Part 1: The socioeconomic impact of inequalities on children, families and their communities.

Dr Anne Brunton

anne.brunton@rhul.ac.uk

Timetable:

• Presentation
• Questions/Discussion
• Break
• Group work
• Consolidation
• Feedback

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What will we cover?

In this session we will cover:

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• Scene Setting: Definitions and The impact of childhood inequality
• The Legal and Statutory Position in the UK.
• An example: Sure Start
• International comparators on childhood Inequality.
• Additional complexities faced by children in Palestine.
• How work in Northern Ireland might help.
• At its best how might early childhood education help build resilience amongst the 0-5 group.

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Definition

• Contested – Sociological, economic, political, social policy.
• A state of one person having less than another.
• This can be broadened to include a type or class of person. Income, Class, Race, Religion.
• “Inequality refers to the phenomenon of unequal and/or unjust distribution of resources and opportunities among members of a given society. The term inequality may mean different things to different people and in different contexts.” Sin Yee Koh, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition), 2020
• Inequality most clearly linked to poverty (income, wealth, environment) and opportunity (education, employment, life chances).

• We can look at inequality globally – considering the experience of the Global North and South (the so called ‘Brandt Line’). What we one called those countries that were developed or developing.
• We can also consider the impact of other factors and will. Such as the impact of ‘peace’, ‘conflict’ and ‘war’.

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Impact (1)

Inequalities in early childhood – the period from birth to school entry (age 5) – are concerning not only because of the implications for children’s immediate lives and well-being, but also because of their importance for later development.

Early childhood is a critical period for laying healthy foundations for subsequent cognitive, social, emotional and physical development and functioning, which in turn play key roles in shaping people’s economic,�social and health trajectories.

Without timely and appropriate mitigation, the developmental gaps already present between 5-year-olds from the most and least advantaged backgrounds persist and can widen, contributing to later inequalities in economic and social outcomes.

The Deaton Review (2022)

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Impact (2)

• Message 1: Inequalities in children’s development originate in multiple disadvantages, with compounding effects on children’s long-term outcomes. (EG: Sure Start)
• Message 6: Children’s subjective well-being is both a major indicator of inequality and also a channel for the transmission of poverty. (Inclusive Practice)
• Message 7: Education is regarded by adults and children as transformative but doesn’t always compensate for background disadvantage and may reinforce differences.
• Message 8: Social protection programmes can reduce disadvantage, but impacts are often complex, some may be unintended and they may not always benefit children (see part 2 after the break).

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Impact on UK children.

• Stark and longstanding inequalities are not confined to the UK.
• In many countries where early childhood development indicators are available, we see developmental gaps emerging from the earliest age between children from different backgrounds.
• For UK Children inequality affects the ability to form relationships, health outcomes and in particular education:

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• Children who have lived in persistent poverty during their first seven years have cognitive development scores on average 20 per cent below those of children who have never experienced poverty.
• Gifted children from the most deprived families begin school on a par with gifted children facing least deprivation, but their performance falls away by the age of 16.
• In 2019, 41 per cent of children receiving free school meals obtained good English and Maths GCSEs, compared with 69 per cent of other children

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The Legal and Statutory Position in the England

Inequality linked to poverty as the most urgent problem.

In 2010, the Child Poverty Act was passed with cross-party support it was broad and produced during a time when child poverty had been consistently falling.

The Act imposed a legal duty on governments to produce a child poverty strategy:

• Relative poverty – for less than 10% of children to live in relative low income families (below 60% of the median income).
• Combined low income and material deprivation – for less than 5% of children to live in material deprivation (below 70%)
• Absolute poverty – for less than 5% of children to live in absolute low income families
• Persistent poverty – for fewer children to live in relative poverty for long periods of time

• In 2016, the Welfare Reform and Work Act abolished the Child Poverty Act, including the targets to reduce poverty and the measure of poverty based on family income.
• The government is now required only to report to parliament on the number of children living in workless households, and educational outcomes at GCSE level.
• However, after a prolonged campaign by the Child Poverty Action Group, the government agreed to commit in law to regularly publishing data on the number of children in poverty.
• Child poverty has increased year on year since 2012 2.6 million, 2022 4.2 million.
• Government policy now focuses on ‘strengthening families, encouraging responsibility, promoting work and providing support for the most vulnerable.’

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Action for Children

• In the UK in a class room of 30 children 8.1 one of them will be living in poverty.
• In England it will be nearly 10.
• In Wales it will be over 10.

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Innovative policy? Sure Start.

• The initiative originated from HM Treasury, with the aim of "giving children the best possible start in life" through improvement of childcare, early education, health and family support, with an emphasis on outreach and community development.
• Launched in 1998 and drew inspiration from US and Australian ‘Head Start’ Programmes
• Initial budget £540 million, 250 centres to lift 150,ooo deprived families out of poverty.
• By 2020 there was a target of 3,500 centres.
• Linked to a comprehensive auditing programme.

