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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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In England, there is a range of initiatives available to adults to support the further development of literacy, for example projects hosted by the National Literacy Trust. Such initiatives have drawn attention to the fact that adult literacy is not only a focus for initiatives in developing countries.

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Adult literacy rates in the UK

In England, 16.4% of adults, or 7.1 million people, can be described as having "very poor literacy skills." This means they can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately and independently, and obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources, or on unfamiliar topics, could cause problems. This is also known as being functionally illiterate.

Adults who have struggled from their earliest years to access support with their literacy may have fallen behind their peers during their school years too. Challenges with all aspects of literacy can affect your confidence and self-esteem as well as making it difficult to get the jobs you want and navigate every day life. Imagine how difficult it must be to use the internet, fill out vital forms or make sense of instructions if, as an adult, you find reading and writing challenging? If you have children, it's hard to support them in their learning too and so the cycle continues.

But you can break the cycle.

At the National Literacy Trust, we believe that literacy is for everyone. No limits, no lost causes, no last chances. Literacy gives you the tools to get the most out of life, and the power to shape your future. With literacy, you can change your story however old you are.

Many adults are reluctant to admit to their literacy difficulties and ask for help. One of the most important aspects of supporting adults with low literacy levels is to increase their self-esteem and persuade them of the benefits of improving their reading and writing.

Words Rising

Words Rising with Anawim Women's Centre is funded by our Birmingham Hub and Birmingham University, and delivered by the Adult Literacy Team. Learn how we are equipping women in...

Solace

We work with women who are accessing Solace's services and refuge accommodation, with support from Slaughter and May.

Books Unlocked

Our work in the adult literacy space also includes an empowering programme called Books Unlocked in collaboration with the Booker Prize Foundation and National Prison Radio. The programme aims to encourage prisoners to find ways to increase their frequency of reading in order to foster a love of books and build a culture of reading for pleasure.

Learn more

Further support and information about adult literacy in the UK

Visit the Gov.uk site for improving your English skills, or call the National Careers Service helpline on 0800 100 900

If the adult is employed and has access to a union, their union learning representative will be able to provide confidential advice. Information is on the Union Learn website

Adults looking for literacy support can contact a local adult education college directly to find information on courses in the area. Equally, visit your local library which will also provide support to find appropriate reading materials and reading groups.

Parents who would like guidance and resources to be able to support their children on their literacy journey can visit the Parent Support hub on our Words for Life website.

Parents can also find support family learning activities provided by local colleges, libraries, schools and other organisations. Being able to become more involved in their children's learning can be a powerful motivator to adults to improve their literacy skills.

Read Easy recruits, trains and supports volunteers to give one-to-one tuition to adults who struggle with reading

The Learning and Work Institute aims to improve access to learning for adults

The Reading Agency provides a number of free resources to help improve adult reading skills

Learn Direct provides online courses and a network of learning centres. Call 0800 101 901 for advice and information on their adult literacy courses

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Adult literacy | National Literacy Trust

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Information on adult literacy in the UK and our Books Unlocked programme.

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Asian Development Bank (ADB) has supported a project to promote a demand-driven, quality-assured, and flexible technical and vocational education and training (TVET) delivery system in Tajikistan. This project aimed to provide the labour force with more marketable skills, including returning migrants, rural residents, and women.

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Thematic Report

What is Asia and the Pacific's special stake in the global climate crisis? How will the region transform during the global transition to net zero, including socioeconomic consequences and the policies needed for an efficient and equitable transition?

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азиатский банк развития

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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. It assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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UCEP Bangladesh has developed a programme that seeks to supply second-chance vocational skills training and job-placement support.

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He could have lived his life like others in his own country, New Zealand, but Lindsay Allan Cheyne thought differently and decided to dedicate his life for the welfare of the children of Bangladesh. His endeavors made him a true friend of Bangladesh. He proved that friendship knows no nationality, race or background.

Today, the non-government organization founded by Lindsay Allan Cheyne, UCEP (Underprivileged Children's Educational Programmes) Bangladesh, is one of the best education and technical training providers serving underprivileged children and youth who either did not enroll in school or dropped out before completing their primary education.

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He could have lived his life like others in his own country, New Zealand, but Lindsay Allan Cheyne thought differently and decided to dedicate his life for the welfare of the children of Bangladesh. His endeavors made him a true friend of Bangladesh. He proved that friendship knows no nationality, race or background.

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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https://www.gov.uk/early-years-foundation-stage

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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The early years foundation stage ( EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old.

All schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers must follow the EYFS, including childminders, preschools, nurseries and school reception classes.

Areas of learning

Your child will mostly be taught through games and play.

The areas of learning are:

communication and language

personal, social and emotional development

physical development

literacy

mathematics

understanding the world

expressive arts and design

Assessments

Your child's progress will be reviewed when they're between 2 and 3 by an early years practitioner or health visitor.

Their class teacher will assess them at the end of the school year when they turn 5.

The assessment is based on classroom observation - your child will not be tested. It uses the early learning goals, which can be found in the early years framework.

If an area of learning conflicts with your beliefs

Talk to your child's early years provider if you think one or more areas of the EYFS conflict with your religious or philosophical beliefs. They'll tell you if you need to ask for an 'exemption'.

If you get an exemption, your child will not have to take part in a specific area of learning for 12 months.

Ask for an exemption

Write to your early years provider if you decide to ask for an exemption. You must explain how your religious or philosophical beliefs conflict with:

an area of learning

a learning goal or assessment

Your early years provider will decide if you can get an exemption. If you get one, you'll need to apply again after 12 months.

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The early years foundation stage (EYFS) sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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As Claire Gray scans her customers' shopping at the checkout in Waitrose in Wells, Somerset, she is imagining her future as a lawyer. In October, Gray, 46, will start juggling a part-time law degree at the Open University alongside her supermarket job. "I'm a bit nervous about studying," she admits. "But I can't wait to get started. This is me taking control of my future."

