Fixing trauma rather than underlying causes

"Our most recent child maltreatment data tell us that 60 percent of victims have a finding of neglect only."

"There are different types and definitions of neglect around the country. Neglect can take the form of failing to attend school and not keeping up with necessary medical care. It can also take the form of not meeting the emotional needs of a child. More times than not, poverty and struggles to meet the basic, concrete needs of a family are a part of the equation in all types of neglect. Substance use and or mental health challenges can exacerbate or perpetuate these challenges, but these conditions are not always present."

"Rather than seeing these root causes with clear eyes, calling them out, and taking them on with intention, we remain stuck as a system and society that focuses on the harmful after effects, often casting blame on vulnerable families for their very vulnerability. Rather than trying to prevent poverty and the many challenges associated with poverty, such as social isolation and lack of meaningful opportunities and support, we search for increasingly sophisticated evidence-based interventions to treat the trauma or “fix” the symptoms arising from a family’s inability to meet their children’s fundamental needs."

"We believe this must change."

Read More:  https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/child-welfare-2/time-for-child-welfare-system-to-stop-confusing-poverty-with-neglect/40222?fbclid=IwAR3Pax_rhZQLljTqE9-XCddwga5pcjGnbRhf7WxOcyxqNEPHvmfr94o7MFY

Poor science

"Disruptive behaviors in childhood are among the most prevalent and costly mental health problems in industrialized countries and are associated with significant negative long-term outcomes for individuals and society. Recent evidence suggests that disruptive behavioral problems in the first years of life are an important early predictor of lower employment earnings in adulthood. A new longitudinal study examined boys from low-income backgrounds to determine which behaviors in kindergarten are associated with earnings in adulthood. The study concluded that inattention was associated with lower earnings and prosocial behavior with higher earnings..."

"Identifying early childhood behavioral problems associated with economic success or failure is essential for developing targeted interventions that enhance economic prosperity through improved educational attainment and social integration," explains Daniel Nagin, professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College, who coauthored the study..."

"Findings revealed that the teachers' ratings of boys' inattention -- characterized as poor concentration, distractibility, having one's head in the clouds, and lacking persistence -- were associated with lower earnings when the students were 35 to 36 years old."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190211164015.htm

However, in this study there were no controls for conditions like autism spectrum disorder which are known to affect concentration, attention and persistence and also to seriously affect job opportunities in later life.

This study is useless.

But it does help to target poor kids.

`Parent Next` for risky parents

"Chia is one of 68,000 parents who have been placed on a new government program, Parents Next, after receiving a call from Centrelink assessing whether they are at risk of `long-term welfare dependency`..."

"Parents say they have been forced by their providers to attend activities such as `story time`, swimming lessons or playgroup, or told to sign up to education courses at their own expense, even if they already hold qualifications..."

"The government announced the expansion of the $263m program in the May budget following a two-year trial, during which 3,510 participants had their payments suspended."

"`It’s offensive that the government believes that … women aren’t trying to do what they can to increase the welfare of themselves and their child,` Terese Edwards, the chief executive of the National Council of Single Mothers, told Guardian Australia."

"Now that it was compulsory and women faced penalties for not complying, Edwards said it had gone `from a soft touch … to almost blaming women for undertaking unpaid care`."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/06/single-parents-forced-to-attend-story-time-or-lose-centrelink-payments?fbclid=IwAR0DAdl9EziHR-NZ265rDezgH0pZK9lvwi4Sp1Z8DnCymi5r4y2wdrzLUkc

Limiting the children of the poor

Is this eugenics for the working poor and those out of work? 

"Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne suggests other parties attempts to paint the Conservatives as unreasonable means they fail to consider the real drivers of poverty and inequality." 

"She criticises the previous tax credit system introduced by Labour, saying it `allowed debt to spiral both for the individual and the government`. " 

"Responding to an intervention on the two child limit, Ms Ballantyne says this policy is about fairness." 

"She insists it is fair that people on benefits cannot have as many children as they like while families who don't claim benefits have to make decisions about the number of children they can have."
[BBC]

While driving more to poverty ? 

"SNP Christine Grahame MSP has tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament condemning those comments. She also claimed Mrs Ballantyne`s position as patron of a Borders foodbank `where she will have come face-to-face with people driven into hardship by Tory welfare cuts` as the `height of hypocrisy`."

https://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/michelle-ballantyne-msp-bites-back-at-calls-for-her-resignation-1-4822587

And hypocrisy is coming from all directions ?

