The Key Developments in Social Policy - Essay Example

The key developments in social policy Abstract: The present paper aims to analyse and evaluate the important developments the New Labour administration had introduced and observed in the social policy with regards to addressing the challenges of child poverty and child abuse since 1997 onward in the light of the implication of the social policy on the overall welfare of the children. Hence, the paper will concentrate upon the progress witnessed by the UK authorities in respect of improving the condition of the children. (Full stop) in order to protect them from becoming the victim of poverty and abuse for the future days to come. The main objective behind exploring the social policy with regards to the children includes the significant increase the British society has witnessed in the poverty level as well as child abuse in the country during the last few years. Since the new social policy had been devised’to combat’’ to combat with child abuse and child poverty , failure in overcoming both these problems, serves as a great challenge on the part of the British government. The paper will elaborate on social policy, and different strategies adopted by the UK administration in respect of the improvements being made in it in the wake of revising these policies in the best interest of the public at large. Finally, the evaluation of the social policy on children will be made in the light of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Their purpose was to investigate rather than into the validity of the social policy on the one side, and the functioning of the same on the other. Introduction: Social policy simply refers to all the strategies and schemes articulated and implemented by the authorities with the aim of bringing in improvements in one or all areas related to the individual and collective well-being of the members of society in general. “Social policies” according to Prof. Macbeath, “are connected with the right ordering of the network of relationships between men and women who live together in societies, or with the principles which should govern the activities of individuals or groups, so far they affect the lives and interests of other people” (1957:1). Vargas-Hernández et al. define social policy to be the “guidelines and interventions for the changing, maintenance or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare” (2011:287). It includes the upbringing of the people in the areas like food, clothing, shelter, health, education, housing, employment and protection for all without discrimination. Consequently, social policies are devised by keeping in view the welfare and socioeconomic uplift of the masses in various areas of life; and without observing any prejudice with regards to to the class, caste, creed, ethnicity, race, region, religion, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic status of the members of society. The authorities make plans y focusing on the social issues challenging the members of society on the one side, and for combating with the social evils prevailing in the culture on the other. In addition to this, policies are also formulated by specifying some perticular group, community or stratum of society that has been observing problems and/or prejudiced behaviour at the hands of the rival communities, biased individuals or the groups of criminals and assailants. These policies are devised by allocating the time, energies and resources on the communities on the foundations of the age-group, profession, gender, ethnicity, race and religion etc of the people for their rescue from the fear and perils of being abused or exploited at any scale. For instance, the social policies are articulated in order improve the ways and methods necessary for the wellbeing of the elderly, which includes constructing and looking after their old houses, ensuring their healthcare and security etc, and providing them with mental and physical relief under the care of the medical professionals. Similarly, the statutes of laws are passed in order to protect the rights attributed to the women folk, and protecting them from the gender bias in the male dominated societies of the world. Moreover, social policies are also introduced for safeguarding the equal status of the minority social groups, including the gays, blacks, Muslims, Jews and others; as well as for the protection of the privileges attributed to the individuals working against different professions, such as teaching, law, media, journalism, business and others. The same is also applied to the children and adolescents, protection and uplift of which serves as one of the most pivotal responsibilities of every state. Child Poverty: Poverty actually serves as the lack of appropriate income, wealth and resources essential for the fulfilment of basic human needs as well as for leading a respectable and comfortable life. The records of world history provide sound evidences in support of the existence of the social distribution of the people into upper, middle and lower classes, which endorse the presence of poverty in primitive societies too along with all its ugly features (Ember & Ember, 2004: 173). Poverty is pertinently viewed to be an outcome of the unequal distribution of wealth, income and resources, which paves the way towards the division of society into classes subsequently. It is therefore the Marxist perspective (which) has raised strong voice against the injustices and inequalities (Ritzer, 2008:197). Consequently, poverty is rightly stated to be a universal phenomenon that seeks its roots in all regions and areas of