Gray worked hard at school and sixth-form college, and was set to join the air force as an officer when she learned she had a degenerative spinal condition that means she has to walk with a stick. Later, as a single parent, she couldn't find a way to juggle work, study and childcare. "Getting a degree is something I've wanted for a long time," she says. "Now I'm taking out a loan to pay for my fees, which is daunting, but if I don't do this before I retire I'll be sorry."

Gray is exactly the sort of person the government says it wants to tempt back to university and into a fulfilling career. In February, the universities minister, Jo Johnson, announced the introduction of two-year fast-track degrees as part of the higher education bill. He said then that students, especially mature ones, were "crying out for more flexible courses, modes of study which they can fit around work and life".

But despite the rhetoric, part-time student numbers are plummeting, which experts believe is down to a lack of financial support from the government. The latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that part-time student numbers in England have fallen 56% since 2010. Numbers have been declining for a decade, but fell from 243,355 in 2010-11 to just 107,325 in 2015-16.

The major problems began in 2012, when the government raised the cap on part-time fees to £6,750 a year. It has since tried to address this crisis by improving financial support for some part-time students by introducing maintenance loans. But experts say this has not gone nearly far enough.

The fall in demand means universities are quietly closing their part-time courses. "The Russell Group has pretty much pulled out of part-time undergraduate education," says Claire Callender, professor of higher education policy at Birkbeck University, which specialises in part-time education.

These course closures matter more for part-time students than full-time ones, says Callender, because most part-timers are juggling a job or a family, or both, and so need to study near home. "Lack of local provision won't mean they will try studying somewhere else; they just won't study at all," she says.

Callender warns that once universities have stopped offering part-time courses the tap can't simply be switched back on. "Once universities lose the infrastructure it's hard to reinstate it."

The Open University, which solely delivers distance learning and relies on older, employed learners, such as Gray, as its bread and butter, has been hit especially hard, with its numbers falling by 30% between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

Prof Peter Horrocks, its vice-chancellor, says the institution has had to close seven of its nine regional offices, and there will be more cuts to come. He understands why some universities might turn their backs on this market. "I think most have tried to keep their courses going, but as they get less and less economic with fewer people going, inevitably some courses elsewhere are folding," he says.

"By our calculations, over the part-time finance policy changes in the last 10 years, roughly 400,000 people who have not studied part-time have been lost to higher education. That's 400,000 opportunities for people to improve themselves and help the economy."

Part-time enrolments in England hit the floor in 2012 when the government raised the cap on part-time fees, doubling or even tripling the cost of many courses. To counter this, the government extended loans for tuition fees to part-timers, who previously hadn't been eligible to apply. But Callender's research shows that about two-thirds of would-be part-time students were not eligible for this support, often because they were studying a more bite-size course, or already had a degree.

Nick Hillman, former special adviser, now says: 'We didn't understand how few part-time students would be entitled to those loans.' Photograph: None

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank, and at that time special adviser to the then-universities minister David Willetts, now admits this was a mistake. "We didn't understand how few part-time students would actually be entitled to those loans," he says.

The institute recently published a study into what Hillman now calls the part-time "catastrophe". He adds: "People used to say part-timers should be treated the same as full-time students pro-rata and everything would be OK. But most experts now say part-time students are different. They are at a different stage in their lives. They are more debt-averse. So it is probable that you actually need to be more generous with part-time students."

Last November the government announced that from 2018 it would offer maintenance loans, to help cover living and travel costs, to part-time learners. But Callender argues that the eligibility criteria are similar to the original fee loans and a large number of needy applicants may not be entitled to them.

Moreover, for the first year of the new policy these loans won't be available to distance leaners, ruling out Open University students, and in the medium term those on distance-learning courses will not be entitled to borrow as much.

Horrocks says this is alarming, adding: "This decision will adversely affect disabled students, for whom distance learning is the best option, and those from poorer backgrounds who need maintenance loans to support them while they study."

Another financial obstacle many part-time learners still face is that if they have taken a degree in the past, they may not be entitled to help to change direction. The Labour government, back in 2007, enraged vice-chancellors by withdrawing funding for those studying for a second degree at the same level as their first - beginning the decline of the part-time market.

Now the government has relaxed the rules from this summer for certain subjects, including computing, engineering, physics, chemistry and maths. However, Horrocks has called for it to scrap the policy altogether.

Callender says: "What does this mean for part-time arts, humanities and social science courses, will they disappear? What does this tell us about the different types of knowledge we value? It is quite probable that a lot of such courses have disappeared already."

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Part-time student numbers collapse by 56% in five years

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One architect of government policy on support for part-timers admits the result has been a 'catastrophe' for universities and students

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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Session 4.2: The concept of lifelong learning

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My name is Masudi, I come from Arusha, Meru, but today I live close to the fish market where I sometimes find work as a fisherman. I live in an area called 'The Lebanon' with a group of other young people. A lot of them share a similar story to mine and were never able to keep up with their education.

My family situation meant that it was hard for me to finish school. It was too difficult for my mum to support us all financially. She had to raise us alone. I still wanted to learn, so I took a vocational training course to be a metal fabricator, but once again there was a shortfall of money. This is when I decided to leave Arusha for Dar es Salaam with the hope that life would be easier. I first arrived at Ubungo and then found my way to the fish market in search of money, where I came across the young people striving to make a life from what little they had.

After living here for a while, I met Issa Mfaume who encouraged me to go to the Literacy Class in the offices of the fish market. He is very committed to inviting all the people living close by to the market, and he even enrolled me for the class himself!

Going to class is very good for me because I could never really read or write, and this held me back from my dream. My dream is to write songs because I am a musician and I like to sing, but up until now I couldn't read the words of a song, so it was more difficult for me to sing.

I try to attend all of the classes even though I have some difficulties with my eyes. They were damaged because of the dust produced when I was welding, as we didn't have any protection. But it doesn't matter, as I want to learn and I like it. So, what I do is I make sure that I sit as close to the blackboard as possible.