"The Scottish Government is totally to blame for this scandal as they were warned repeatedly, from August 2011, that Westminster planned to devolve the DWP Social Fund to councils in England and the government in Scotland, with a recommendation dump the poor on councils to spread the DWP social fund (and all responsibility) across councils and just send people for food parcels at your own discretion instead."

"MP's and MSP's from every single political party in Scotland knew full well this would mean millions being sent for food parcels across the UK if they did not give small interest free crisis loans in their replacement system, as the DWP did, once the DWP Social Fund was devolved."

Read more https://melkelly60.wixsite.com/whatthepapersdontsay/single-post/2018/07/13/1365-million-Scots-26-ate-from-food-parcels-in-20178?fbclid=IwAR32N6Ibq9D2MbKWWxM0iFeesVlaM3xc4EFhI422XBkEbTNkB2SMlApTXkk

The risky interdependent world

Mike Robinson speaks on UK Column News, 26 July 2018.

"We`re starting with trade today," he says. "International trade, because that`s something that Theresa May`s been talking about a lot. Well, Liam Fox was talking about it yesterday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. He was making the case for free trade."

"And he said, `In my first speech as the secretary of state for international trade I set out the case for an open and liberal trading environment, and the speech was in Manchester, home of the Industrial revolution and a city with iconic associations with free trade. That was nearly two years ago when trade barely registered on the radar of most of our media. Now of course it`s right at the top of NAFTA and all the rest of it, but he said: `It`s therefore a good time for us to examine our attitudes to trade from first principles and to measure them against our domestic priorities and international obligations`. And he started talking about Adam Smith and David Ricardo and he said, `Now of course since those days, since 1817, the world has changed beyond all recognition yet the experiences of globalisation and of technological advances, unimaginable in Ricardo`s time, have only served to validate his theory. The principles of free and open trade underpinned the multilateral institutions, rules and alliances, and helped rebuild post war Europe and the world beyond. It helped usher the fall of communism and tear down the iron curtain facilitating seventy years of global prosperity and have raised the living standards of hundreds of millions of ... human beings across the world`. `Indeed,`  he said, `free trade has allowed us to take one billion of our fellow human beings out of poverty in just one generation, one of the great achievements of history`. " 

"Well, what a liar ! Because let`s look at the Guardian. Here, this is some time ago. `UK government warned over sharp rise in child and pensioner poverty`."

"So Britain the bastion of free trade is experiencing the benefits of free trade, and poverty is rising as a result."

Brian Gerrish. "And that`s precisely what we`re exporting to the rest of the world... as resources are hoovered out of these countries."

"Absolutely. Well any parts of the world that we have any influence over, but if we contrast that with China, `China has almost wiped out urban poverty`...They haven`t done that through free trade ....mainly through having a development agenda."

"So let`s go back to Liam Fox again. `But effect of protectionism is as close to settled science as anything in economics will ever be: it means reduced productivity gains and lost economic growth`."

"So of course Britain being the bastion of free trade is not into protectionism but unfortunately Britain has falling productivity. So not quite sure where he`s going with that one either."

"So let`s get back to Liam. He said: `The global economy continues to rebound from the dark days of the financial crash and ensuing recession experienced by many large economies`."

Mike Robinson then points to another article in the Financial Times: `Nomura profits tumble 91% on fixed income, equities slump`, and then to the Wall Street Journal: `Prolonged Slump in Bond Liquidity Rattles Markets`.

"I don`t think you`re too right about that one either, Liam, but anyway we go on. He said: `In areas such as steel production we have seen new technologies enable us to produce the same output with far fewer employees`. That`s really good stuff there. Yes fantastic`."

"And in a separate part of the speech he said: `And worse, in a world of globalisaton where interdependence is increasing and where disruptions in one part of the world can quickly ricochet around the rest, our ability to act unilaterally with impunity is diminishing by the day`. "

"So this is supposed to be a speech about promoting free trade and here is the key point:  because globalisation and the British model of free trade, as is currently perceived, is one where we are absolutely interdependent on everybody else in an equally collapsing western world... because it`s the first world countries that we`re interdependent upon. So I wanted to highlight this in particular because, of course, as Brian mentioned yesterday Dominic Raab has been talking about the government stockpiling food and the excuse for the requirement to stockpile food was Brexit and the potential for No Deal and the issue of: `would we be able to import food any more from the European Union?`  And so I thought I`d have a little bit of a look at this in the context of Liam Fox`s comment about us being `increasingly in an interdependent world, and there being risks in that`."  

 
"So the quote on screen there: `It would be wrong to describe it as the government doing the stockpiling. And, of course, the idea that we only get food imports into this country from one continent is not appropriate`."

