mothers are being let down by the care they receive after having a baby, a survey suggests.
In a survey of 1,260 first-time mothers by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), under half said they got the advice and support needed after giving birth.
The parenting charity said the survey showed a "shocking" level of postnatal care and warned the NHS had to improve.
The Royal College of Midwives said more money should be invested in maternity services.
BBC NEWS 03 Oct 2010Midwives have no time to care for new mums
Postnatal care: New mums' views
Dads do the baby ward night shift
Midwives accuse ministers of hypocrisy over training cuts
Hewitt promises more choice for expectant mothers by end of 2009
Ofsted warning over 'untracked' children
This matter will get worse as schools are 'freed' from local authority control. Expect the LEAs to concentrate on pupils which 'free' schools don't want in case they jeopardise their league table position.Some children are not being educated because local authorities are often unable to track youngsters who are not being taught ...
For its report, entitled "Children missing from education", Ofsted surveyed 15 local authorities of different sizes across England in urban and rural areas.
It found that children sometimes go missing because schools are not fully aware of policies and procedures for informing their local authorities when a child is suspended or excluded from school.
However, even when these are understood, some schools do not comply with the guidelines set out, it said.
Ofsted found that all the local authorities it surveyed worked to forge links with others such as health professionals.
However, the extent and effectiveness of the exchange of information varied from one council to another.
In addition, information sharing between local authorities about families moving in and out of areas was too varied.
Ofsted's director for education and care, Patrick Leeson, said: "Local authorities and their partners need to share information effectively and more systematically to identify children and young people who are missing from education, particularly when their whereabouts are unknown.
"Children who become lost to the system not only risk failing academically but can be exposed to vulnerable situations." ...
BBC NEWS 17 Aug 2010Could Khyra Ishaq have been saved?
Children
Vulnerable children are being "damaged" by delays in care proceedings in England and Wales, a charity has said.Barnardo's says court delays damage children
There's a funny thing: no mention of New Labour's massive hike in court costs!
Barnardo's wants to see a 30-week limit after figures showed children waited an average of 57 weeks - sometimes in abusive homes - for county courts to make care or supervision orders.
Barnardo's also said the figures - which were revealed in written answers to parliamentary questions from Liberal Democrat MP Annette Brooke - also revealed a "postcode lottery" for children awaiting care ...
BBC NEWS 09 Aug 2010"It is an atrophy in respect for social workers," said Ewen. "Judges will ask for independent assessments rather than accepting social workers' assessments. These take time. Before you know it a child is waiting months. If they are lucky, they get just one foster family."Vulnerable children 'damaged by court delays'
montybest
Having experienced the Family Court system as provided by the Royal Courts of Justice, between 2003 to current (yes still going on) it took until 2006 before I was awarded Residence.
I quickly reached the conclusion that the excellent requirements of the various Children Act's i.e "The Welfare of the Child is Paramount." is lost in procedural delays, difficulties in all parties being able to match diary appointments/holidays etc., as well as the theater that the family court system has become.
The whole system grinds to a halt because one person does not turn up, fails to submit a document in time, or because they can not find a court room. The usual delay is six to ten months for each and every delay.
All the parties can be hanging around for hours at a time, whist another case goes before you. This raises huge costs for those not on legal aid.
The system requires complete overhaul. It needs to be brought into the 21st not the 18th century. and most importantly the wishes of the children need to be taken and acted upon first, second and third. Only their interests should be considered at the outset.
I again will be in court in September, not my doing... Just the way the system works..
Also it came to my attention that an effective outcome (for) the child is wholly dependent upon the personality of the Judge you are before.
There is no consistency, welfare of children should not be left to the 'Luck of the Draw' as to which Judge you get. Independent 09 Aug 2010
Children left in danger by court delays
FatiguedJohn Forbes Nash ...
9 Aug 2010, 7:10AM
Sadly what too many of the above comments illustrate is the limited understanding of that exists of the Children and Family Justice System.
Lets be frank nobody wants to leave children in abusive situations but the identification of such situations is far from easy as the continued existence of child deaths attests.