For others there are even more difficulties. I think of the young people who fish during the night and cannot come to class because they are tired and it's too much of a strain. Take for example my friend Samuel; he tries, but he is too tired to follow what is going on. I try to remind my friends and I try to motivate them, but most of the young people here have to fight every day. There is no choice. They have to go to work and because of this, they miss class.

The people that do come have become like family. We meet together, we exchange, and we support whoever is beside us. If someone is not able to follow the class, or misses one day, or we see them giving up, we support them because we always try to progress together.

And this is what makes it so different from school. In school I could never quite manage to catch up, but here I feel free, more responsible. It's important to know how to read and write because we are fighting to overcome the obstacles in our path. I can feel myself becoming more open minded.

My Friends Of Learners say it's helpful for them in their daily struggles with work. Some say it gives them freedom for example, when they have to go into town, it helps them to identify the names of places. All of us feel great joy in being able to go to the class, knowing that we are progressing, and seeing the world opening for us.

In our community, when you know how to read and write you feel more respected, you are recognized. Some of the people in our class say this is a relief because now they feel as much a part of the community as anyone.

And for those who haven't come yet, who don't dare to come, we say to you, " Join the group, there is no need to feel ashamed".

When some people tell me that I am wasting my time with the class and should go to work instead, I tell them that there's no age limit to learning, and that the most important thing is not to lose hope.

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Having missed out on education, Masudi discovers the joy of lifelong learning and encourages others to do the same My name is Masudi, I come from Arusha, Meru, but today I live close to the fish...

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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CARE International is an organisation that works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

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Fighting poverty. Defending dignity.

CARE International works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We put women and girls in the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities.

CARE currently works in 79 poor and developing countries, helping millions of the world's poorest people find routes out of poverty.

We are there to provide life-saving assistance when disaster strikes, and to help people rebuild their lives afterwards.

And we are there to work alongside poor people and communities on long-term programmes to deliver lasting change.

Our programmes and our policy work tackle the underlying causes of poverty so that people can become self-sufficient. We place special focus on empowering women and girls because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to lift whole families and communities out of poverty.

Our history

CARE was founded in the United States in 1945 to send 'CARE packages' - packages of food and basic supplies - to millions of people in Europe in danger of starvation following World War Two.

Some 100 million CARE packages reached people in need during the next two decades, first in Europe and later in Asia and other parts of the developing world. Britain received its last CARE packages in 1955.

Initially we continued to focus on food aid, but in the 1960s we expanded our remit to set up pioneering primary health care programmes. In the 1970s, we responded to massive famines in Africa with both emergency relief and long-term food security and sustainable farming programmes.

In the following decades, we increasingly took a 'rights-based' approach to development - recognising that poverty is often caused by the absence of rights, opportunities and assets, due to social exclusion, marginalisation, and discrimination. We also started focusing on women's empowerment, recognising from our decades of poverty-fighting experience that women are key: by empowering women, entire families and communities can be lifted out of poverty.

Originally CARE stood for Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, but in 1993 this was changed to Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere. Today, CARE is one of the world's leading global poverty-fighting organisations, supporting hundreds of development and humanitarian aid projects in more than 70 poor and developing countries around the world.

Our mission

Our mission

CARE works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice.

Our vision

We seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live with dignity and security.

Our focus

We put women and girls in the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities.
Find out more about our aims for 2015-20.

Our values

Our values

Respect - We affirm the dignity, potential and contribution of participants, donors, partners and staff.

Integrity - Our actions are consistent with our mission. We are honest and transparent in what we do and say, and accept responsibility for our collective and individual actions.

Commitment - We work together effectively to serve the larger community.

Excellence - We constantly challenge ourselves to the highest levels of learning and performance to achieve greater impact.

Our principles

1. Demonstrate personal and professional integrity.

2. Promote equal rights and opportunities, and respect for the dignity of individuals.

3. Deliver high quality development programmes that make a tangible difference.

4. Uphold Humanitarian Principles: Humanity, Neutrality, Impartiality, and Independence.

5. Work with others to multiply our impact.

6. Be accountable and transparent.

7. Be responsible stewards of all of our resources.

Read more about the principles that underpin decision-making and behaviour at CARE International UK in our Ethics Statement.

CARE International - a global organisation fighting global poverty

CARE International operates in more than 90 countries around the world. We run poverty-fighting programmes and deliver life-saving aid in 79 developing countries. This work is supported by global policy and advocacy work, fundraising, and programme management provided by CARE offices in countries like the USA and the UK.

CARE International UK was founded in 1985 and we are one of 14 full members of the global CARE International confederation.

As well as supporting CARE's humanitarian and development work around the world, CARE International UK provides specific expertise in the areas of women's economic empowerment, inclusive governance, humanitarian response (particularly shelter, and gender in emergencies), and engaging with the private sector. We also play a key role in CARE's work engaging with and influencing policy-makers and decision-makers to tackle the structural causes of poverty and social injustice.

CARE's programmes are implemented through CARE country offices which are supported with technical assistance and programme management by CARE members (including CARE International UK). We work in partnership with local organisations to deliver many of our programmes.

CARE is non-religious and non-political, allowing us to deliver humanitarian and development assistance to anyone in need regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, political view or sexual orientation.

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CARE International works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We put women and girls in the centre because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities. CARE currently works in 79 poor and developing countries, helping millions of the world's poorest people find routes out of poverty.

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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UNESCO research

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universal primary and secondary education

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263 Million Children and Youth Are Out of School | UNESCO UIS

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About 263 million children and youth are out of school, according to new data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). This is equivalent to a quarter of the population of Europe.

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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The Young Lives project is an international study of childhood poverty following the lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam over 15 years.

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Our mission is to deliver ground-breaking research that informs policy on how poverty, intersecting inequalities and new vulnerabilities affect the lives of disadvantaged children and young people and what can be done to improve their life outcomes.