"Well, is that true? Well it turns out that Britain imports 50% of its fruit and vegetables, but on top of that, we are only able to produce 25% of the fruit and vegetables we consume in this country. So only 25% of what we eat is produced in the United Kingdom. Thirty percent of the fruit comes from Europe. Eighty percent of our vegetables comes from Europe. So I`m not quite sure how that ties in with Dominic`s idea that `we only get... imports ...from one continent is not appropriate`... Because of course the point here is that thirty percent and that eighty percent is all seasonal. So supermarkets import fruit and vegetables from Europe when it`s appropriate to do so and they import fruit and vegetables actually from other parts of the world, but south America in particular, during the winter months when it`s not being produced in Europe."

"So 50% of our fruit and vedge imported and we only produce 25% of what we consume in this country but Theresa May has a big plan, Brian. We don`t need to worry about it because she`s going to deal with farming and she`s going to deliver a farming policy which supports agriculture and improves the environment. So this is what she had to say:..."

"Scrapping the Common Agricultural Policy ... provides funds in return for public goods, like improving water quality, reducing emissions and planting wild flower meadows ... are fundamental to our new approach."

"So the fundamentals to Theresa May`s approach, bearing in mind that what has been highlighted by this is the issue of the potential of a No Deal Brexit, is the issue of food imports and the lack of independence in our capability of food production. We`re not going to produce more food because she`s going to scrap the Agricultural Policy and then she`s going to divert the funds into what has been described as public goods which is about turning farmland, productive farmland, into wild meadows."

Brian Gerrish: "Which of course is all Millenium Goals and Agenda 21..."

"Absolutely. So my question then comes down to this: why would we not want to be producing our own food? Is it that we`re not going to need food in the coming decades? I`m just going to remind everybody of the outstanding debt graph that we show from time to time and the key aspect of this on the right hand side of the doughnut there is ...[the] black hole ... in the ability to pay state pensions. Again, is the British government not expecting there to be too many old people left to pay pensions to in the coming decades?"

Brian Gerrish: "I think that`s exactly where they`re going, Mike, and I know at the moment we have a vast amount of information coming into the UK Column which is back on the subject of the deaths of particularly elderly people in the NHS. Of course an increasing number of people worried about the death statistics, Sir Brian Jarman being one of those people. Euthanasia is coming in which, unfortunately, we will be moving on to in a moment. So yeah I think the government`s agenda is there will be less people. David Cameron was talking about two million people diagnosed with dementia in 2050 I think the deadline for that. It could have been 2040 ... And the inference is we need to get rid of those people."

Mike Robinson: "So if we take everything that Liam Fox is saying and we put it with what Dominic Raab was saying and also with the realities of food production in this country, and pension provision in this country, the picture`s not looking too good and well maybe we should be having more serious conversations about this because this is a result of government policy and not something which is unavoidable. It`s absolutely avoidable and if we were looking at productivity and developing our farming industry in this country and our food production in this country we`d be in a much better position."

Brian Gerrish. "Absolutely. Well as we move through the news today I think we`ll be looking at some of those policy areas. But let`s come in with just this statement. We decide who lives and dies and only we. Now I took this headline because I was going to talk about Boris Johnson in a minute. But somebody else flagged up a headline which we really have to cover and it`s this one. Dutch doctor reprimanded for `asking family to hold down euthanasia patient` This is truly truly disgusting. And it gives us a glimpse of where we`ll be going in this country because there`s many people pushing to follow Holland on this. But the story is a doctor has been formally reprimanded by the Dutch medical complaints board for carrying out euthanasia on a 74-year-old woman with dementia, despite her resistance."

"The woman refused a cup of coffee containing a sedative and when she struggled, the doctor asked her husband and daughter to hold her down so she could insert a drip containing the lethal injection."

"The case is the first time since the Dutch euthanasia law was passed in 2002 that a practitioner has been formally censured. According to the Dutch NOS broadcaster, the public prosecutor will announce after the summer if the doctor will face criminal prosecution."

"So we`re now into the heart of it. We have euthanasia whether you like it or not. It`s coming into western European policy and, of course, the Dutch lead on this has already been pushed and pushed to come in through the UK system. MM, the lady had dementia; she`s held down and she`s effectively, in my terms, murdered. For whose benefit? Well presumably the state, because the state, ultimately, didn`t have to pay for her care."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E833ooQPvMo

Armed Forces might inspire schools

 

More behavioural manipulation.

 

"The government is considering the introduction of a ‘military ethos’ in schools across the UK to help children from deprived backgrounds. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has commissioned MP Robert Goodwill to review the benefits of an education inspired by the ‘values and disciplines’ of the Armed Forces."

