Korean Job Discussion Forums

[LL Moonmanhead]

UK is accused of failing children

CHILD WELL-BEING TABLE
1. Netherlands
2. Sweden
3. Denmark
4. Finland
5. Spain
6. Switzerland
7. Norway
8. Italy
9. Republic of Ireland
10. Belgium
11. Germany
12. Canada
13. Greece
14. Poland
15. Czech Republic
16. France
17. Portugal
18. Austria
19. Hungary
20. United States
21. United Kingdom
Source: Unicef


Unicef says the study is the first of its kind for child well-being
The UK has been accused of failing its children, as it comes bottom of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.
Unicef looked at 40 indicators from the years 2000-2003 including poverty, peer and family relationships, and health.

One of the report's authors told the BBC that under-investment and a "dog eat dog" attitude in society were to blame for Britain's poor performance.

The government says its policies have helped to improve child welfare.

Unicef - the United Nations children's organisation - says the report, titled Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-being in Rich Countries, is the first study of childhood across the world's industrialised nations.



Reaction in quotes

The UK was in the bottom third for five out of the six categories. It was placed in the middle third of the table for health and safety.

A spokesman for the UK government said its initiatives in areas such as poverty, pregnancy rates, teenage smoking, drinking and risky sexual behaviour had helped improve children's welfare.

Welfare Reform Minister Jim Murphy said the Unicef study was an "historic" report, which used some data which was now out of date.

"It looks at some information and analysis from perhaps six, seven, eight years ago," he told the BBC's Newsnight. "Some of the information really is out of date in that sense.

"If you look at the teenage pregnancies issue, for example, we're now 20 years low on teenage pregnancy levels, and on homelessness as well there's been real progress there as well - a 25-year low in terms of new homelessness, so there's an awful lot we have achieved."

Key points at-a-glance

He did acknowledged the Unicef report was important.

"Hopefully it leads to a wider conversation about what more we can do to eradicate poverty," he said.

Unicef's league table drew on sources including the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the World Health Organization's survey of Health Behaviour in School-age Children (HBSC) aged 11, 13 and 15.

However, the information attributed to the UK in the HBSC survey is only taken from responses of residents of England.

Unicef also said some PISA indicators for the UK should be treated with caution due to low sample response rates.

Website survey

The Children's Society has launched a website to coincide with the report, www.mylife.uk.com, which allows children to answer a series of surveys about their lives.

The society's chief executive Bob Reitemeier said: "We simply cannot ignore these shocking findings.

"Unicef's report is a wake-up call to the fact that, despite being a rich country, the UK is failing children and young people in a number of crucial ways."

The Children's Commissioner for England, Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, said the report's findings should be a wake-up call to politicians and society as a whole.

"We are turning out a generation of young people who are unhappy, unhealthy, engaging in risky behaviour, who have poor relationships with their family and their peers, who have low expectations and don't feel safe."

He said parents, teachers, politicians and society as a whole all had a role to play in nurturing children and helping them to develop into successful adults.



UK REPORT FINDINGS
UK child poverty has doubled since 1979
Children living in homes earning less than half national average wage - 16%
Children rating their peers as "kind and helpful" - 43%
Families eating a meal together "several times" a week - 66%
Children who admit being drunk on two or more occasions - 31%

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/6359363.stm


England really is becoming a dirty, grimy, boring place.

The future is bleak. Real bleak.

Blair's Britain.

Vote Labour

[tzechuk]

I never voted labour.

Tory (Thatcher baby) here...

[SuperFly]

I assure you that we dogs can take care of your country much better than you humans!

[manlyboy]

Oh, come on! Having babies went out of style in Europe yonks ago. They've been giving the finger to their next generation for some time now.

[venus]

[khyber]

Socialists Represent!

[venus]

Should we also give the doggy style to the socialists. I wonder how they'd take it...?

[Boodleheimer]

[venus]

Would the gun owners of the USA take it doggy style?

ok, I'll stop now.

[eamo]

I don't blame the UK government. I blame chav scum parents!! These are the people who don't give a shyte what their kids eat or if they go to school or what they do with their mates at night. You can't keep blaming the government for everything.

[butlerian]

[eamo]

[SuperFly]

[ilovebdt]

[tiger fancini]

My brother and sister both got married recently, and are residents in the UK. They want kids, but don't want to bring them up in the UK at the moment. My sister's husband is a police officer and I think he summed up the situation pretty well when he said "there's too many little t.wats around."

The said t.wats are a product of their environment, and I think that parents have to bear the brunt of responsibility for them.