Furthermore parental violence like all violence can not be isolated from the social context in which it exists the more unequal a society the the greater the levels of violence in this case family violence ( in which I include act of both commission and commission) Sadly the vulnerable bear the brunt of frustrations of those stronger than them.
So expect an escalation of child abuse as our already hideously unequal society becomes more so with the wave of unemployment and austerity on the horizon.
However the current crisis in the Family Courts stems from the 'moral panic' ( see the previous pronouncements of Ed Balls and David Cameron post Baby P) driving so many care cases in the courts - perhaps appropriately but it illustrates chronic under capacity in professional time and resources which is unlikely to be addressed by the current government.
However we would do well to remember that 'tyranny ' always comes dressed in fine words like 'safeguarding' and child protection' .
It is no less a travesty of justice to needlessly remove a child from their parents when they might have stayed under better material conditions and appropriate support than it is to leave children in abusive conditions.
That is the great danger in rationalising court procedure and compromising due process.
This is a very complicated area of social policy that almost unequally has the capacity to raise anxiety levels - that it has been allowed to become and remain so under funded ( and I mean in its entirety from pre care family support through the court system all the way to post adoption support). Yes the immediate crisis needs attending to but this requires sustained investment and support.
A good place to start ? Perhaps the public's appetite for vilifying social workers who do this gruelling work day in day out with relatively poor financial reward and enormous opprobrium - damned often if they remove the 'wrong child' as much as they are damned if they leave the 'wrong child' at home.
Lets see if the Guardian can lead the way by giving this the SUSTAINED and in depth analysis it requires with call s for appropriate levels of funding.
Sadly the current crisis is to be understood as a manifestation of a much deeper and broader set of social process. If we want justice for children not simply quick fixes then we need to address these issues.
Guardian 09 Aug 2010Family law in England and Wales is in a state of crisis ... just before the previous head of family justice, Sir Mark Potter, retired, he told the Guardian that court delays left children "exposed to violence and high emotion ... bound to give rise to problems in later life".Family courts: Time trials
Individually, the criticisms (reported) might sound technical, a matter for squabbling professionals.
In fact, every criticism reflects the failure by the state to protect the safety and happiness of thousands children who go through the system each year.
sparerib
9 Aug 2010, 11:05AM
Barnardo's report today illustrates how far short the courts now fall of the ideal set out in the 1989 act. Some proceedings take as long as 65 weeks, while the number of uncompleted cases at the end of last year was up by 50% on the year before.
One of the problems, perhaps the main one, is that the 1989 Children's Act is full of recommendations on things like timescales, but these were never properly translated into legal obligations and so can be ignored. If a case takes a year or more it doesn't matter if the 'ideal' is 12 weeks when there are no actual consequences to anyone, except of course the child.
If child protection was taken seriously every child who finds itself in the system would have an independent advocate with the authority to ensure that the recommendations were implemented and to whom everyone involved, including judges and magistrates was answerable. In short someone who can kick ass to ensure the best interests of the child.
It would be a start, what is also needed is a complete overhaul of the social care system, it isn't just children who are ill served, vulnerable elderly people and those with mental health problems fare no better in many cases.
I qualified as a social worker 16 years ago and things seem to have changed a lot since then, not for the better. If the students that I have mentored/supervised recently are anything to go by, their training has been designed to drain them of every last bit of imagination, creativity and even basic common sense. Presumably so they'll slot right in to the mindless bureaucracy that much of our job now entails, apart from that, there is something wrong when students on placement are finding little or no relationship between theory and practice. And hardly any of them want to go into child protection and who can blame them given that we are always the scapegoats when things go wrong.
I'm thinking of leaving social work and becoming, say, a serial killer, at least not everyone will hate me and I might get a facebook page.
