Contemporary Social and Urban Issues - Assignment Example

Social and Urban Issues Implementation of social welfare policy often determines the socio-economic stability and ethnic equality of a multicultural society. Although the view and response of people about social needs and issues are deeply at odds, every individual is benefited by social welfare policies to a great extent. Social policies directly or indirectly influence all sphere of one’s social life. These policies are expected to bring forth overall wellbeing of individuals and society as a whole. The living condition of individuals should be brought up to the reasonable standard par with the economic, social position of the community. Further, the policies would enable individuals to achieve required skills and knowledge that make them employable. In other words, social and urban policies ensure social security, including physical and mental wellbeing of individuals. The changing socio-economic scenario offers new issues and challenges to governments and organizations today. Contemporary social policy issues Social policies cover an array of social, political, economic and cultural issues of a country. It ensures social security to individuals by providing health care, employment and ethnic equality. There are special provisions for supporting children and women. Education and other awareness programs for young people also have become an important issue that comes under the active consideration of social and urban policy. According to Hill (2006), ‘Social security is collective action to protect individuals against income deficiencies. This collective action may be taken by a variety of social organizations, including employers, charity and voluntary organizations.’ Eradication of poverty has been one of the important concerns of central as well as local governments. In the last two years child poverty has been increasing and North East England have the highest rate of poverty (CPAG,2008), There are many more issues related to urban policies such as transport, housing, electricity, communication, education, family welfare etc. While implementing policies government considers the range of welfare policies, how these policies should be paid for, and who should benefit from these policies. (Jones, Kavanagh, Moran & Nortan., 2001) Major challenges The United Kingdom must be the main area with highest rate of immigration in Europe. It has accommodated people from all its former colonies which have resulted in social segregation based on religion and race. The postwar global political conditions made UK one of the major places for migration with people from different parts of the world. The nation has also been immensely benefited from its migrants in every aspect and has developed its own multicultural integration policy. Yet, Sometimes as the critics of multicultural policies argue, certain governmental policies segregate people as minorities or majority and promote social inequality. Multiculturalism has been imposed as a tool to promote cultural dialogue and to ensure social equality which is expected to enhance cohesion. On the contrary, increasing national tension due to ‘segregation’ has become a challenge to the effective implementation of social policies. Paucity of right knowledge is another challenge because it inevitably leads to wrong planning and delay. People should be provided with right knowledge regarding various welfare policies of government. Sufficient knowledge about concerned policies will boost an individual’s potentiality. ‘It is the responsibility of social workers to help people gain skills and self reliance. Moreover a professional social worker ought to have collective understanding of both social problems and governing policies in order to meet his objectives. He can easily anticipate the cause and effect of particular issue and that will help him for designing appropriate strategies to meet his goals. The influence of various interest groups and political parties often adversely affect the effective implementation of social policies. Though it is the moral responsibility of government to verify that benefits are rendered to the right persons, sometimes certain malfeasance can occur. Social, political and economic equality of individuals is the objective of every social policy. Yet, particular interests of ruling parties and opposition parties also sometimes become challenge to the effective implementation of social policies. Long term urban policy and public services. The Central Government of United Kingdom offers its welfare services through various departments and organizations. At the central level parliament initiates the function of primary legislation and the cabinet office makes the necessary public service reforms. The economic policy and government financing are being implemented through treasury. Other two important departments are department of Health and Department of work and pension which provide health care service and other national security services like pension, national insurance and employment respectively. Long term strategies have been designed by the central as well as the local governments in order to promote social welfare in the urban society. “One remarkable change in the government policy over the past decade or so has been the embracing of research as an essential part of the policy making processes….. Modern management techniques rose to the fore the formulation of the specific objectives which can be monitored and evaluated.”