 

"Mr Goodwill will report back to the Ministry of Defence in September on what the impact has been on pupils from schools that already adopt military-style practices. The Tory MP has already said Armed Forces schools in deprived areas would boost the ‘life chances, confidence and self-discipline’ of youngsters. ‘Some schools may want to be a military academy and make that central to their school,’ he said."

 

"‘My job is to collect evidence, see what is done in other countries and see how we can build on the cadet system`."

 

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2018/04/02/government-backing-plans-create-military-schools-help-poor-children-7434494/?ito=cbshare

Predatory educators

====================

"When people look for information about food stamps on a search engine, they are often confronted with ads for go-betweens, like FindFamilyResources... sites look official and provide links to real government forms. But they also gather names and e-mail addresses for predatory advertisers, including for-profit colleges. They rake in lead generation fees by providing a superfluous service to people, many of whom are soon targeted for services they can ill afford..."

"[F]rom a society`s perspective, a simple hunt for government services puts a big target on the back of poor people, leading a certain number of them toward false promises and high-interest loans..."

Cathy O`Neil `Weapons of Math Destruction`

Reputation management on `World Democracy Day`

Brian Gerrish from UK Column says: "If we look to see how power is being misplaced ... we can pick up on this Guardian article. ... So here`s the headline: London could get £50m armed police base to tackle terrorism. So this terrorist threat is key to so much that is happening here in the UK and overseas at the moment."

"What do they say? A new £50m base for armed police officers in London is one of a series of measures being proposed to protect the public from terrorist attacks. So the soft sell. It`s all to look after us."

"And this is going to be in the Limehouse area: `The base, planned for Limehouse in the east of the capital, would house at least 200 officers and contain a firing range, weapons storage and other facilities, it is understood`. And the text goes on to say this is vital to ensure that the police can be fully trained and there to protect us."

"This was the bit that interested me. It says, `Details of the plans, which have been submitted by the Metropolitan police to the Mayor`s office for police and crime.` (Mopac) So this is not something to do with armed police that is debated in parliament.  It is simply pushed into the Mayor of London`s office for somebody to say, `Yeah, I think this is a great idea. Let`s get more armed police in London`."

"So where do we go? Well we go to this lady the Deputy Mayor of London, and [Sophie Linden] - we`ll come on to in a bit more detail in a moment - and if you go and have a look at the Mayor`s website you`ll see that she is the lady with all the experience to look at the police policy. She`s going to evaluate this latest one."

"And she essentially gets her powers delegated. The Mayor himself gets the power initially. He`s delegated to her as Deputy Mayor and what it means is effectively she has the same powers as a Police and Crime Commissioner in other areas of the country."

"So this woman is going to make the decision. What do we know about her? Well she`s spent quite a lot of time working in government. She was adviser to Blunkett. And when we looked at the details on the Mayor`s website it says that she`s also worked in the voluntary sector as a campaigns and policy manager, campaigning to end child poverty - they`re always involved with children and looking after the welfare of children - but it says she`s also been in the private sector as a Director of Public Affairs.

"I`ll just highlight that because I thought how interesting that it doesn`t give any more details. So we went to have a quick look and what do we come up with? Well, we note here that this was the bit that she was acting with public affairs. And it was Director of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs... She calls herself a Director from 2006 - 2008 but she`s only part-time. But this is the Public Affairs section of Bell Pottinger which is itself a public affairs and reputation management agency."

Mike Robinson: "So this is the Reputation Management Department for the Reputation Management Agency."

"Yeah. So I think you`d put some pretty key people in there because if you`re in amongst some dirty stuff ... as a company you want to be sure that the people who manage your reputation are fully in the picture."

Police outside Mr Litvinenko`s home

"So this is where it gets interesting. Because although it`s only two years why are we interested in Bell Pottinger? Well if we go back to reports in 2006, this is the Guardian pointing out that Bell Pottinger was involved in matters going on around Litvinenko - so this was the Russian who was poisoned. It was blamed on the KGB. Of course Putin`s name was supposedly connected with this and Bell Pottinger was in amongst some very very dirty stuff where people were being murdered. I`m not suggesting that was the result of Bell Pottinger but certainly they were handling reporting around this issue."

"We can go on. We`ve got another report here. This is about Thatcher and it`s saying that `Thatcher`s PR guru has been involved in manipulating propaganda in Iraq`. And this is where the story gets particularly interesting because Bell Pottinger had a cool 500 million dollars from the US in order to create fictitious propaganda supposedly for Al-Qaeda  and the objective was to leave this stuff around supposedly spoiling Al-Qaeda`s reputation but of course nobody knew whether this was real or false propaganda."