Guardian 09 Aug 2010Family justice system to 'implode', warns top judge
Cafcass’s response to increased demand for its services
Children in danger due to court service crisis
Cost of child protection case fees risks lives, say lawyers
Treasury demands for cuts will seriously affect social workers' ability to protect vulnerable youngsters at a time when greater strains are being put on the service, the government's chief adviser on the safety of children warned yesterday.Child protection adviser warns Treasury off cuts
Sir Roger Singleton said that the Treasury had already demanded £300m from the non-schools budget for children. The "increase in demand and higher expectations of performance is not being matched by the provision of additional resources [and] the capacity of the relevant services to keep children safe will inevitably be diminished", Singleton said.
Rising numbers of referrals of vulnerable youngsters to social services and an increase in court applications is placing "significant pressure" on child protection officers.
In his first report to parliament, Singleton said that the turning point for children's social services was the Baby Peter case in Haringey, north London, where staff had come under pressure for a series of mishaps that led to the death of the toddler. Since then social work had become "more complex and pressured".
The figures for the three months to December 2009 showed court applications jumped by 21%. There have also been increases in referrals to children's social care, initial assessments and core assessments ...
Guardian 18 Mar 2010 Death of Baby Peter
Far too few hospitals provide parents with accommodation so they can stay beside their ill son or daughter, Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told the Observer.NHS 'neglects' parents of sick children
He said it was "not good enough" that some parents have to sleep on a pulldown bed or an unused patient's bed, sometimes for weeks or even months, in order to keep a vigil by their child. Some end up exhausted and reduced to tears by sleep deprivation and the lack of privacy ...
He accused the NHS of neglecting the needs of people who deserved a better deal for playing a key role in their child's recovery.
"Every week, hundreds of pre-term babies are born and thousands of children end up in hospital with a broken limb, cancer or cystic fibrosis. But there aren't enough family accommodation facilities across the NHS and the situation is not good enough. In my experience, the majority of parents who are in hospital overnight are on a Zedbed beside their sick baby or child," he said.
"They will be woken frequently throughout the night when other children are admitted, or the ward buzzer sounds, or the lights go on and off. They will often become exhausted. Parents can't be expected to sleep on a put-you-up bed for weeks on end," he added ...
Observer 14 Mar 2010Action for Sick Children
More than one in 10 children begin primary school unable to learn and unwilling to build relationships with their peers, a "disengaged generation waiting in the wings", said the thinktank Demos today in a report.Underclass of pre-school children emerging
Researchers said that data from the Millennium Cohort Study showed 66,000 children scored "borderline" or "abnormal" in tests designed to reveal behavioural and emotional problems that are intimately linked to under-achievement at school, risk of truanting, and exclusion.
Poverty stands out among a number of factors, Demos said. Having a parent with a low level of education, a mother who is young or parents with a low income all raise the chance of "poorer behavioural and cognitive development".
The difference between children from the poorest and the richest families is stark, with a fifth of those identified as "starting school without the behavioural skills" coming from the poorest section of society, and only 4% coming from the richest.
Stress also plays a part: expectant mothers who experience high anxiety after 32 weeks are twice as likely to have a child with behavioural difficulties by the age of four, than mothers who did not suffer from tension ...
Guardian 25 Feb 2010Demos
Oliver James
Detention at an immigration removal centre is still "distressing and harmful" for children, the Children's Commissioner for England has said.Yarl's Wood 'must still improve child detention'
Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire remains "no place for a child", Sir Al Aynsley-Green said - even though some conditions have improved since 2008.
He highlighted in particular loud or violent arrests, separation from parents, and a lack of information ...
More than 1,000 children are detained every year, for an average of about two weeks, official figures show.
But in one case a family was held for 70 days, Sir Al's progress report found ...
BBC NEWS 10 Dec 2009'Never nice for children'
Detention of children 'must stop'
'My child still has nightmares'
A refugee has won a settlement of £100,000 from the Home Office after it admitted falsely imprisoning her and her children at an immigration detention centre.Family wins £100,000 for detention ordeal
Carmen Quiroga, originally from Bolivia, spent 42 days at Oakington detention centre in Cambridgeshire with her son and three daughters, aged between three and 11, in what her solicitor describes as "appalling conditions" that were unsuitable for children, and despite the fact that a judicial review into her asylum plea was continuing for much of that period ...