the world at large. It has frequently observed that the poverty is transferred from one generation to the other because of the scarcity of resources and opportunities. Since the poor people belonging to the lower stratum of society are unable to provide their children with proper nutrition, clothing, schooling, education and training, these children remain the victim of poverty for years, carrying higher probabilities of sustaining the same position for the future years to come (Weeks, 2004: 279). Child Abuse: Children serve as the most innocent and harmless stratum of society, which maintain simplicity, straightforwardness and plainness in their thoughts and views. Since they contain raw mental and physical capacities and artlessness, neither they are able to understand the trickery the adults (that) may exercise on them, nor are they in a position to shield themselves from any external threats. Similarly, the children are also unable to comprehend with the nature of cruelty and abuse to be inflected upon them by the wicked adults in one way or the other. As a result, there frequently appear the reports of child molestations and abuse committed by the condemnable individuals of society. Another sorrowful aspect of the crimes against the children includes the children’s inability to resist the abuse being inflicted upon them, due to their physical weakness and natural innocence. Consequently, the burden of protecting the children shifts to the adult members and authorities at large. (NICCY, 2009:11-12). Not only this that children are shielded from becoming the victim of any mental or physical torture, or sexual exploitation; but also the authorities are bound to set the children free from poverty and deprivation, as well as hunger and starvation; so that they could be saved from dying of hunger as well as becoming the victim of any abuse. with the temptation of getting some financial benefits against the abuse being inflicted upon them by the exploiters. Bradbury & Jantti are of the opinion that either due to the innate feelings of protection towards the young, or because of moral assumptions of their blamelessness, or because of pragmatic questions about the impact of child poverty on future social conditions, questions of child poverty have particular ethical and political resonance” (1999:2). It is also applied to the child abuse as well. The social policy makers keep all these points in view while devising their policies in order to ensure the safety and protection of the children at the hands of the wicked child abusers. New Labour and Social Policy for the Wellbeing of Children: The Labour Party had been sitting in the opposition benches since 1979 after losing the elections and popularity among the masses in England. However, it once again came to power after the break of nearly two decades in May 1997, where its leadership was determined to introduce reforms in all sectors of society for gaining popularity in all communities of London, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The government, at the eve of arriving at the helm of the governmental affairs, demonstrated its intention for having special consideration for improving the lot of the children undergoing poverty, abuse and exploitation in any way. The Labours are particularly famous for paying particular heed to improve the health and safety of the child stratum. It is a bitter reality to note that the Conservative Party had not played an imperative role for the elimination of child poverty and child abuse during their being in power from 1979 to 1997 (Hills, 2009: 4). As a result, the problems related to children appeared to be most challenging ones in the overall situation of the country. It was the era when the number and proportion of single motherhood as well as the percentage of the immoral extra-marital cohabitations (Douglas et al., 2007:7-8), and consequent births of the illegitimate children have witnessed a significant boost in different areas of the country. It was partly because of the negligence observed by the authorities towards the immoral cohabitations that indirectly legalised the extra-marital relationships between the members of opposite genders, which had given a way) to the imperative increase in the number of single parenthood and unwed mothers, eventually. An increasing number of cohabiting couples are having children within that relationship rather than marrying when the child is born (Douglas et al., 2007:8). Since the fathers of these illegitimate children had not bothered to provide their children with any kind of moral, social or financial support altogether; the entire burden was eventually shifted to the shoulders of the unwed and/or single mothers. Since an overwhelming proportion of the single mothers was not in a position of feeding, clothing and sheltering their children with the help of (under the supervision of) the resources they maintained, the children turned out to be prey to the adverse circumstances, which that included poverty, starvation, lack of education and training on the one side, and victim of child molestation, domestic and social violence and abuse on the other subsequently. The Children Act 2004, passed by the Labour administration, schemed to establish the foster homes, babysitting services, adoption agencies and the establishment of the strategies for tackling with the legal matters and crime cases related to the children. It was really a great step towards the eradication of poverty, lawlessness and crimes predominantly on the part of the safety of the children, which serves to be the first formidable attempt towards making the