"And it went on. And this is into the present day. So we`ve got Bell Pottinger being accused of inciting racial hatred in South Africa. And that`s now taken a very serious turn: `PR company Bell Pottinger will go into administration tomorrow with 270 employees set to lose their jobs`."

Mike Robinson explains a bit more about the company saying that what is clear from mainstream media in the past is that this organisation is more than just about PR and reputation management. "It`s about making news stories and actually producing the news... What appears to be the case is that it`s a real 1984 type organisation where we create monsters for people to be scared of..."

Brian Gerrish adds: "So if we put the pieces together, we`ve got the situation where the Met police are saying `Well we`ve got this amazing terrorist threat` - some of it based on Al-Qaeda of course; some of it based on Isis. This is the lady who`s now going to say whether we`re going to get more armed police as a result. She was working for a company that was helping to create false terrorist propaganda."

Sophie Linden

 

"Now we`re not saying of course that she was directly involved. We want to ask a question: Does the Deputy, or Did the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, was she actually aware of the activities of her company Bell Pottinger in creating this false terrorist propaganda? We could ask another question. Is that false terrorist propaganda now being used as the excuse to say we`ve got to have more armed police on the streets?"

"Well we haven`t got answers on this but I do find it interesting that she did not want to declare on the Mayor of London`s website that the company she worked for was Bell Pottinger. I wonder why she`d be so sensitive Mike?"

An update on Melanie Shaw

"Melanie Shaw has had a particularly rough time in HMP Peterborough. She was subsequently released but shortly afterwards, where there was a trial with no public attendance or press attendance, she was put back into prison.  She went into HM prison Foston Hall and we said a little while ago - a few weeks ago - that she`s been put through to Eastwood Park, Falfield Wotton under Edge, Gloucester GL12 8DB."

"Now the lady responsible for the imprisonment of Melanie Shaw is Theresa May, the British Prime Minister.  She was in her role as Home Secretary when Melanie was first imprisoned but of course Theresa May as Prime Minister has done absolutely nothing to protect this very vulnerable lady. On the contrary it appears that Theresa May is desperate to protect her conservatie party colleagues who are now very nervous at the deepening investigations into child abuse by British politicans, including Ted Heath."

"So what can we say about Melanie? Well, when she was in Foston Hall she wrote several letters in which she was saying that the prison was out of control. There were constant lock downs. She had spent virtually a year in solitary confinement. In this letter she was talking about alarms going off, officers losing control, women smoking joints quite openly in front of the prison guards and her description was of a very dangerous environment where things were out of control."

"Well, she`s been moved. under very strange circumstances. She was moved across to the Falfield  prison and the interesting thing about this is that the governor - a lady called Susan Dymond-White, a little while ago called for the government to give longer jail sentences to help offenders who have been abused. I hope you understand this."

Mike Robinson says: "I have to say I don`t."

"Well the logic is that those soft judges have been giving child abuse victims short sentences and she says the problem with that is: `While they`re in prison we can`t help them. We can`t help them with their psychological needs and help them if they`re on drugs...So what we need are longer sentences so that we can help these very vulnerable child abuse or sexual abuse victims`.  And she says - here is the quote: `It is impossible for inmates to be rehabilitated in a few short weeks`. "

"Now if you`re wondering if this is reality: Yes, this is absolute reality. The BBC reported her words and it`s reported in other places."

"So what sort of treament has Melanie been receiving under this wonderful regime by Ms Dymond-White?  Well she`s been kept in solitary confinement again. She`s been denied access to the Samaritans [ Melanie says it is standard procedure to allow prisoners to phone the Samaritans, but not for her.] She`s been denied basic toiletries. She`s escorted by three warders - they can be male and female - at all times including for showers and the toilet and ... the doors are kept open. Melanie is being subjected to abuse of course because very often these warders are male."

"She`s been denied books; she`s been denied any form of therapeutic work such as art. She`s not getting her telephone calls. Letters are being intercepted. They`ve also refused her the opportunity to earn money to pay for small essentials and luxuries and she`s been branded as a dangerous violent mentally ill inmate. And she is told that each day is Wednesday and if you ask the time it is always `ten to two`. "

"So if we have a look at what is actually going on, Melanie is being held in what is supposedly a more open facility that has mental health facilities to assist prisoners but actually the treatment there is now more sinister and brutal than when she was in a high security prison. And we have a prison governor who thinks that you help child and sex abuse victims by giving them a longer sentence."