Quiroga's solicitors had argued that the detention was illegal because it was not used as a last resort, the welfare of the children was not given priority, the use of force in detaining the family was "entirely disproportionate" and the family were held for almost a month even after the judicial review process was launched.
They also alleged that the family had suffered inhuman and degrading treatment in contravention of the European convention on human rights.
Quiroga, 36, remains too traumatised to talk publicly about the circumstances of "appalling violence" that forced her to flee Bolivia in 2002 or about the situation of the children's father, but the family have all since been granted British passports ...
Guardian 29 Jan 2010
Working mothers' children unfit
Children whose mothers work are less likely to lead healthy lives than those with "stay at home" mothers, a study says.
The Institute of Child Health study of more than 12,500 five-year-olds found those with working mothers less active and more likely to eat unhealthy food.
Other experts said more work was needed to see if the results applied to other age groups.
The study is in the Journal of Epidemiology and Child Health.
About 60% of mothers with children aged up to five are estimated to be in work ...
The same children took part in an earlier study by the Institute of Child Health (ICH) which found that those with working mothers were more likely to be obese or overweight by the age of three.
In the latest study, many of the five-year-olds were engaging in health behaviours likely to promote excess weight gain: 37% were mainly eating crisps and sweets between meals, 41% were consuming sweetened drinks and 61% used the television or a computer at least two hours daily ...As a lone mum to one daughter, I work full time because I cannot manage financially any other way. I feel like I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't.
I get encouraged to work over 30 hours a week and get a financial incentive for doing this through tax credits, but I feel like I am also heavily criticised for not being a 'proper' mum by not spending enough time with my daughter.
I leave the house at 8am every day, get home at 5.30pm every day, my daughter goes to bed at 7pm. I'd love to know where I'm supposed to shoehorn in some quality time with my girl!
Jane Crabtree, Middlesbrough, UK BBC NEWS 28 September 2009
How do we deal with damaged children?
The boys are what some are beginning to believe is an "unreachable" underclass.
Despite the Labour government's decade-long concentration on the issue in the UK, where 16% of children grow up in poverty, pockets of deprivation have stubbornly refused to be fixed.
The chief executive of Barnardo's, Martin Narey, told the Observer that some broken families simply can't be fixed and we should be taking children from those parents at birth. But as Doncaster's social services department opens a serious case review to look at what went wrong – the eighth such inquiry the local authority has been forced to hold since 2004 – the case has ignited a deeper debate: is foster care the right place for Britain's most damaged youngsters? ...
More than three-quarters of all children taken into care in England and Wales go into foster families; the current thinking, said Andrea Warman, of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering, is that a stable family environment is best for children ...
But Martin Narey makes the point that the shortage of foster carers and the problems within many children's services departments mean that hundreds of children in care find themselves moved around almost constantly.
He talks of one 15-year-old girl he met recently who had had 46 foster family placements. "That is not unusual," he said ...
Observer 06 September 2009Doncaster council's troubled record
Future to focus on rehabilitation
Doncaster torture boys were well known as violent troublemakers
Repeating the same mistakes
Spend early on children
Governments should invest more money on children in the first six years of their lives to reduce social inequality and help all children, especially the most vulnerable, have happier lives, according to the OECD’s first-ever report on child well-being in its 30 member countries.
Doing Better for Children shows that average public spending by OECD countries up to age six accounts for only a quarter of all child spending. But a better balance of spending between the “Dora the Explorer” years of early childhood and the teenage “Facebook” years would help improve the health, education and well-being of all children in the long term, according to the report.
“The crisis is putting pressure on public budgets across the world. But any short-term savings on spending on children’s education and health would have major long-term costs for society,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. “Governments should instead seize this opportunity to get better value from their investment in children. And spending early, when the foundations for a child’s future are laid, is key especially for disadvantaged children and can help them break out of a family cycle of poverty and social exclusion.” ...
