Graham Badman

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From Poverty to Wellbeing

• Graham Badman
• Managing Director

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The Changed Nature of Society

• There were 236,980 marriages in 2006 - the lowest
  number since 1895
• In 2006 there were12.2 divorcing people per 1,000
  married population
• One in ten families are step families
• One in four families are lone parent families
• Nearly 200,000 children do not live with their
  parents
• The average use of the internet is 13.8 hours for
  12 - 15 year olds - more important than
  television
• The average child sees at least 10,000
  commercials a year
• 87 of 12 - 15 year olds own mobile phones

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(Time, April 2008)
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• The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
  state that, in 2003, 27 of British 15-year-olds
  had been drunk 20 times or more, compared to 12
  of young Germans, 6 of Netherlands youth and
  only 3 of young French. British kids were also
  involved more frequently in fights (44 in the UK
  compared to 28 in Germany). They are more likely
  to try drugs or start smoking young. English
  girls are the most sexually active in Europe.
  More of them are having sex aged 15 or younger,
  and more than 15 fail to use contraception when
  they do which means that Britain has high rates
  of both teenage pregnancy and sexually
  transmitted diseases.
• None of those indicators are good, but its the
  increase in nasty teenage crime that really has
  Britain spooked. Violent offences by British
  under-18s rose 37 in the three years to 2006.
• Mayer (Time) April 2008

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Happiness (Layard) 2005
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Happiness (Layard) 2005
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Which world would you choose?

• The prices in both worlds are the same
• In the first world you get 50 thousand a year,
  while other people get 25 thousand (average)
• In the second world you get 100 thousand a year,
  while others get 250 thousand (average)
• Happiness (Layard) 2005

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Which world would you choose?

• You have 2 weeks holiday, and others have 1 week
• You have 4 weeks holiday, and others have 8 weeks

Happiness (Layard) 2005
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Why are the rich on average happier than the poor?

• The rich are so near the top that their
  reference group is likely to include people who
  are poorer than they are, while the poor are so
  near the bottom that their reference group is
  likely to include people who are richer than they
  are.
• Happiness (Layard) 2005

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Happiness (Layard) 2005
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Watching, wanting and wellbeing - exploring the
links(A survey of 9 - 13 year olds by the
National Consumer Council)

• Children who spend more time in front of the
  television or computer screens are more
  materialistic
• Children who are more materialistic tend to have
  lower self-esteem
• They have a lower opinion of their parents
• Children who have a poor opinion of their parents
  also argue with them more
• Children who have a poor opinion of their parents
  also have a poor opinion of themselves
• Children in affluent areas spend substantially
  less time in front of television/computer screens
  - nearly half of affluent children have a
  television in their bedrooms, 97 of the sample
  in deprived areas do
• Children in deprived areas are six times more
  likely to be watching television during the
  weekday evening meal and four times more likely
  to watch television in bed before going to sleep.

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Poverty - key facts

• 3.8 million children are living in poverty in the
  UK today
• Since 1999, 600,000 children have been lifted out
  of poverty
• In 2005/6 child poverty rose by 100,000 - the
  first rise since 1999
• The majority of poor children (57) live in a
  household where at least one adult works
• The majority of poor children (58) live in a
  household headed by a couple
• Over two-thirds of those below the poverty
  threshold at any one time have been in poverty
  for at least three of the past four years
• End Child Poverty 2007

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Indicators of disadvantage

• No parent in the family is in work
• Family lives in poor quality or overcrowded
  housing
• No parent has any qualifications
• Mother has mental health problems
• At least one parent has a long-standing limiting
  illness, disability or infirmity
• Family has low income (below 60 of the median)
• Family cannot afford a number of food and
  clothing items
• Some 9.5 million cannot afford to keep their
  homes adequately heated, free from damp and
  decently decorated
• Families and Children Study (Social Exclusion
  Task Force) March 2007

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Relational-Symbolic Aspects of Poverty

• Disrespect
• Humiliation
• Shame and stigma
• Assault on dignity and self-esteem
• Othering
• Denial of human rights
• Diminished citizenship
• Lack of voice
• Powerlessness
• (Ruth Lister, 2004)

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What is the problem we are trying to solve?
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Health Issues

• Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes
• Smoking
• Alcohol
• Low birth weight
• Chronic illness
• Accidents
• Pregnancy and STIs
• Drug misuse
• Emotional and behaviour problems