"So every day of the week is Wednesday. Every minute of the day is ten to two?" says Mike Robinson.

"If they ask: `What day is it?` They`re always told: `It`s Wednesday`, and if you ask: `What is the time?` They`re always told: `It`s ten to two`."

"This is how you imagine Soviet style..."

"Psychological torture. .. And this is all under the direct responsibility of Theresa May, the conservative party prime minister of Great Britain. This is the very same Theresa May that, standing on a world stage ...is telling North Korea how to behave or is telling the Russian or Chinese how to behave and remember that it is her party, the conservative party, that Tim Fortescue, party whip under the Ted Heath regime, was saying that politicians were coming to the whips and needing help. They perhaps had been involved in little boys...."

"So there`s no misunderstading here. It`s quite clear that the conservative party has been involved in the abuse of children - is involved with the abuse of children - and they`re prepared to lock abuse survivors up in prison to protect their reputation...Wonderful stuff. Welcome to democracy 2017, UK style."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-MlFY0ILQs&t=1982s

Susan Dymond-White

 



Children living in temporary housing are on the increase

"The number of homeless children being housed in temporary accommodation rose by more than a third in the last three years, according to official figures."

"Councils in England were now providing temporary housing for 120,540 children with their families, the Local Government Association said."

"It said the growth rate - of about 900 extra children every month - was unsustainable."

"The government said the figures were a worry but still below the peak of 2006."

"Based on the latest figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government, covering January to March 2017, there was a net increase of 32,650 (37%) since the second quarter of 2014 - an average of 906 extra children every month."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40685901

Children`s outcomes are worse for the poor

I hope the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) are paying attention that household incomes are a very important factor when determining what is going to happen to children..

But, probably not.

I guess they would rather provide opportunities for little businesses to develop on the back of that poverty.

==================

Maybe this is why I think that:

"The importance of money in determining a child’s life prospects is highlighted in a major new study published today – with household income found to have a significant impact on everything from children’s cognitive and educational outcomes to their social development and physical health."

"We can now confidently say that money itself matters and needs to be taken into account if we want to improve children’s outcomes," says the review’s co-author, Kerris Cooper. "We often focus on gaps at school – but what the evidence shows is that money doesn’t only make a difference to children’s cognitive outcomes, it also makes a difference to their physical health, to birth weight, and to social and behavioural development."

Fifty-five of 61 studies carried out in eight countries over the past three decades showed increases in income to have a positive effect across a variety of measures, according to the systematic review carried out by Cooper and Kitty Stewart of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics.

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jul/12/household-income-crucial-role-children-life-prospects-lse-report?CMP=share_btn_tw

Behavioural insights and lessons still to be learned

The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) puts forward the perception that it is strong on research and learning.  Questionable., because it has little to say about the lessons that have already been learned about poverty and education or the need for educating politicians about research.

BIT says: "Yesterday Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Education, announced that the government was to fund 11 Research Schools, bringing the total to 22 nationally...

"We have a long history with the Blue School and with Somerset more generally, having collaborated with them on our projects supporting the Somerset Challenge, a cross county group dedicated to school improvement, which is also part of the Blue School’s bid."

"Over the next three years, the Blue School, supported by the Somerset Challenge, BIT, and Professor Simon Burgess from the University of Bristol, will focus on several strands of work."

"These will include creating online material to support teachers in the use of evidence based interventions in the classroom, as well as workshops and conferences with a similar focus; training for teachers on how to tell good evidence from bad, and what sources to trust; and how to tailor the findings of research to their own context and needs."

http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/education-and-skills/why-englands-11-new-research-schools-are-an-exciting-step-forward-for-education/


Creating online material?   BIT is politically based and not value-free.

Will opportunities be taken for private enterprises to build businesses out of something like STEP be there in the interventions, workshops and conferences that ordinary taxpayers fund?

I do think so.

Who knows?  As it is, a few more lessons need to be learned by flustered Justine Greening who "left important Government documents unattended in the street as she dodged questions about teachers’ 1% pay rise."

"The Education Secretary fled back into her house, leaving her Ministerial Red Box outside – containing official papers..."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/flustered-education-secretary-justine-greening-10778378

Tut. Tut.

A definite D for that.

And possible expulsion ?

Troubled children might go to Eton

Here`s a propaganda piece that links risk and poverty while elite schools are set to come to the rescue:

"Public schools are launching a new diversity drive that will see children who risk being put into care offered places at Eton College and Harrow School instead."

"Under the initiative, named The Boarding Schools Partnership, youngsters from some of the most vulnerable families will enrol at some of Britain`s top boarding schools..."