OECD 01 September 2009Doing Better for Children
UK teenage girls 'worst drunks'
Why do we condemn children to such terrible care homes?
Seventy five thousand children are in state care in Britain - some placed with foster families, a few adopted and the rest in homes run by local authorities or charities. Some 53 percent leave school without any qualifications and only 13 per cent as compared with 47 per cent in the general population manage to achieve GCSE grades A to C.
A quarter of the girls end up as teenage mums. Most get caught up in drugs, crime, violence (often directed at their own children) and a disproportionate number end up in prison or dead. Channel 4's focus on the nation's failed youngsters comes at a crucial time when we are still grieving for Baby Peter, only 17 months old, who died after suffering unspeakable violence in his home. Like so many others before him no one protected him from harm, not his mother, not his social workers, not the police, not even the doctors who saw him.
An assumption was made by all those involved that his mother was still the best chance he had. He will not be the last to die in these circumstances but emerging evidence shows that in every local authority across the land experts are now more proactive, taking children out of destructive homes before they come to more harm. New figures show that there has been a 38 per cent increase in such interventions.
But where will they go? And how will this rise in state custody be funded? Most importantly can we be sure these homes will save and nurture damaged children? Or will they just face further dejection and rejection? I fear at present many care institutions are hopeless places, holding warehouses, without the skills or the capacity to raise their game.
Denmark and Germany have exemplary systems called "social pedagogy". A dedicated social worker ensures each child in care learns risk management, is pushed to academic excellence, and gets hugs and reassurance. Crucially, the countries take pride in the care homes ...
The Independent 11 May 2009Lost in Care
Councils have lost track of 400 children
Call to increase child therapists
Children's mental health services need an extra 1,000 therapists to help them cope with demand, an influential government adviser has warned.
Lord Layard, whose advice prompted a recent £173m investment in adult therapists, said training of child specialists should start in 2010.
Over a three-year period, his proposals would cost £35m, his report said.
Around 10% of children have diagnosable mental health problems, said Lord Layard, who is emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics.
But only a quarter of them have seen a mental health professional of any kind in the past year.
This "unsatisfactory" state of affairs has serious long-term consequences, he said in his report.
To address the shortfall, 200 child therapists need to be trained every year for five years, he has calculated.
The additional workforce could be drawn from those who already have experience working with distressed children.
Any additional costs are relatively small compared with the NHS budget for mental health, which was £9.1bn in 2006/07 ...
BBC NEWS 04 May 2009Child depression drug use soars
The European view of child social care: Less procedure, more affection
"As a social pedagogue, the idea is to try to help someone to live a more successful everyday life. You take the small opportunities in everyday existence and try to translate them into a learning experience. You can't do that by sitting in an office, you do it by sitting alongside someone watching television, or by being in the kitchen with them, cooking together.
Residential homes here seem to be much more based on procedures. There's a great emphasis on ensuring that all the tick boxes are ticked, which often feels as if it is getting in the way of daily decisions that need to be made.
There is more affection between staff and children in German homes - not just because positive encouragement in the form of a hug is thought to be appropriate at a particular moment, but much more enmeshed in everyday life. If people are watching television, they'll sit closer to each other. There is a more risk averse attitude here. In Germany, the professionals feel more trusted. In the UK, members of staff are under the impression that any kind of allegation of inappropriate behaviour - founded or unfounded - will have an impact on their career.
Social pedagogues can do much of what people here would refer to other services and that helps, because the fewer professionals involved with the care of each child, the better. I once counted up 34 individuals involved in the care of a child here. In Germany you'd have a maximum of five."
Guardian 21 April 2009'We lost the focus on emotional warmth'
Children in care: Experts fly in to help tackle crisis
A substandard care system only reinforces disadvantage
The report of the Commons select committee on Children, Schools and Families suggests that what passes for a system is almost as random as having no safety net for such children at all. Is it any wonder, then, that what in the jargon are termed the "outcomes" are so abysmal.