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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2021/2 GEM Report - Non-state actors in education
Read More

Credit: Joris Vens/Super Formosa Photography

of total education spending

is covered by households in low- and lower-middle-income countries

in 34 middle- and high-income countries would prefer more public spending on education

of families

borrow to pay for education in low-income countries

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Read More Credit: Joris Vens/Super Formosa Photography is covered by households in low- and lower-middle-income countries in 34 middle- and high-income countries would prefer more public spending on education borrow to pay for education in low-income countries

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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Session 4.1: The importance of Sustainable Development Goal 4

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The UN’s online Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform has information on progress towards SDG4. Read the report now.

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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was already off-track to achieve its education targets. If no additional measures are taken, only one in six countries will meet SDG4 and achieve universal access to quality education by 2030. An estimated 84 million children and young people will still be out of school and an estimated 300 million student will still not have the basic numeracy and literacy skills they need to succeed in life. To deliver SDG4, education systems must be re-imagined, and education financing must become a priority national investment.

Target 4.1: Between 2015 and 2021, the school completion rate increased from 85% to 87% in primary, from 74% to 77% in lower secondary and from 54% in 2015 to 58% in upper secondary education. Even before the onset of COVID19, these rates had slowed down relative to progress in 2010-15. Looking closely at reading levels at the end of primary school, for which trend data cover 34% of the world's children, the analysis shows that global learning levels showed no progress between 2015-2019. Furthermore, learning losses due to COVID-related school closures have been documented in 4 out of 5 of the 104 countries that have carried out such studies.

Target 4.2: Participation rate in organized learning one year before the official primary entry age has stagnated at around 75% since 2015, still far from the target of ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality pre-primary education by 2030.

Target 4.3: Among 131 countries with data from 2017 onwards, on average approximately one in six youth and adults aged 15-64 recently participated in formal or non-formal education and training. Participation is substantially higher among youth aged 15-24 (40%-50%), compared to those aged 25-55 (only 5% for most regions).

Target 4.a: Basic school infrastructure is far from universal. In 2020, approximately a quarter of primary schools globally do not have access to basic services such as electricity, drinking water and basic sanitation facilities. For other facilities such as computer facilities and the provision of disability adapted infrastructure, figures are substantially lower, with around 50% of primary schools with access.

Target 4.c: Globally, in 2020, over 14% of teachers are still not qualified according to national norms, with little improvement since 2015.

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Goal 4 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs

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Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

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- Press release

The Disaster Emergency Committee has launched an appeal for donations to help the world's most vulnerable through the coronavirus pandemic.

On 4 June 2020, the UK-hosted Global Vaccine Summit raised US$8.8 billion in pledges to help Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, protect a further 300 million more children against infectious diseases and save up to 8 million lives over the next five years.

Latest from the Department for International Development

What the Department for International Development does

The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK's work to end extreme poverty. We are tackling the global challenges of our time including poverty and disease, mass migration, insecurity and conflict. Our work is building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for people in developing countries and in the UK too.

DFID is a ministerial department, supported by 2 agencies and public bodies.

Read more about what we do

Contact DFID

Make an FOI request

1. Read about the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and how to make a request.

2. Check our previous releases to see if we've already answered your question.

3. Make a new request by contacting us using the details below.

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The Department for International Development (DFID) leads the UK's work to end extreme poverty. We are tackling the global challenges of our time including poverty and disease, mass migration, insecurity and conflict. Our work is building a safer, healthier, more prosperous world for people in developing countries and in the UK too.

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Session 2.2 Getting started in comparative education

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Session 2.2 Getting started in comparative education

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The Republic of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Public Education (MPE) is embarking on a complete reform of the education sector. The MPE, which has responsibility for primary and general secondary education, has requested the assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support and advise those reform efforts. To support the MPE's efforts toward a more effective and transparent basic education system, USAID is providing a national reading and mathematics survey using the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and Early Grade Math Assessment (EGMA). Collaborative technical assistance to the MPE throughout the survey process will strengthen the capacities of the MPE in instrument development, sample design, survey administration, and data management and use.

About the Assessments

The EGRA and EGMA were identified to assist the MPE in obtaining more relevant data on student outcomes and measure competency levels in core skill areas. The EGRA and EGMA are:

Simple, efficient assessments that evaluate foundational reading and math skills;

Individually and orally administered;

Sample-based "system diagnostic" measures; and

Able to provide data on student performance to inform governments and other stakeholders about system needs for improving instruction.

These assessments will help the MPE gain experience in competency-based evaluation and will do so in a way that generates information early enough in students' education to identify and more easily redress learning gaps that may exist.

The EGRA Toolkit, Second Edition and the EGMA Toolkit provide more information on these assessments and their use and are available online.

National Survey Adaptation and Design

The national survey aims to sample and assesses over11,000 Grade 2 and Grade 4 students across Uzbekistan. Reading performance will be measured for all languages of instruction based on students' first language (Uzbek, Russian, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Tajik, Kyrgyz, or Turkmen). In addition, students can be assessed in Uzbek as a second language, as well as in English. The sample includes 50 schools per region for all regions such that results can be disaggregated by region and urbanicity.

The instruments to be used for this survey were adapted collaboratively with the MPE during an in-country adaptation workshop in October 2019. The instrument subtasks were aligned with expected grade-level competencies. In November twenty-one MPE staff and Methodists were trained on EGRA/EGMA survey administration. Following the training, teams deployed to administer the survey in 70 pilot schools in 6 provinces. The Pilot Study Report was submitted January 2020 and outlined recommendations to improve the instruments and training in preparation for the National Survey.