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Sure Start Evaluation Outcomes

• Politicised
• Budget and fanfare meant there was a need for early wins.
• Welfare and poverty linked to complicated historical concepts of ‘less eligibility’ and ‘deservingness’.
• Norman Glass in 2005 praised the project for focussing on the importance of early years but criticised it from moving from child development to ‘child care’ – Nursery.
• It became a lever for ‘New Deal for Lone Parents’ and attempting to get women back into work.
• Changes to the scope of the project made it difficult to evaluate.
• Reduction in child poverty year in year out until 2012. Massive disinvestment and ‘targeting’ from 2010.

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International comparators on childhood Inequality

Stark and longstanding inequalities are not confined to the UK.

In many countries where early childhood development indicators are available, we see developmental gaps emerging from the earliest age between children from different backgrounds.

All too often, unequal school trajectories are set in motion even before a child starts school, even though the early years is recognised as the most cost-effective period for intervening to reduce inequalities.

But evidence reinforces findings from global surveys that report early childhood programmes currently benefit a higher proportion of advantaged than disadvantaged children, thus perpetuating cycles of poverty. (Young Lives Project 2004)

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• Inequality affects the ability to form relationships, health outcomes and in particular education:
• Children who have lived in persistent poverty during their first seven years have cognitive development scores on average 20 per cent below those of children who have never experienced poverty.
• Gifted children from the most deprived families begin school on a par with gifted children facing least deprivation, but their performance falls away by the age of 16.
• In 2019, 41 per cent of children receiving free school meals obtained good English and Maths GCSEs, compared with 69 per cent of other children

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Additional complexities faced by children in Palestine (1)

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Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2021. Palestinian Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019-2020, Survey Findings Report, Ramallah, Palestine.

Additional complexities faced by children in Conflict (2)

Percentage of children age 36-59 months who are attending an early childhood education programme 34.2

Amongst the richest families this will be about ½ children. In the poorest this will be about ¼ of all children.

Children age 36-59 months who are developmentally on track in at least three of the following four domains: literacy-numeracy, physical, social-emotional, and learning 83.9

1/3 of children with disabilities in Palestine do not attend school. The Palestinian Central Bureau estimates this to be 15% of all children.

In Hebron, Palestinian children living and/or studying in schools in the Old City must walk through up to four Israeli military checkpoints to reach school.

• Children are exposed to situations of terror and horror during war – experiences that may leave enduring impacts in posttraumatic stress disorder. Severe losses and disruptions in their lives lead to high rates of depression and anxiety in war-affected children. (Santa Barbara J, 2003 on impact of war on Croatian children).
• The impact of growing up in a divided society creates impacts long term. In Ireland they have noted political disengagement, and personal identity has become central (national, religious, and sex).
• Teachers endeavour to provide a ‘safe haven’ , a refuge where children can escape the conflict outside.

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At its best how might early childhood education help amongst the 0-5 group? (1)

• Routine
• Support
• Care
• Sure Start Northern Ireland identify improved language skills, improved access to services, enhanced parenting skills and an ability to identify child development needs early.
• Introduces children to early child hood viruses
• Although it increased hospitalisation under 1 by age 11-15 hospitalisations had fallen by 8-9%.

• Early education can help build resilience in children who are the most disadvantaged emotionally, economically or through circumstance.
• The Resilience Framework summarises a set of ideas and practices that promote resilience. It is based on a body of research and practice development called Resilient Therapy (RT). This was originally developed by Angie Hart and Derek Blincow, with help from Helen Thomas and a group of parents and practitioners.
• Building on Maslow’s ‘heairachy of needs’ it builds from the ground up.

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Building Resilience

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How might this work?

• How might we use the Resilience Framework to underpin curriculum development?

• Or involving partners in the charitable or statutory sectors in school?

What might this look like? Art therapy?

Concluding thoughts

In the next session we are going to look at how we might go about implementing an Early Childhood Education Policy.

How might we go about this?

Well what we have seen so far is that for a policy to succeed it needs ‘buy in’ or investment from different groups.

From policy makers, policy users, and policy evaluators.

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At the end of this session I would like us to take a look at the Resilience Framework and think about how or if it might help us in curriculum development (everything is in your pack).

Also if we could think about the potential benefits to children and the school, community and nation.

Does anyone have any questions they would like to ask?

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Part 2: Implementing innovative policy and practice on a micro and macro scale. �

Dr Anne Brunton

anne.brunton@rhul.ac.uk

Timetable:

• Presentation
• Questions/Discussion
• Break
• Group work
• Consolidation
• Feedback

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What will we cover?

In this session we will cover:

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• Scene Setting: What do we mean by new policy?
• Helpful to consider failures? UK context
• Ultimately how did Sure Start fare?
• Current position in Nursery Education UK.
• Unintended consequences?
• Important steps – developing a strategy:
• Micro
• Meso
• Macro
• Conclusion

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What do we mean by new policy? What might it look like?

Social policy is concerned with the ways societies across the world meet human needs for security, education, work, health and wellbeing.

New policy is diverse and perceived as new and innovative.

In reality new policy is often old policy with new clothes on. This is a problem as old policy may bring with it old failures.

New policy can be quite small to be impactful. Even the idea of new policy can have impact. E.g. The impact of the new Pension 1.1.1908. Or the introduction of a scent to gas.