Almost half of juveniles in prison and one in four of the adult prison population have been in care. Less than 10 per cent of children in care attain five A to C grades at GCSE, compared with 50 per cent across the rest of the population.
Less than half are in any form of education, training or employment at the age of 19, compared with more than 80 per cent of the age group as a whole ...
The Independent 20 April 2009Care children 'need pushy parent'
Children in care: how Britain is failing its most vulnerable
Care system must be 'radically overhauled'
MPs urge more support for children in care
Social services failing children in care
Majority of children living in poverty have at least one parent in work
A sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty who have at least one parent in work is revealed today, in a study which calls into question government efforts to lift living standards.
When research was last conducted five years ago, the majority of children in poverty had parents who were unemployed. The new study shows the majority of children living in poverty now have at least one parent in work, but they are earning so little they are unable to drag their family above the poverty line.
The study, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, runs counter to the government's message that work is the best route out of poverty.
It also predicts that the government will fail to meet its much-trumpeted promise to halve child poverty by next year unless another £4.2bn is spent on the problem.
The report offers the first detailed indication of how far the government is from meeting its target to cut the number of children in poverty from 3.4 million in 1998 to 1.7 million by 2010. It forecasts that there will still be 2.3 million children beneath the poverty line when the deadline expires. ...
The sharp rise in the number of working families in poverty is a reminder that low-paid and casual labour does not usually help in pulling families out of deprivation, said Helen Barnard, policy and research manager at the foundation.
"The idea is that you get a job, and through this job, you will progress upwards and be lifted out of poverty in the long term," she said. "But for a lot of people, the jobs they have been going into have been low-paid, casual and short-term, and often they are back on to benefits very quickly." ...
Poverty in Britain is defined by a relative measure, rather than an absolute one, and any household with children where the parents have an income of less than 60% of British median income is classified as in poverty. The poverty line fluctuates, but for a family with two children, it stands at £283.20 a week, after housing has been paid for. The recession is likely to push those already in poverty into an even more severe position, making it much more expensive for the government to address the problem.
The report, based on research carried out by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and the Institute for Economic and Social Research, concludes that government could still fulfil its 2010 pledge if it pours another £4.2bn into increasing child tax credits, a means-tested form of child benefit available only to those on low incomes. This, equivalent to an increase of £12.50 a week for each child, would be enough to push around 600,000 above the poverty line.
In the longer term, the report says, money needs to be spent not just on increasing benefits, but on ensuring sufficient childcare is in place to allow parents to work, and on training so that parents acquire the right skills to secure stable work, with good long-term prospects. ...
Guardian 18 February 2009Child poverty 'billions needed'
Progress and Poverty
JRF
IFS
Selfish adults 'damage childhood'
The aggressive pursuit of personal success by adults is now the greatest threat to British children, a major independent report on childhood says.
It calls for a sea-change in social attitudes and policies to counter the damage done to children by society.
Family break-up, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and income inequality are mentioned as big contributing factors.
A panel of independent experts carried out the study over three years.
The report, called The Good Childhood Inquiry and commissioned by the Children's Society, concludes that children's lives in Britain have become "more difficult than in the past", adding that "more young people are anxious and troubled".
According to the panel, "excessive individualism" is to blame for many of the problems children face and needs to be replaced by a value system where people seek satisfaction more from helping others rather than pursuing private advantage ...
BBC NEWS 02 February 2009'Make Childhood Better'
Government green guru Sir Jonathon Porritt calls for two-child limit
Broken Britain needs lessons in love
'Ruined by lack of outdoor play and aggressive advertising'
Female empowerment has caused family break-up
Children's lives 'harder today'
One in four teenagers 'unhappy'
Children 'damaged' by materialism
'Toxic cycle' of family breakdown
Ofsted accused of complacency on child protection
The chairman of a Commons committee has said he has "lost confidence" in the inspectorate Ofsted over its handling of children's services in Haringey, the north London borough where Baby P died.
Barry Sheerman made the statement after questioning Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector of schools, at the children, schools and families committee yesterday.