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Children with limiting long-term illness (LLTI),
2001. Number and percentage of all children,
percentage by tenure type
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Rate of Child Road Casualties per 1,000 0-15 year
olds, by Districts in Kent 2005

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Percentage of 0-18 year olds living in
accommodation with no central heating in Kent
districts, 2001
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Under 18 conception rates in Kent districts,
2003-05
Source Teenage Pregnancy Unit
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Under 18 conceptions leading to abortion in Kent
districts, 2003-05
Source Teenage Pregnancy Unit
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Number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births
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What is the Government trying to do about it?
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Childrens Trusts as a delivery mechanism for the
National Childrens Plan

• Happy and healthy securing the wellbeing and
  health of children and young people
• Families are the place for nurturing happy,
  capable and resilient children. Parents have
  made it clear that they would like better and
  more flexible information and support that
  reflects the lives they lead
• Safe and sound safeguard the young and
  vulnerable
• Keeping children and young people safe from harm
  but also enabling them to learn, have new
  experiences and enjoy their childhoods
• Excellence and equity individual progress to
  achieve world class standards and close the gap
  in educational achievement for children from
  disadvantage families
• Every young person to achieve their potential and
  enjoy their time in education

(Childrens Trusts statutory guidance on
inter-agency co-operation to improve well-being
of children, young people and their families,
DCSF, 2008)
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Childrens Trusts as a delivery mechanism for the
National Childrens Plan

• Leadership and Collaboration system reform to
  achieve world class standards and close the gap
  in educational achievement for children from
  disadvantaged families
• Create an early years and schools system where
  all institutions are consistently achieving at
  the level of the best
• Staying on ensure young people are
  participating and achieving their potential to 18
  and beyond
• Ensure an appropriately skilled workforce in
  order to compete in the global economy
• On the right track keep children and young
  people on the path to success
• All young children to enjoy happy, healthy and
  safe teenage years and to be prepared for adult
  life
• Making it happen the vision for 21st century
  childrens services
• System wide reforms to the way services for
  children and young people work together

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Childrens Trusts as a delivery mechanism for the
National Childrens Plan

• Poverty blights childrens lives and has
  far-reaching effects on all outcomes, which is
  why the government has committed to halving child
  poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020.
  Poverty is not just about low income. Other
  factors include access to high-quality health
  care and social services, child care an
  important enabler of parental employment family
  support, decent housing and transport and the
  quality of the local amenities, including
  cultural and leisure facilities. The partnership
  arrangements necessary to take a strategic
  approach to tackling this wide range of issues
  should be embedded within the Childrens Trust.
  Links with the wider Local Strategic Partnership
  will enable partners to focus on issues such as
  economic development and job creation, especially
  for the hard to reach securing sufficient
  childcare for working parents skills and
  training and community regeneration.

(Childrens Trusts statutory guidance on
inter-agency co-operation to improve well-being
of children, young people and their families,
DCSF, 2008)
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What are we doing locally?
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Ideas Ideals Aspirations
Pessimism
A source of child family learning multi
agency intervention and support
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Key concepts for addressing poverty

• Learned optimism
• Capability (in families and communities)
• Resilience

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What is the cost of doing nothing?
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The cost to the child

• Children from the 5 most disadvantaged
  households are more than 50 times likely to have
  multiple problems at age 30 than those from the
  top 50 of households
• 63 of boys whose fathers go to prison are
  eventually convicted themselves
• 61 of workless couples households live in
  poverty
• 60 of children in the lowest reading attainment
  group at age 10 had parents with low literacy
  scores
• Children who experience parental conflict and
  domestic violence are more likely to be
  delinquent and to commit violence and property
  offences

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The cost to society

• A family suffering from depression, alcohol
  misuse, domestic violence, short period of
  homelessness and being involved in criminality is
  estimated to cost the state 35k - 80k per
  annum, increasing to 55k - 115k if the wider
  costs to the economy and society are included
• The cost of caring for a Looked After Child is
  between 36k - 48k per year but increases to
  67K when the Youth Offending Service is involved
  and almost 300k for a child in a specialised
  placement
• Anti-social behaviour costs the public
  3.4billion a year
• The annual cost of school exclusion is estimated
  at 406million
• The additional costs of NEETS at age 16 - 18 has
  been estimated at around 8.1billion