• Small changes can make big differences.
• Therefore the priority is identifying what can make a difference.
• Considering what the perspective is from the ground up.

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Helpful to consider failures? UK context (1)�

• Previously we have looked at Sure Start.
• In association we could consider New Deal For Lone Parents.
• What was it?
• ‘Welfare to Work’ scheme. Women who were single parents and had children under the age of 16 were unlikely to ‘work’. Work was defined as work that was paid.
• Child rearing in this way was not considered work.
• Women were offered incentives to return to work and their children would be offered places in care.

• Failure to consider ‘in work’ poverty.
• Failure to consider the choice that was necessary – to leave children in the care of others.
• Considered that mothers would make the ‘rational’ choice to return to work if threatened with benefit cuts/sanctions.
• Women often chose to stay at home. Perceived as ‘irrational’.

Millar, J., & Ridge, T. (2002). Parents, Children, Families and New Labour: Developing Family Policy? In M. Powell (Ed.), Evaluating New Labour's welfare reforms (pp. 85-106). Policy Press.

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Helpful to consider failures? UK context: NDLP

“And the number of single parents desperately looking for extra childcare during holiday periods is set to increase. The coalition government has declared that from October 2011, lone parents on income support must, when their youngest child reaches the age of five, actively seek work or take up a job, or lose up to 40% of their benefits.”

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Is education transformative? Possibly.

Children and parents have high expectations that school education will be transformative, but for most there is a mismatch with realistic opportunities.

Early childhood education and primary schooling frequently does not seem to live up to its promise to reduce inequalities, and may actually reinforce other forms of disadvantage.

There is a need to ensure access and do sufficient outreach work (see Sure Start).

• Growth in low-cost private schools in AP India for example (20012) appeared to risk widening existing inequalities, including between boys and girls.
• Young Lives (2012) evidence from Vietnam also draws attention to that ways that school systems focussed on supporting all children can be effective in narrowing achievement gaps.

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Current position in Nursery Education UK in Brief

The aim of the nursery is to provide a happy, safe and caring environment for all children to develop, through play and education. To encourage children to be confident learners; the basis of a stepping stone to progressing towards mainstream schooling.

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Children develop quickly in the early years and a child’s experiences between birth and age five have a major impact on their future life chances. A secure, safe and happy childhood is important in its own right. Good parenting and high quality early learning together provide the foundation children need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up. (gov.uk 2021)

• The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standards that all early years providers must meet to ensure that children learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children’s ‘school readiness’ and gives children the broad range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life (gov.uk 2021).

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Unintended consequences? 2021

• The findings underline that, while the entitlement to free early education is a universal policy, the funded places in practice offer the greatest subsidy to children who are already doubly advantaged – by their birth month and by their income. This inequality will have been further exacerbated by the 30 hours policy, which offers children from families where both parents are in paid work 30 rather than 15 funded hours.
• In particular, areas with a higher share of provision in Sure Start children’s centres or the voluntary sector had significantly higher levels of access among children from low-income homes.
• In the case of Sure Start, the fact that families may have attended health services or toddler groups at the children’s centre from pregnancy onwards could also improve both information and trust.

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Unintended consequences of social protection programmes – India, Vietnam, Peru, Ethiopia ‘Young Lives’

In Andhra Pradesh, India the provision of a midday meal helped maintain nutrition levels for 5 year olds.

In the UK in comparison we know that further analysis shows that parents and children can feel too ashamed to claim free school meals. Why might this be?

Public support for social protection programmes was only maintained as long as distribution was perceived as fair and efficient.

Making people aware of the programme was important and not relying on narrow ‘networks of influence’ (nepotism).

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• A policy to increase work to workless households through ‘welfare for work’ schemes may make the situation worse for children in the household who spend more time alone. Or have to take on additional house work. (Similarities with NDLP).
• Targeted programmes can cause inter-community conflict where there is a ‘cliff edge’. So who gets access and who does not?
• Confronting the problem between universal and selective benefits.
• Private vs Public benefits.

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Important steps – developing a strategy (1)

• Identifying a problem/gap.
• Auditing existing frameworks
• Data collection – what might this look like?
• Analysis
• Evaluation

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Important steps – developing a strategy (2)

Micro – One to one relationships.

Macro: Voluntary Sector, Community businesses, Community leaders?

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Macro: Government departments? International charities, funding bodies?

What might success look like to these groups? How might you identify their goals? Is it possible to collaborate?

Who might you need to influence at a Micro, Meso and Macro level?

Conclusion

There are a number of themes that have been identified here across a number of projects internationally:

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Well designed public policy needs to consider its potential impact vertically and horizontally.

Public policy may not be able to resolve all problems as such it needs to have clear goals

It is important however to consider blocks to progress. In the UK an example of this would be housing.

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• Group Project:
• Consider a community project that you would like to implement.
• You have funding for 2 years.
• It can be small or large – consider what would have the most impact.
• Examples:
• The purchase of a mini-bus?
• Small community ‘enabling society’ grants?
• Art project?
• Free School Meals?
• Minimum income guarantee?

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