"Harrow, Rugby, Benenden and Eton are among the schools taking part. Colin Morrison, chair of the Boarding Schools Partnership, said the school fees, typically ranging from £25,000-£39,000 a year, will be covered by their local councils."

"This is far less expensive than keeping a child in care, which costs at least £100,000 a year, but does not include the cost of care for children during school holidays..."

"In the past, similar schemes have previously failed to get off the ground. Earlier this year, a multi-million pound Government backed project to give disadvantaged children free places at top boarding schools was axed because social workers have `low aspirations`  and are failing to make referrals."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/03/children-risk-put-care-will-sent-boarding-schools-instead/

Student debt on the increase

Scottish Students Speak Out About UK Child Poverty

"With this week’s budget, the Chancellor doubled down on a failed economic model. The government will continue cutting spending into the next parliament, and earlier this week, it was revealed that the Treasury has asked most departments to find an extra 6% of savings."

"But austerity isn’t working. Having dropped the last government’s fiscal plan, the OBR now expects that the Chancellor won’t succeed in his new goal of balancing the public finances as soon as possible in the next parliament..."

"Public spending cuts mean less money circulating in the economy. Since 2010, the Treasury’s strategy has been to offset this effect by allowing the Bank of England to pump new money into financial markets. Last year, the Chancellor gave the Bank of England the go-ahead to create an additional £70bn through its quantitative easing programme. So while the spending squeeze continues to hurt those on moderate and low incomes the most, new money is being created for the financial sector, benefitting the privileged few."

"And the long-term indicators are still of a slow recovery, from which many people are left out... And while budgets are being cut, the number of people using food banks is on the rise. Around 30% of the population, equivalent to 19 million people (a rise of 4 million since 2008) are living below the nationally-recognised minimum income standard."

http://positivemoney.org/2017/03/budget/

Bafta for director Ken Loach

 

"Director Ken Loach accepts the Bafta award for Best British Film for his portrayal of life in the British welfare system in I, Daniel Blake. He uses his speech to criticise the government for its `callous brutality` and its attitude towards `the most vulnerable and the poorest people` in our society, and particularly notes that the `disgraceful` cruelty now `extends to keeping out refugee children`."

https://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2017/feb/12/baftas-2017-ken-loach-slams-brutally-callous-government-video

I do not criticise his portrayal of life in Britain for the most disadvantaged but I wonder if he is aware that hundreds of refugee children have gone missing in the UK and we do not  have a great care system ? In fact, the British system might actually be one that feeds a perverted elite group in society.

Factories in Burma exploited child labour

"Scandal-hit David Beckham championed the global fight against child labour while children as young as 13 made clothes for the high street giant selling his multi-million-pound fashion range, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found."

"We discovered child labour abuse at factories in Burma used by H&M, which sells the former England captain’s clothing line."

"Beckham announced a high- profile Unicef fund in 2015 to combat global child exploitation – as teenage girls were working for as little as 13p an hour in H&M-contracted factories on the outskirts of Burma’s capital Yangon..."

"Emails leaked earlier this month suggested Beckham hoped his Unicef campaign would help win him a knighthood..."

"While there is no suggestion Beckham knew of the use of child labour by H&M contractors in the Far East, a charity exposed the practice in 2015 – three years into his store deal."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4215728/Beckham-s-H-M-fashion-range-child-labour-shame.html

Reducing stigma: poverty education in Curriculum for Excellence

We have some more good news from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation who estimate that one in five children in Scotland live in poverty, with the figure rising to one in three in the urban centre of Glasgow. " With more and more families falling into relative poverty and the numbers of working poor rising, the newly branded `JAMs` (just about managing) are in some cases not managing, having to decide between heating their house or feeding their families."

These facts and figures were produced in a report from the Centre for Child Wellbeing and Protection at Stirling University.

In the same report the Stirling University group went on to say: ` Many children suffer from low self-esteem and feel the invisible burden of the stigma that the label of `poverty` places on them.` In addition, they say, children affected by poverty suffer from a number of disadvantages that more affluent children do not, including lower attainment and poorer physical and mental health.

Having said that I can add that surprisingly the invisible burden is not experienced by many children:

"Many children, even from the poorest backgrounds do not recognise themselves as being in poverty. This is something highlighted in research conducted by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute (SUII), which looked at child perceptions of poverty, and expressing these through alternate methods such as art."

 

But that is something the study attempts to put right by engaging educational professionals in poverty discourse. By that means the researchers would put the invisible burden that poor children do not actually experience well and truly on their shoulders. The study places its endeavour in the overarching framework: Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC).

