Series: CASE Studies on Poverty, Place and Policy
Poverty is still a real issue within Britain today and this essential series provides evidence-based insights into how communities and families are dealing with it.
Published in conjunction with the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics, this series draws together fresh research and sheds important light on the impact of anti-poverty policy, focusing on the individual and social factors that promote regeneration, recovery and renewal.
CASE Studies on Poverty, Place and Policy
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The book offers a data-rich, evidence-based analysis of the impact Labour and Coalition government policies have had on inequality and on the delivery of services such as health, education, adult social care, housing and employment, in the wake of the greatest recession of our time. The authors provide an authoritative analysis of recent approaches to social policy and their outcomes following the financial crisis, with particular focus on poverty and inequality. Through a detailed look at spending, outputs and outcomes the book offers a unique appraisal of Labour and the Coalition’s impact as well as an insightful assessment of future directions. There are twelve detailed chapters dealing with different aspects of policy, spending, and outcomes in key service areas, as well as introductory and concluding chapters. Overall the book sets out that there were some strong contrasts between the policies Labour continued to pursue until it lost office in May 2010, and those of its successors, but also sharp differences between social policy areas under the Coalition. Austerity was selective – indeed the pressure on ‘unprotected’ areas was increased by the cost of increased income tax allowances and favourable treatment of pensions. Early years provision, social care for the elderly, and particular working-age benefits were sharply affected. Some areas were comparatively insulated, but still affected by major reform, while in others the role of the state was redrawn or even substantially withdrawn. Much of this conscious reshaping of Britain’s welfare state is set to continue or intensify under the new Conservative government. By leading policy experts from the LSE, and Universities of Manchester and York, this volume offers a much-awaited follow up to the critically acclaimed ‘A more equal society?’ (2005) and ‘Towards a more equal society?’ (2009).
This chapter analyses how the pattern of total spending, including both consumer and tax-financed expenditure, has evolved since 1979. Using the three dimensions of public and private finance, provision and decision, and looking across and within the areas of education, health, personal care, income maintenance and housing, it reveals that the growth in consumer spending has outstripped the growth in public spending, and that there has been an on-going shift within publicly-financed services from the “pure public” (publicly provided and centrally decided) towards more varied forms, including contracted out services, and voucher-type schemes. The analysis suggests that the period of the Coalition government did not mark a step change, although some pre-existing trends were accelerated.
This chapter analyses spending, outputs and outcomes in relation to schools in England between 2007/8 and 2014/15. Schools were relatively protected from the public spending cuts made by the Coalition government from 2010 onwards, while rapid and extensive reforms were made in almost every aspect of policy. Moves towards a broader vision of schooling under the Labour government from 2007 to 2010 were rapidly overturned by the Coalition, which introduced an increasingly ‘rigorous’ academic curriculum and assessment regime. Major steps were made towards school an autonomous school system, with 61% of secondary schools becoming Academies. Teacher training was radically reformed. Early indications suggest that there are substantial challenges in managing the new system and that despite efforts to support disadvantaged students through a new ‘Pupil Premium’, socio-economic inequalities remain wide and may be even be exacerbated by some of the Coalitions other reforms.
Social Policy in a Cold Climate offers a data-rich, evidence-based analysis of the impact Labour and coalition government policies have had on inequality and on the delivery of services such as health, education, adult social care, housing and employment in the wake of the greatest recession of our time.
The authors provide an authoritative and unflinching analysis of recent approaches to social policy and their outcomes following the financial crisis, with particular focus on poverty and inequality. Through a detailed look at spending, outputs and outcomes the book offers a unique appraisal of Labour and the coalition’s impact as well as an insightful assessment of future directions.
This volume offers a much-awaited follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘A more equal society?’ (2005) and ‘Towards a more equal society?’ (2009).