(Cullingworth J.B, & Nadin V.,1997 p.4). Government has introduced several long term strategies to ensure the development of urban areas and social security of individuals. In order to develop the economically depressed areas they were brought under the special package of Enterprises Zones. Series of urban development corporations (UDCs) were appointed. In 1982, Urban development grants were introduced and furthermore in 1985, the City Action Teams (CATs) aiming to coordinate assistance from government departments to local projects (Blackman, p.44). Moreover, recently in 1999 government has proposed to eliminate child poverty by 2020. It is expected to cut down 50% by 2010/11. (CPAG, Oct. 2008). Urban policies and Impacts Social and urban policies have brought forth tremendous positive and negative impacts on the uniformed and non uniformed public services in the UK. The benefits derived from various policies can be classified in to two such as contributory and non contributory social security benefits. Contributory benefits demands certain initiative or contribution from the part of individual. National insurance can be an example for contributory benefits, for which amount for the insurance coverage will be deducted from the wages of employee. On the other hand, non contributory benefits are rendered irrespective of income of the claimant. It includes the child benefit policy for the children under 16. As a result of these strategies urban societies have been greatly benefited for the past two decades. The economic structure of the nation also deserves primary attention in this regard. Rapid expansion of the modern industrial sector and its rise to ascendancy over the traditional sector really paved way to the emergence of a miraculous economic structure. The economic structure of the nation was built on central as well as local levels. ‘Local Councils in Britain are key actors in urban policy. Their spending accounts for about 25 percent of public expenditure and they employ about 10 percent of country’s total work force’ (Blackman, p.20). Moreover, as a result of the multicultural policy, the representation of the Black has highly increased in the workforce. Urbanization was a main feature of the United Kingdom for the past half century. Policies focused on the infrastructure building in banking, railways, shipping, posts and telegraphs, electric power, and education; Industrial growth and development was the obvious strength reflected from urban policies. People from rural areas migrated to big cities for better life and for employment. All kinds of industries and businesses flourished in urban areas. Children and widows were highly benefited by the introduction of various Acts and policies. For instance, the Family Law Act 2008 highlighted the protection of women and children in the society. Child Care Act 1991 insists unmarried parents to contribute financial support to their children. Furthermore, According to the Child Benefit 2009, 20 pound will be given to a family for the up keep of the eldest child and 13.20 for each of the dependant children (BBC, 2008). According to the latest policy of government, since 2009 women can claim pension at 60 and men at 65 (Widows, 2009). In contrast, critics argue that severe problems like congestion, commuting, accommodation and environmental threat are the negative results of urban policies. Many of the social policies do not attain their intended objectives. As Blackman (1995) purports, the principle of equal opportunities of social welfare policies envisage that no one should be denied a good education, housing, social or health care because of low income. Yet a large number of people today pay for private health care and private schools. Furthermore, the principle of every child and young person having an equal chance of a good education is being seriously undermined by growing social inequality and the effect of legislation to increase choice and selection. (p.41) Conclusion Social and urban policies foresee physical as well as mental comfort of individuals, where they can enjoy equal status and opportunity in society. Today, the implementation of social policies has become reasonably a challenging task for the government as well as for the social workers. Though government has its own welfare strategies and resources, policies alone would not bring changes or development. Effective implementation of policies depends on the awareness and participation of individuals in numerous related issues. Reference: Benefits Move to Cut Child Poverty. BBC News, Last updated Wed.12 March 2008, viewed 20 May 2009 Blackman, 1995. Urban Policy in Practice. Illustrated edn. Routledge p. 20 Child Poverty: the Stats: Analysis of the Latest Poverty Statistics, CPAG, Oct.2008, viewed 20 May 2009< http://www.cpag.org.uk/info/briefings_policy/CPAG_poverty_the_stats_1008.pdf> Hill,, 2006.Social Policy in the Modern World a Comparative Text. Illustrated edn. Wiley- Blackwell p.67 Jones, Kavanagh, Moran & Nortan, 2001. Politics UK, Pearson Longman, p.570 Kallingworth & Nadin V., 1997. Town and Country Planning in the UK. Edn 13, revised. Routledge p.4 Widows, Widows and One-parent Families, Depart of Social and Family Affairs, Last updated 15 May 2009. Viewed 20 May 2009 Read More