British society as a safe and well-protected place for the children. Establishment of the foster homes, meant for keeping the poor, orphan and illegitimate infants could rightly be viewed to be (as) an admirable action taken by the Blair administration in order to protecting the children from becoming the prey of hunger, starvation and a sorrowful expiration subsequently. Hence, aid the people undergoing financial troubles manifestly reveals the good intention of the government in respect of moving towards the formation of an equal society within cultural, financial and social viewpoints (Henricson, 2012:23). One of the most basic motives behind the introducing of children welfare scheme was this that there appeared some hazardous perils with regards to the considerable proportion of these children to become part of the criminal and deviant groups of society, which could challenge the law and order situation of the English society for the future years to come. “Condemned to the sub-human life of the streets”, Cullen (1992:2) notes, “and destined to become prostitutes as the cast-offs of a selfish society, thousands of hungry children are the living witnesses to the greed and avarice of the few hundred ruling families who maintain a closed system of structural injustice perpetuated by violence and a disdain for human rights.” By keeping in view all these upheavals challenging the future prospects of a peaceful, progressive and prosperous UK society, the labour Party appeared to be determined to introduce such a detailed and comprehensive strategic scheme that would go a long way to upgrade the lot of the children undergoing poverty and exploitations. The Blair-led Labour administration expressed its desire to adopt the Third Way with the aims of setting the society free from the shackles of poverty and lawlessness. Blair maintained the Third Way to be a serious reappraisal of social democracy, reaching deep into the values of the Left to develop radically new approaches for the collective uplift of the social establishment (1998: 3-4). The policy introduced by the Labour Party Government in 1997 contained the following vital issues that aimed to work for the security and wellbeing of the children. One of the vital points of the social policy developed by Blair administration includes the allocation of responsibilities in the light of the privileges and rights enjoyed by the masses. The slogan of every child matter, raised by the Labour government, was adopted with the aim of eradication of prejudice and inequality along with including every poor and abused child in the mainstream progress and prosperity programme (Hendrick, 2005:43). Child Act 2004 was also a part of the same campaign launched by the Labour administration in support of defeating the poverty phenomenon that had captured the children from the poor classes in its ruthless claws. Since it in an old maxim that an empty mind is the devil’s workshop, main objective behind adopting the same was deploying all people to work for the welfare of the entire social fabrics. Hence, the policy would work out to set the innocent children free from the shackles of poverty, but also it is determined to attempt for their escape from the idleness Hills & Stewart (2009:5). Since idleness and sluggishness lead to the individuals’ getting inclined to have involvement into deviancies, drug addiction, chemical dependency and committing crimes of various types, keeping them engaged into some creative activity may certainly help out in keeping the children away from the path of destruction and turmoil ultimately (Baker, 2009:31). As a result, the poor children are not only taken to induct them in schools, but also they are encouraged to render their services against the occupations on the basis of estimating their aptitude, skill and inclinations. Consequently, the children, under the Blair administration, were hired to work in different fields with the purpose of increasing their creativity on the one side, and for keeping them away from idleness, sluggishness, drug addiction and delinquencies on the other. The New Labour Social Policy concentrated upon the elimination of social stratification in order to lay the foundation of a more equal and just society (Hills et al., 2009: 79). Hills & Stewart (2009:3) cite DWP report published in 2004, according to which over one fourth population of the UK children lived in relative poverty, compared to one in eight when Labour had left office in 1979. Consequently, the Labour have always been concerned with the welfare of children, and appeared to be determined to work for rescuing the children from the cruel clutches of poverty and abuse. In addition, the government worked on three vital points including the estimation of the cost being allocated on the poor and abused children, effectiveness of the policy with regards to the welfare of the children, and impact of the services rendered by the children on various sectors. Since the Blair administration was not interested in promoting the child labour in the country, it did not take the revenue generated from the child work in priority altogether (Baker, 2009: 64). Consequently, not only this that the poor children started enjoying themselves with the arrangements of having food, shelter and protection, under the supervision of the UK authorities; but also they found an opportunity of exercising their skills in the patterns adopted by the adult professionals in their career life (Fitzgerald and Kay, 2008: 91). Inclusion of the local authorities in order to seek their interests and services regarding assuring the safety and financial