This chapter examines overall trends in socio-economic differentials in the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis, covering both the 2007-2010 Labour administration under Gordon Brown and the Coalition Government 2010-2015. It explores trends in male and female employment and in wages for higher- and lower-paid men and women. It also discusses changes in income poverty and inequality, wealth inequality, and the distribution of benefits in kind. It presents a complex picture: employment fell following the crisis, but more slowly than might have been expected, with falling wages and rising earnings inequality the more striking features. Yet overall income inequality fell sharply in 2010/11 and up until 2013/14 neither income poverty nor inequality in household income rose, reflecting the protection of benefit and pension levels in real terms through most of the period. There was no sign of a wealth differentials narrowing or a reduction in wealth holdings at the top.
This chapter examines inequalities in economic and social outcomes between English regions, and between richer and poorer neighbourhoods, in the period following the financial crisis. It also looks at the policies of Labour and Coalition governments towards spatial inequalities. It finds that despite the finance-led recession, London continued to pull further ahead of other regions economically, and on some social indicators including education and some health outcomes. A new political consensus appeared to emerge around the need for regional economic rebalancing and a new debate about what form a new ‘regional policy’ should take. However, at the same time, there was less focus on the problems of disadvantaged neighbourhoods and the arguments for spatially redistributive social policies for reasons of equity and social justice. In some respects, the distribution of spending also became more disconnected from levels of need in local areas, a move that may lead to greater spatial disparities in the short term
This chapter brings together the book’s findings, concluding that this was indeed an era with a ‘cold climate’ for many areas of social policy. However, it was not a uniform history. There were some strong contrasts between the policies Labour continued to pursue until it lost office in May 2010, and those of its successors, but also sharp differences between social policy areas under the Coalition. Austerity was selective – indeed the pressure on ‘unprotected’ areas was increased by the cost of increased income tax allowances and favourable treatment of pensions. Early years provision, social care for the elderly, and particular working-age benefits were sharply affected. Some areas were comparatively insulated, but still affected by major reform, while in others the role of the state was redrawn or even substantially withdrawn. Much of this conscious reshaping of Britain’s welfare state is set to continue or intensify under the new Conservative government.
This chapter examines UK government policy towards young children in the aftermath of the 2007 financial crisis. It covers both the 2007-2010 Labour administration under Gordon Brown and the Coalition Government 2010-2015. It explores how policy decisions and spending cuts affected services for children under five during this period, and presents some preliminary outcome indicators, including measures of poverty, low birthweight and early child development. The chapter highlights a clear shift in policy direction when the Coalition Government took office, with families with young children shouldering a ‘double burden’ under austerity measures from 2010 onwards. Benefit reductions hit families with young children harder than any other group, while services for this group were heavily squeezed by cuts in local authority funding settlements. Child poverty started rising for families with a baby from 2010/11, and there were signs that previous progress in narrowing socio-economic gaps in early child health and cognitive development may have stalled.
This chapter examines the extent to which disadvantaged children are able to access high quality early childhood education and care in Germany. Germany is experiencing a rapid expansion of provision in the ECEC sector, particularly in the western part of the country, where levels of provision were traditionally low. All children are now entitled to a nursery or family day care place from the age of three, and that entitlement is to be extended downwards to reach children age one and two. However, thus far, it is mostly higher income families who access ECEC for younger children, in part because mothers in these families are most likely to be employed. Young children with a migration background are much less likely than their peers to be enrolled both before and after age three. The chapter also describes developments to improve the quality of provision, including the innovative work of the National Quality Initiative.
This chapter draw together the evidence from our eight country case studies to examine how different countries have best addressed the common challenge of the “childcare triangle” – ensuring that early childhood education and care is accessible and affordable to all children, whatever their background, and that is also high quality. It identifies common themes and highlights insights from good practice which might be useful in thinking about the way ECEC is organised, funded and delivered with the goal of equitable access in mind. It seeks not to focus too heavily on contemporary policy debates in any one country but to draw out broader lessons that will stand the test of time.