The Grade 2 and Grade 4 EGRA, and the Grade 2 EGMA instruments are designed to be administered as oral, individual assessments. The Grade 4 EGMA is designed as a written assessment allowing students to complete the assessment at their own pace. The tables below provide an overview of EGRA and EGMA subtasks by grade

Overview of EGRA/EGMA Subtasks by Grade

Next Steps

The global pandemic has affected the timeline for the National Survey, which was originally scheduled for May 2020. The outbreak of COVID-19 and the uncertainty of school operations has forced postponement of the survey to the following school year (SY 2020-21). If learners are assessed in the fall, at the beginning of the school term, Grade 3 and Grade 5 learners will be assessed in place of learners at the end of Grade 2 and 4. We continue to engage MPE staff with survey planning and implementation as central ministry, regional and district level staff will serve as assessors for the field data collection. RTI EGRA and EGMA experts will travel to Uzbekistan to support supervisor and assessor trainings prior to the start of data collection planned for Fall 2020. A National Policy Dialogue and Dissemination event is planned to follow the National Survey report.

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Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) and Early Grade Math Assessment (EGMA) National Survey in Uzbekistan | Fact Sheet | Uzbekistan | U.S. Agency for International Development

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The Republic of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Public Education (MPE) is embarking on a complete reform of the education sector. The MPE, which has responsibility for primary and general secondary education, has requested the assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support and advise those reform efforts.

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Session 2.2 Getting started in comparative education

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Session 2.2 Getting started in comparative education

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The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provides reliable and timely trend data on the mathematics and science achievement of U.S. students compared to that of students in other countries. TIMSS data have been collected from students at grades 4 and 8 every 4 years since 1995, with the United States participating in every administration of TIMSS. TIMSS Advanced studies the achievement in advanced mathematics and physics of students in their final year of secondary school. It has been conducted in 1995, 2008, and 2015, with the United States participating in 1995 and 2015. TIMSS and TIMSS Advanced are sponsored by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and conducted in the United States by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Go to Overview to learn more about TIMSS.

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The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provides reliable and timely trend data on the mathematics and science achievement of U.S. students compared to that of students in other countries. TIMSS data have been collected from students at grades 4 and 8 every 4 years since 1995, with the United States participating in every administration of TIMSS.

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Session 2.2 Getting started in comparative education

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Session 2.2 Getting started in comparative education

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Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) - Index

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The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is an international assessment and research project designed to measure reading achievement at the fourth-grade level, as well as school and teacher practices related to instruction. Fourth-grade students complete a reading assessment and…

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Session 1.4 Step 2: Look at these images

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Session 1.4 Step 2: Look at these images

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Now look through this series of photographs of 25 classrooms around the world. You will recognise many of these scenes from the video, and there are additional classrooms in different countries.

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In the run-up to UN World Teachers' Day on 5 October, Reuters photographers have documented schools around the world. Those featured include an education centre without books and electricity in Vietnam, and an elite institution formerly attended by Winston Churchill and Benedict Cumberbatch

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In the run-up to UN World Teachers' Day on 5 October, Reuters photographers have documented schools around the world

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Access the Narey report: Residential Care in England and read the recommendations on pp. 71–4.

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the unique children’s hearings system in Scotland. Read the brief background information page on this approach to juvenile justice on the Children’s Hearings Scotland website.

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Activity 6.12 What can we learn from serious case reviews?

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Activity 6.12 What can we learn from serious case reviews?

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Go to ‘Learning from case reviews’ (NSPCC, 2018a). Choose one of the ‘Types of abuse’ or ‘Children and families at risk’ summaries, and read the summaries of learning from serious case reviews relating to that topic.

Then look at the topic ‘Disguised compliance’, under the ‘Issues for professionals’ section.

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A series of thematic briefings highlighting the learning from case reviews. Each briefing focuses on a different topic, pulling together key risk factors and practice recommendations.

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Activity 6.11 Understanding intervention and procedure

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Activity 6.11 Understanding intervention and procedure

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If you do not currently have a policy, or if you are not currently in a practice setting, see this guidance on how to develop procedures: Writing a safeguarding policy (NSPCC, 2017).

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Writing safeguarding policies and procedures | NSPCC Learning

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What you need to include in a safeguarding and child protection policy statement and procedures. Plus tips for writing a policy statement and links to legislation.

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Activity 6.11 Understanding intervention and procedure

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Activity 6.11 Understanding intervention and procedure

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Go to the following link to download and read the PDF report: How Safe Are Our Children? 2016: The Most Comprehensive Overview of Child Protection in the UK (Bentley et al., 2016). (For the purposes of this activity, you are using the 2016 edition of the report. However, it is published annually, so do also look at the most up-to-date version.)

Read the overview section, and spend some time looking at the different categories of statistics in this report which, among other things, offers a snapshot of the scale of state intervention in the lives of children in the UK.

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read the Children’s Society guidance on Child protection and safeguarding (The Children’s Society, 2017).

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As a children's charity, our top priority is the protection of children and young people. We are not a statutory child care organisation - the police, children's social care and the NSPCC are the only agencies with statutory powers.

But our staff and volunteers have an obligation and responsibility to protect, safeguard and promote the welfare of the children and young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work.

By having strong safeguarding procedures and practice, we provide a safe place for children and young people to engage with us and the services we provide.

We want the public to have confidence our work. Ensuring safeguarding runs as a golden thread through all we do is part of building that confidence with the public.

Recruitment

We employ experienced workers who have a focus on preventing abuse of children and young people.

When we recruit staff and volunteers we follow safer recruitment processes.

Training

All our staff and volunteers complete mandatory safeguarding induction training, regardless of whether they work directly with children and young people.

All staff who work directly with children and young people also receive regular update training.

Procedures

We have a suite of safeguarding procedures, policies and guidance for all of our managers, staff and volunteers that ensures clear, robust action can be taken when required.

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As a children's charity, our top priority is the protection of children and young people. We are not a statutory child care organisation - the police, children's social care and the NSPCC are the only agencies with statutory powers.

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or a detailed discussion of Signs of Safety, see this NSPCC resource (Bunn, 2013).
LINK DOES NOT WORK AS NOT MEMBER SO SO ALTERNATIVE LINK TO OTHER INFO ON SITE
https://www.basw.co.uk/resources/signs-safety-findings-mixed-methods-systematic-review-focussed-reducing-need-children-be & https://www.basw.co.uk/resources/evaluation-signs-safety-10-pilots

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Access the Signs of Safety website. Read the information and watch the two short videos, in which you will hear about a dynamic, strengths-based assessment tool developed in Western Australia.