uplift of the children served to be an imperative feature of the Children Act 2004 (Frost & Parton, 2009:37-38). It will turn out to be highly supportive one in respect of exploring the statistics of the children without guardians and shelter, in order to provide them with a complete relief from becoming the victim of the unfavourable state of affairs. Moreover, transferring the powers to the grass root level will also be helpful in the eradication of child abuse by tracing the whereabouts of the culprit responsible for sexually or physically exploiting (explosion) the children. The United Nations Conventions of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) had devised a comprehensive charter in April 1990, where the following points had been made for ensuring the wellbeing of the children: 1. special protection measures and assistance 2. access to services such as education and healthcare 3. develop their personalities, abilities and talents to the fullest potential 4. grow up in an environment of happiness, love and understanding 5. be informed about and participate in achieving their rights in an accessible and active manner. (Quoted in Department of Education, UK) Consequently, first of all, UNCRC has emphasised upon providing necessary security measures for the children because of their being unable to defend themselves from the external threats. In addition, the UNCRC has also laid stress upon the access of every child to educational and healthcare services, so that no child could remains illiterate or ill, and hence subsequently may turn to be a burden over the state or to others. Similarly, UNCRC has emphasised upon the projection and promotion of the talents, skills and proficiencies of the children for the adequate grooming and socialisation of the children, so that they could become (become) talented and responsible citizens in their grown years. The fourth point made by the UNCRC binds the nation-states to provide the children belonging to their respected country, with a happy, loving, compassionate and amiable atmosphere, so that they could adopt the same traits in their future life. On the contrary, if the children are rebuked, tortured and abused, there are apparent perils regarding the building of the society that would contain (surrounded by) patients, criminals, offenders and rebels, instead of professionals and dedicated citizens for the future years to come. Finally, the Convention afore-mentioned recommends the states of the world with regards to letting the children know about the rights and privileges the international charter bestows upon them. It will not only help them out in understanding their rights on society, but also they will also be in a position of comprehending with the responsibilities ad obligations they maintain towards other members of their society. By critically evaluating the steps taken by the New Labour administration during their stand at the helm of the power in the light of the charter articulated by the UNCRC, it has become evident that the government has paid due heed to all the issues raised by UNCRC for the child welfare by striving to establish an ideal society for the children. The Labour government had specially focused on the child abuse, committed on the children from domestic scale to educational, occupational and social levels, where the children are tortured by the step-parents, abused by the uncles, neighbours, teachers and other adult members of society (Allison, 2005:257). The nature of abuse is severe and painful one, where the children have to suffer from sexual harassment, mental torture and physical violence at the hands of the adults. Keeping in view (mind) these circumstances, the Labour government has shifted the investigation and trial powers to the local law enforcing agencies, as well as to the local courts, so that the process of detection of the culprits and announcing punishment to them could be made (become) easier, quicker and more effective subsequently. According to the statutes of the Children Act 2004, the appointment of the children’s commissioner has been executed, who will be responsible for supervision (of) the complaints lodged with regards to the crimes committed against the children, as well as ensuring the education and healthcare facilities to the poor children (Children Care Act, sections 2 & 3). In addition, section 3 of the Act also delegates powers on the commissioner with regards to supervising the social and economic wellbeing of the children. Hence, the Act appears to be determined to observe the welfare of the children in the lights of the recommendations made by the UNCRC in 1989. The applying (application) of the welfare schemes in the UK have turned out to be beneficial one in respect of improving the socioeconomic condition of the poor and downtrodden children on the one side, and has played an important part in respect of allocating the poor children against some positions in various occupations. Consequently, the Children Act 2004 has turned out to be beneficial one in respect of polishing the skills of the talented children that would be supportive one for the national economy of the UK for the future years to come. Bibliography Barker, R. (ed.) (2009) Making sense of Every Child Matters. Multi- professional practice guidance. Bristol: Policy Press. Bradbury, Bruce. & Jantti, Markus. (1999) Child Poverty across Industrialized Nations Innocenti Occasional Papers pp. 2-8 Retrieved from http://smtp.lisproject.org/wps/liswps/205.pdf Cullen, Shay. (1992) The Power and The Poverty, Causes of Child Abuse. 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