He accused her of failing to recognise the strength of public opinion over Baby P's death and acting with an "air of complacency" after she presented data showing that three children a week had died from neglect and abuse in the 16 months to August this year, then moments later defended the inspection of the services designed to protect them.
Sheerman ... questioned Gilbert's claims that Haringey had misled inspectors by providing false data after it emerged that all the evidence behind the contested 2007 review had been destroyed three months after the report was published ...
Guardian 11 December 2008
'Millions' of UK young in poverty
Millions of children in the UK are living in, or on the brink of, poverty, a report claims.
The Campaign to End Child Poverty says 5.5 million children are in families that are classed as "struggling" - 98% of children in some areas.
The campaign classes households as being in poverty if they are living on under £10 per person per day.
A government spokeswoman said it had lifted 600,000 children out of poverty and was committed to the cause.
The Campaign to End Child Poverty is a coalition of more than 130 organisations including Barnardo's, Unicef and the NSPCC.
According to its research, there are 4,634,000 children in England living in low income families, 297,000 in Wales, 428,000 in Scotland and 198,000 in Northern Ireland.
It says 174 of the 646 parliamentary constituencies in Britain have 50% or more of their child population in, or close to, the poverty line.
The parliamentary constituency with the highest number of children in or close to poverty is Birmingham Ladywood, with 81% (28,420 individuals) ...
BBC NEWS 30 September 2008
Spare a thought for children who have odds stacked against them
A child who is born into a poor family will be at an educational disadvantage before they have even learnt to say the word ‘school’.
At just 22 months, a child from a disadvantaged background begins to fall behind children from more comfortable backgrounds. And then everything which happens in 13 years of education widens rather than bridges that gulf.
So here in the UK, the fifth richest country, we have three million children likely to be locked into a cycle of poverty they can’t escape and will pass down through the generations.
As youngsters across the country celebrate their GCSE success this week, spare a thought for those children who, regardless of ability, had the odds stacked against them. Reflect on the reality that children with measurably higher IQs will fall behind less bright children simply because of the poverty of their upbringing.
By the age of six a less able child from a rich family is likely to have overtaken a more able child born into a poor family. As a teenager the gap between a poor child’s ability and a more wealthy child’s is even wider. By the time GCSEs come around, some of our poorest children, those receiving free school meals, are half as likely to obtain the vital five GCSEs as other children. Children in care, those whose only crime has been to be born to parents who cannot or will not look after them properly, are five times less likely to get those GCSEs.
So, is it any wonder that 44 per cent of young people from the richest fifth of the population go on to university, compared to 10 per cent of those from the fifth of the population living in the poorest households.
It is because of this immoral social injustice that more than 130 organisations, including children’s charities, trade unions and faith groups, will challenge the Government to Keep The Promise it made to end child poverty in the UK through the biggest ever rally of its kind. Trafalgar Square, on Saturday, October 4, will be full of families, young people and children determined to demonstrate that the economic, but most of all the moral case, for reducing this educational lottery is one to which the Government must respond.
This is a once-in-a-generation chance to make a positive change to the lives of millions of children and we are looking for backing from people across the nation.
It’s vital that there is a huge show of the strength of feeling for change; an end to child poverty and a more just society.
Martin Narey Campaign To End Child Poverty chairman and Barnardo’s chief executive
End Child Poverty 20 August 2008Poverty is UK's hidden child killer
'I've got kids who sleep with knives under their pillows'
Since 1996, Iranian-born Batmanghelidjh has been trying to help the children who are the worst of the worst, those who are on the very edges of society the kind of teenagers who murdered Newlove, the kind who will probably have murdered Mizen and Knox. She is not Supernanny there is no naughty step here. The children Batmanghelidjh helps are the sort that other psychologists sedate.
"We're looking at a new syndrome," Batmanghelidjh says when we meet at Kids Company's headquarters near London Bridge. "It needs to be named. Social and emotional deprivation is creating a new kind of brain.
"The fascinating element in all these childrens' lives is the absence of a functioning parental figure. If you really think about it, if you don't have a parent there is no food in the house, no one washes your clothes or organises socialising for you, you don't get taken to the GP, the dentist or the optician. You live in chaos."