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Signs of Safety Selected Bibliography

Baginsky, M., Hickman, B., Moriarty, J., and Manthorpe, J. (2019). Working with Signs of Safety: Parents' perception of change, Child and Family Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12673

Bunn, A. (2013). Signs of Safety in England: an NSPCC commissioned report on the Signs of Safety model in child protection. London: NSPCC.

Bunn, A., Taylor, L., Koziolek, D. and Turnell, A. (2016). What happens and what works in Signs of Safety with neglect. In R. Gardiner, Tackling child neglect: research, policy and evidence-based practice. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Gardeström, A. (2006). Signs of Safety på svenska: goda exempel i utredningsarbete. In M. Söderquist. & A. Suskin-Holmqvist, A. (Eds.), Delaktighet - Lösningsfokuserat förhållningssätt i utredningsarbete. Stockholm: Mareld.

Lwin, K. Versanov, A., Cheung, C., Goodman, D. and Andrews, N. (2014). The use of mapping in child welfare investigations: a strength-based hybrid intervention. Child Care in Practice 20(1): 81-97.

Munro, E., Turnell, A., and Murphy, T. (2016). You can't grow roses in concrete: action research report Signs of Safety English Innovations Project. Perth: Munro, Turnell and Murphy. Available at https://knowledgebank.signsofsafety.net/resources/signs-of-safety-research/research-articles/you-can-t-grow-roses-in-concrete

Munro, E., and Turnell, A. with Devine, M., and Cunliffe, J. (2020). You can't grow roses in concrete Part 2: action research final report Signs of Safety England Innovation Programme. Perth: Elia International Ltd. Available at https://knowledgebank.signsofsafety.net/resources/signs-of-safety-research/research-articles/you-cant-grow-roses-in-concrete-part-2

Munro, E. and Turnell, A. (2018). Redesigning organisations to facilitate rights-based practice in child protection. In A. Falch-Eriksen and E. Backe-Hansen, Human rights in child protection: implications for professional practice and policy. London: Palgrave.

Roberts, Y. H., Caslor, M., Turnell, A., Pecora, P. J., & Pearson, K. (2018). An international effort to develop a fidelity measure for the Signs of Safety® approach to safety and risk assessment in child protective services. Research on Social Work Practice, 28*(1):* 1-10.

Salveron, M., Bromfield, L., Kirika, C., Simmons, J. Murphy, T. and Turnell, A. (2015). 'Changing the way we do child protection': The implementation of Signs of Safety within the Western Australian Department for Child Protection and Family Support'. Children and Youth Services Review, 48: 126-139.

Skrypek, M., Idzelis, M. & Pecora, P. (2015). Listening to parents: Lessons from implementing 'Signs of Safety' in child protective services. Social Work Now 52: 29-37.

Turnell, A. and Edwards, S. (1999). Signs of Safety: A safety and solution-oriented approach to child protection casework, New York: WW Norton.

Turnell A. and Essex S. (2006). Working 'denied' child abuse: the resolutions approach. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Turnell A. and Essex S. (2013). It takes a village: placing grandparents and extended family at the centre of safeguarding vulnerable children. In David Pitcher (ed.), Inside kinship care: understanding family dynamics and providing effective support. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Turnell, A., Elliott, S. and Hogg, V. (2007). Compassionate, safe and rigorous child protection practice with parents of adopted children. Child Abuse Review, 16*(2):*108-119.

Turnell A., Lohrbach, S. and Curran, S. (2008). Working with the 'involuntary client' in child protection: lessons from successful practice, pp. 104-115. In M. Calder (Ed.) The carrot or the stick? Towards effective practice with involuntary clients, London: Russell House Publishing.

Turnell, A. (2004). Relationship-grounded, safety-organised child protection practice: dreamtime or real-time option for child welfare? Protecting Children, 19*(2):* 14-25.

Turnell, A. (2006). Constructive Child Protection Practice: An oxymoron or news of difference? Journal of Systemic Therapies, 25*(2):* 3-12.

Turnell, A. (2011). Of houses, wizards and fairies: involving children in child protection casework (DVD and Workbook). Perth: Resolutions Consultancy.

Turnell, A. & Murphy, T. (2017). Signs of Safety Comprehensive Briefing Paper (4th Edition) Resolutions, Perth. Resolutions.

Turnell, A., Munro, E. and Murphy, T. (2013). Soft is hardest: leading for learning in child protection services following a child fatality. Child Welfare,*92(*2): 199-216.

Turnell, A., Pecora, P.J., Roberts, Y.H., Caslor, M. and Koziolek, D. (2017). Signs of Safety as a promising comprehensive approach for reorienting CPS organisations' work with children, families and their community supports. In M. Connolly (Ed.), Beyond the Risk Paradigm in Child Protection. London: Palgrave, Macmillan Education.

Turnell, A., Vesterhauge-Petersen, H. and Vesterhauge-Petersen, M. (2013). Signs of Safety: arbejdet med udsatte børn og deres familier. Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag.

Vogel, M. and Wiggerink, J. (2014). The power of partnership: How to use the Signs of Safety in child protection casework (30-minute video). Assen: Bureau Jeugdzorg Drenthe.

What Works Centre for Children's Social Care, (2018). Signs of Safety: Findings from a mixed‐methods systematic review focussed on reducing the need for children to be in care. Cardiff: What Works Centre for Children's Social Care.

Wheeler, J. and Hogg, V. (2011). Signs of safety and the child protection movement, in Cynthia Franklin, Terry S. Trepper Eric E. McCollum Wallace J. Gingerich, (eds.), Solution-focused brief therapy: a handbook of evidence-based practice, New York: Oxford University Press USA.