"We know that poverty can have an adverse impact on wellbeing and on learning, and that children who live in poverty are more likely to be absent from school. However, education professionals are largely excluded from the discussions which child welfare officers, social workers, doctors and third sector colleagues are already having around the health and wellbeing of children who are living in poverty."

 Wow. ! Look at all those people who are emboldened in the paragraph above who ARE having discussions about children living in poverty. How many of them are screaming: `We must end poverty now ?`

Answer: some of them are, but not enough of them are. What do the academics at Stirling University have to say about it, whose remit is to study children`s wellbeing ?

Well, absolutely nothing about demanding the end to poverty. What they do say is that educators, that is teachers in schools, should use more creative methods to explain poverty to children and that includes  - as if teachers do not already have enough to contend with -  art, dance and storytelling to help explain to those children who do not understand that they are in poverty how to share their experiences. Think about that.

Art, dance and storytelling is to be used to explain poverty in a classroom where some pupils are ok and some pupils are not.  As if that was not bad enough, here comes one of the most sickening paragraphs in the study:

"Using creative ways of communicating and engaging with children has already been found useful in helping them to talk about other issues personal to them, such as trauma or abuse. Researchers from the Scottish University Insight Institute-funded research team employed similar methods, using art, drama and play to help children express their feelings on poverty, and how it could be tackled in their communities. Children acted out scenarios, wrote poems, and created a number of pieces of tactile artwork, including sculptures and drawings."

They go on to say that: "Effective discussion could go a long way to helping children open up about experiences of poverty and also help them to be more understanding of other children who are living in poverty, reducing stigma and encouraging positive action within their local communities."

========================

We are going to have GIRFEC integrated into Curriculum for Excellence and the Named Person integrated into Curriculum for Excellence, and let us not forget the Wellbeing Indicators integrated into Curriculum for Excellence. What else? We are going to have youth work integrated into Curriculum for Excellence and death and dying integrated into Curriculum for Excellence as well as the Army Cadet Force.. .That last three are a nice combination for some.

We`re also going to have social and emotional learning integrated into Curriculum for Excellence. And we`re going to have poverty integrated into Curriculum for Excellence with the poor subjected to ritualistic opening up `confession` sessions in front of their classmates who will be encouraged to feign concern but who will actually hold them in contempt.

We`re going to have so much embedded in Curriculum for Excellence that there will be little room for an actual education.
 
https://theknowledgeexchangeblog.com/2017/01/30/talking-to-children-about-poverty-why-education-needs-to-get-in-on-the-act/

Job Centres to be slashed

"`Reckless` plans to slash millions from the welfare department's bill by shutting Jobcentres across the country have been revealed."

"The Department for Work and Pensions today announced it wants to merge staff and facilities from 78 smaller Jobcentre Plus offices into larger ones..."

"There will only be public consultations in cases where Jobcentres are being moved more than three miles or 20 minutes' journey away."

"Shadow work and pensions secretary Debbie Abrahams branded the closures `reckless at best and perverse at worst`."

"She added: `Only this government’s distorted austerity agenda could lead to such contradictory policies. Either the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing, or they are both acting together to make working people’s lives harder."

"This Tory Government’s decision to close Jobcentres across the country shows they are not serious about helping people to find decent, secure and well-paid work`."

http://kelsolawyers.com/au/news-item/open-letter-uk-survivors-institutional-child-abuse/

Absolutely, the present government is not serious about doing anything to help people get into work. Debbie Abrahams` comments are also disingenuous given her support for austerity.

I also find myself in the unusual position where I am unsympathetic with the Job Centre workers who are threatened with the loss of their jobs.

Like others, I cannot help but remember their jobs depended on persecuting the disabled, the long term sick, the single parents, the elderly and others who could not find work. Any excuse was to be sanctioned, and that is exactly what the Job Centre staff did.

Longer school hours proposed for poor children

I`m sure Mr Keir Bloomer would like all of that.

"CREATING a new system where poor children attend school for more hours and take fewer summer holidays than rich children could be a solution to closing the attainment gap, according to one of the most influential education experts in Scotland." Yes, too influential.

"Keir Bloomer, one of the key architects of the Scottish Government’s flagship education policy, the failing Curriculum for Excellence, pointed to the success of similar schemes in America which helped boost learning for pupils from poor backgrounds." 

I think he has forgotten that children have a right to express their views on any matter that affects them. No poor child will accept the injustice he proposes. [See Articles 12 and 13 of the UNCRC.] How about extracurricular activities for poor children that are fun, and voluntary of course?

No.
Thought not.

Austerity in Ireland