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Child Poverty in the UK

• Child poverty in UK remains worse than in most
  other European countries. A UK child has nearly
  twice as much chance of living in a household
  with relatively low income than a generation ago
• Child poverty damages both those who suffer it
  and society more generally. Such children are
  much less likely to fulfil their potential
• Child poverty has started to fall since the late
  1990s helped by rising parental employment and
  large increases in tax credits and benefits.
  However present policies are unlikely to produce
  substantial further reductions
• The Government could meet its target of halving
  child poverty by 2010 by spending an estimated
  4bn a year (0.3 of GDP)
• If the Government relied on tax credits and
  benefits to get the second half of children out
  of poverty in 2010 - 2020 a further 28bn would
  be needed
• Other mechanisms include better education and
  training for disadvantaged groups, improved
  childcare and the promotion of equal pay for
  women
• (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

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The Poverty Premium
Save the Children Fund
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Work-rich and work-poor three decades of change

• The rate of employment is higher than in the mid
  70s but detailed analysis reveals the following
  trends-
• 2m adults (aged 20 - 59) are in work today who
  would probably not have had a job in mid 70s
• Mothers have the most improved job prospects
  especially those with adequate qualifications,
  good health and a working partner. This means the
  number of couples who both have a job has
  increased
• But ... 2m adults who would have been likely to
  have had a job 30 years ago are now out of work.
  Those who have the most reduced prospects are
  disabled men with poor educational qualifications
  and no working partner
• The number of non-working adults without a
  partner or whose partner does not have a job has
  doubled from 7 to 14. Most of these families
  live on social security benefits and have very
  low incomes

Richard Berthoud (Joseph Rowntree Foundation) 2007
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The UK has a higher proportion of its children
living in workless households than any other EU
country
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Employment isnt always the solution to poverty
Among those aged 25 to retirement in low income,
the number in working families has risen while
the number in workless ones has fallen
Half of the children in low-income households
live in families where at least one of the adults
is in paid work
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So what will the framework for Trusts look like?

• It wont just be for Trusts. It will make a
  reality of Local Governments power of
  well-being, influence and inform the whole of
  economic, environmental and social policy
• Centre around concept of learned optimism which
  will pervade all multi-disciplinary training. It
  will challenge the nature of professions and lead
  to a new meta language for action not explanation
• It will provide a new language of discourse that
  bridges the gap between the casual and the formal
• It will inform the development of Childrens
  Centres so that children never lose their
  curiosity

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So what will the framework for Trusts look like?

• It will inform teachers views of themselves as
  role models, the norms they portray and predicate
  school organisation
• It will be centred on family learning seeking the
  positive influence of parents on children and
  children on parents
• The crucial need for cognitive development and
  emotional stability will be central to the
  commissioning framework
• It will provide mechanisms that deal with or
  influence both income and physical conditions.
  For example
• Nutrition
• Housing
• It will define strategies to prevent progression
  into the criminal justice system not use it

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So what will the framework for Trusts look like?

• It will provide and use information and data for
  individuals, communities and the services that
  support them
• It will induce capability and resilience in both
  individuals and communities
• It will be outcome driven
• Immediacy will be the key component and all
  agencies will do simple things well
• Its success will be judged by the community
  served who will have a voice in both
  commissioning and decommissioning of services

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What else can we do?

• What are the simple things we can do? For
  example
• Every school in a deprived area to run a
  breakfast club
• Every Childrens Services professional to take a
  family approach and be alert to the signs of
  distress
• Avoid inadvertent segregation eg every school to
  have a clear policy re affordability of uniform,
  school trips etc.
• Major function in signposting/directing to
  support and helping families to access benefits
• Helping families to use their funds effectively
• Debt counselling and dissuade families from
  getting credit at high interest rates
• Ensure that PSHE includes the Hidden Rules to
  ensure young people can escape poverty
• Promote healthy living especially the benefits of
  a balanced diet

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National Workforce Development

• The vision for the Childrens Workforce
• World Class, personalised and integrated services
  need to be available to every child
• The culture change needed to support further
  development of integrated and personalised
  delivery of services should not dilute the
  specialist skills and knowledge, or focus of any
  of the people who are coming together to deliver
  the services
• We need to ensure that people have a strong
  understanding of their roles and
  responsibilities, so that by working together as
  a team, people from different parts of the
  workforce can achieve more with individual
  children and their families than they would be
  able to do working on their own

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• We think sometimes that poverty is only being
  hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being
  unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest
  poverty.
• (Mother Teresa)