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What Is Signs of Safety? - Signs of Safety

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Baginsky, M., Hickman, B., Moriarty, J., and Manthorpe, J. (2019). Working with Signs of Safety: Parents' perception of change, Child and Family Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12673 Bunn, A. (2013). Signs of Safety in England: an NSPCC commissioned report on the Signs of Safety model in child protection. London: NSPCC.

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Activity 6.7 Safeguarding children and young people

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Activity 6.7 Safeguarding children and young people

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The following assessment tool has been designed by social services personnel in Northern Ireland to meet the needs of practitioners working in a variety of settings with children and young people:

UNOCINI Assessment Framework  (UNOCINI, n.d.).

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Activity 6.6 Dynamic risk–benefit assessment

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Activity 6.6 Dynamic risk–benefit assessment

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https://playsafetyforum.wordpress.com/casestudies/

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The ambiguity around the requirement to protect children and young people was, to some extent, demonstrated by the debate in Scotland about the proposal to assign a ‘named person’ to every young person. As part of its ‘Getting it right for every child’ (GIRFEC) strategy, the Scottish government proposed giving every young person under 18 access to a named person under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. That ‘named’ person would not only have some responsibility for their wellbeing, but would be a point of contact and advice for them and their family. The premise on which the proposal was based was that, while most young people do have someone to seek support from, there may be times when additional support is needed. It was envisaged that the named person would be a midwife, health visitor or head teacher, and that they would be able to access confidential information about the child or young person, when necessary.

The introduction of the provision for a ‘named person’ was delayed due to the extensive debate that it generated. In the next activity you will read about some of the conflicting views.

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Named person debate: what each side has to say

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Four voices in the ongoing named person debate offer their take on the scheme

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read the following journal article:

Nind, M., Flewitt, R. and Payler, J. (2010) ‘The social experience of early childhood for children with learning disabilities: inclusion, competence and agency’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 653–70.

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For students who wish to understand more about Bourdieu’s work, and particularly his ideas about social and cultural capital, listen to Thinking Allowed: A special programme on Pierre Bourdieu (2016), where his work is discussed.

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Thinking Allowed - A special programme on Pierre Bourdieu - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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Activity 5.9 Children and young people’s right to an education

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Activity 5.9 Children and young people’s right to an education

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What does UNESCO assume that education can do to change children’s lives, as described in the Education 2030 Framework for Action (FFA) preamble (pages 6–9, points 1–11)?

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Activity 5.9 Children and young people’s right to an education

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Activity 5.9 Children and young people’s right to an education

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Since wars begin in the minds of men and women, it is in the minds of men and women that peace must be built. UNESCO uses education, science, culture, communication and information to foster mutual understanding and respect for our planet.

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1. The early learning goals stated in the EYFS cover the following key areas of children’s development:

Communication and language – which includes how children listen, communicate and engage with others.

Physical development – which covers children’s coordination and body control, as well as their awareness of health and self-care (such as dressing and going to the toilet).

Personal, social and emotional development – which includes how children interact with others, make friends and manage their own emotions in different situations.

2. The EYFS profile must be completed for each child when they reach 5 years of age. The profile provides parents and carers, practitioners and teachers with a picture of a child’s knowledge, understanding and abilities, as well as their progress against expected levels.The profile must reflect relevant records held by the setting, and include careful observations of children and their learning and development, along with discussions with parents and carers, and any other adults whom the teacher, parent or carer judges can offer a useful contribution. Each child’s level of development must be assessed against the early learning goals. This profile is passed on to teachers and the results are shared with parents.

3. The EYFS profile must be completed for all children, including those with special educational needs or disabilities. The EYFS statutory guidelines indicate that reasonable adjustments to the assessment process must be made for children with special educational needs and disabilities as appropriate. This raises implications for services and for practitioners to ensure that they can provide activities that recognise and support different learning needs.

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HENRY (Health, Exercise, Nutrition for the Really Young) is a programme provided by a charity working with partners in England, Wales and Scotland.

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HENRY is underpinned by the best available evidence and rigorous evaluation

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Interactive obesity atlas

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Policies and Interventions - Children

Choose a map variant directly, or filter based on category and type to narrow your selection

More on how to use these maps

You can choose from the maps available in two ways:

Option A - if you're not sure what you're looking for:

First select the map category on the left

Then select the map type in the middle

Finally select map variant

Option B - if you know what you're looking for:
You can choose directly from the full list of 50 map variants

Key Click countries to see details

policy data not available

click country to see policies

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Choose a map variant directly, or filter based on category and type to narrow your selection More on how to use these maps You can choose from the maps available in two ways: Option A - if you're not sure what you're looking for: First select the map category on

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Activity 4.8 Skills for supporting children and young people’s mental health: eating disorders

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Activity 4.8 Skills for supporting children and young people’s mental health: eating disorders

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Beth's story, what is like to be sectioned

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For 18-year-old Beth, a battle with an eating disorder and depression led to her being sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but being detained against her will marked the start of her road to recovery.

"Loads of people just think, 'Oh get a Big Mac down you and you'll be fine,' but yes you might be physically underweight, but it's more mental. It's like you've got another person that's got inside your head and they've taken over you," says Beth.

"It's not you any more. It's them in charge and they say you're not allowed to eat, that you've got to exercise."

Beth has been battling an eating disorder since she was 14 years old.

Find out more

Don't Call me Crazy starts on Monday 24 June at 21:00 BST on BBC Three

The series is part of a season of programmes on BBC Three looking at a range of mental health issues affecting young people in Britain today

Catch up later on iPlayer Life in the McGuiness Unit
"One time I was at my auntie's house and I just went to the toilet and I was sick. I don't know why, I made myself sick," says Beth. "And then I went downstairs to my mum and she offered me a chocolate and it was like something had got in my head saying no you're not allowed that."

She was admitted into the McGuinness Unit for Adolescent Mental Health, which assesses and treats young people with eating disorders, psychosis, mood disorders and self-harming behaviour. More than 3,500 teenagers were treated at units like this last year.