The child who knocks on the door of Kids Company's drop-in centre usually has drug-addicted or alcoholic parents. They may have not eaten properly for days, they may be ill and dirty.
It seems unthinkable to most of us that, in Britain in 2008, a child could starve to death. Yet, on the day after Batmanghelidjh and I meet, it is reported that that is just what happened a fortnight ago in Birmingham to seven year-old Khyra Ishaq.
"The assumption is that if you are seven years old, there is an adult who can refer you to social services. But these children do not have that adult in their lives and they have no access to help.
"Back when I started, there were people saying to me that what I was trying to achieve wasn't possible and that it wouldn't work," Batmanghelidjh says. "They just thought that I was an eccentric who loves kids, and they became very preoccupied with the way I look and dress. They didn't understand the intellectual framework behind Kids Company." ...
Independent 27 May 2008Kids Company
Prison won't halt this epidemic of stabbing
14 teenagers in five months
Girls now carry knives
Simple steps to tackle the knife crime epidemic
Class divide hits learning by age of three
By the age of three, children from disadvantaged families are already lagging a full year behind their middle-class contemporaries in social and educational development, pioneering research by a London university reveals today.
A "generation Blair" project, tracking the progress of 15,500 boys and girls born between 2000 and 2002, found a divided nation in which a child's start in life was still determined by the class, education, marital status and ethnic background of the parents. ...
In a series of vocabulary tests, the three-year-old sons and daughters of graduate parents were found to be 10 months ahead of those from families with few educational qualifications; they were 12 months ahead in their understanding of colours, letters, numbers, sizes and shapes. ...
The Guardian 11 June 2007
Charity asks new prime minister to honour pledge to end “scandal” of child poverty
Spending less than half of the £9 billion paid in City bonuses last year would halve child poverty in the UK by 2010.
That is the message in a report – It Doesn’t Happen Here – published today (Wednesday, 23 May, 2007) by children’s charity Barnardo’s, which warns that without an investment of £3.8 billion (about one third of the £10.2billion which Britons spent last year on champagne) the Government is going to miss its target to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. The report also reveals that the Government is likely to fall short of the target ... by nearly one million (900,000) children.
Barnardos 23 May 2007
Contents
Poverty hitting pupils' learning
Sure Start cuts to hit poorest
Severe poverty affects 1.6m UK children
Nursery charges rise twice as quickly as wages
Make child protection 'less tick-box'
Cuts will force 250 Sure Start centres to close
Children in care far from home 'at risk'
Speech problems 'hamper children's reading'
Inflexible and stressful work 'harming families'
Many children's centres 'under threat of closure'
1m children 'lack access to computers'
Poverty report challenges 'welfare state'
Child poverty: fifth of youngsters affected
New mothers let down by postnatal care
Ofsted warning over 'untracked' children
Court delays damage children
Child protection adviser warns Treasury off cuts
NHS 'neglects' parents of sick children
Underclass of pre-school children emerging
Language skills 'lag a year behind'
Yarls Wood
Family wins £100,000 for detention ordeal
Working mothers' children unfit
How do we deal with damaged children?
Spend early on children
Care institutions ... holding warehouses
Call to increase child therapists
The European view of child care ...
A substandard care system ...
Majority of children living in poverty have ...
Selfish adults 'damage childhood'
Ofsted accused of complacency on child protection
'Millions' of UK young in poverty
Educational disadvantage
Kids Company
Class divide hits learning by age of three
Baranardos: Child Poverty
Key Links
Key Links
bullyonline.org
Child mental health
ContactPoint
CPAG
End Child Poverty
Every Child Matters
Sure Start
TheSite.org
Unicef
Child carers 'left to cope alone'
Class divide hits learning by age of three
Fears for 'invisible' children
Jailing children a 'national scandal'
Let our children play
Poverty is the root of so many of our problems
Report on the Sexualization of Girls
UK 'demonising' children