However, Beth's struggle with food intensified. She refused to go into the dining room and kept a diary of how many hours she had not eaten. She also walked up and down the corridors of the unit to try to burn off calories and would take several minutes to eat two small pieces of carrot. Her home leave was often cancelled because she was not making progress.

What do the different sections mean:

Section 37/41- A person can be detained in hospital by the criminal court without a time limit when they are considered a danger to the public and have committed an offence.

Section 2: Is a civil section that can last up to 28 days with the purpose of making an initial assessment of the patient in order to see if they may need treatment.

Section 3: A civil section that can last up to six months. It can be renewed for a further period of six months and after that every 12 months.

Community Treatment Order: Under this order a person can live in the community with certain conditions - one of which is that they take any prescribed medication.

"Anorexics do get hungry," says Beth, "but we just learn to ignore it and fight it off and then food just becomes the enemy."

Beth was put on the Rainbow programme, a structured treatment plan for those suffering from anorexia, with the aim of achieving a healthy weight-to-height ratio. The programme means supervision during and after meal times and if a person is struggling with solid food, they can have a supplement drink instead.

Despite the additional supervision, Beth continued to refuse to eat and three months after being admitted to the unit in December 2012 she was detained under section 3 of the 1983 Mental Health Act.

"I thought they were just saying it and they wouldn't actually do it," says Beth. "I was really upset and felt like I had no control over anything."

Under section 3, a person can be detained against their will and given medication or treatment. The section can last initially for up to six months, but can be renewed after this.

It is a legal process, says Lynn Melia, a solicitor specialising in mental health law. Ms Melia advises and represents clients at hospitals across northern England at section hearings and appeals.

The decision to section someone is made by two doctors and an approved mental health professional (AMHP), or social worker.

"Also with a section 3 they have to consult what's called the nearest relative, so the family have to be consulted," says Ms Melia, "and that's quite often very difficult for the family because they feel as though they are putting people in there but they're not."

"[When] you're on the section you've got to be told what rights you have, so you've got the right to apply for a tribunal, you can also ask the managers of the hospital to review your case and also now you have the right to speak to an advocate."

How do you appeal against a section?

There are various ways a section can be removed:

The doctor can discharge a person from a section at any time by signing the relevant paperwork.

The nearest relative of the patient can submit a written request asking for the person to be discharged. The doctor has a set amount of hours to look at this request and then make a decision.

The patient can appeal to Associate Mental Health Act Managers (AMHAMs) who are independent of the NHS trust to review their detention.

Finally a patient can also apply for a mental health tribunal. This is a judicial process, so a solicitor is often present to represent the patient.

Members of the patient's family, a doctor, nurse and social worker will be present at this hearing and the tribunal panel is made up of a legal, medical and lay representative.

The patient will get a verbal decision on the day and written decision seven days after the hearing.
Mental Health Act 1983
Although Beth did appeal against her section at a tribunal, which was not successful, she believes that the process did kickstart her recovery. After being sectioned she began to comply more with the Rainbow programme and agreed to be weighed for the first time. She made so much progress she was able to eat unsupervised at mealtimes.

More than 500,000 young people in Britain are being treated for some form of mental illness and for those like Beth, who may become inpatients at specialist centres, recovery is an ongoing process, says Dr Andy Rogers, a consultant clinical psychologist at the McGuiness Unit.

"We're planning for discharge almost straightaway, in some ways trying to get them back out to the community as quickly as possible with increased support where necessary," says Dr Rogers.

"That's not about coming in ill and going out well. It's about young people feeling more in control of their lives irrespective of whether they have a mental health problem.

"We'll still have blips on their road to recovery. They will still have periods where they are distressed and actually part of what we're trying to help them do is build resilience to manage distress better."

After spending six months in the unit, Beth's section was removed and she was discharged in April 2013. She says it was important to seek help, because battling a mental illness is not something you can fight on your own. She is now planning to study to become a physiotherapist and has the energy to take up dancing again, which she enjoyed before she became ill.

"My mood is 100% better because I'm on the right medication now," says Beth, "and I'm just so happy now with my life, but food wise it's still a bit of a struggle sometimes, but I'm getting there."

Beth has started writing a book to help articulate her path to recovery and an extract from it reveals her inspirational attitude to the future.

"I have a mental illness. Am I ashamed? Not anymore," she says. "I admit, I did used to hide and lie about my illness but now why should I have to lie about something that has made me grow into a stronger and overall better person.

"Why hide something that makes me unique?"

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For 18-year-old Beth, a battle with an eating disorder and depression led to her being sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but being detained against her will marked the start of her road to recovery. "Loads of people just think, 'Oh get a Big Mac down you and you'll be fine,' but yes you might be physically underweight, but it's more mental.

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Activity 4.7 Skills for supporting children and young people's mental health: self harm

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Activity 4.7 Skills for supporting children and young people's mental health: self harm

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Read ‘No harm done. Recognising and responding to self-harm: next steps for staff working with young people’ (Young Minds et al., 2016).

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post natal depression

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Postnatal depression is a type of depression that many parents experience after having a baby.
It's a common problem, affecting more than 1 in every 10 women within a year of giving birth. It can also affect fathers and partners.

It's important to get help as soon as possible if you think you might be depressed, as your symptoms could last for months or get worse and have a significant impact on you, your baby and your family.

With the right support most people make a full recovery.

Depression during pregnancy

Depression in pregnancy (antenatal depression) is also common, affecting more than 1 in 10 women.

Other mental health symptoms that can occur during or after your pregnancy include anxiety, panic attacks and psychosis.
Read more about mental health in pregnancy

Symptoms of postnatal depression

Many women feel a bit down, tearful or anxious in the first week after giving birth.

This is often called the " baby blues" and is so common that it's considered normal.

The "baby blues" do not last for more than 2 weeks after giving birth.

If your symptoms last longer or start later, you could have postnatal depression.

Postnatal depression can start any time in the first year after giving birth.

Signs that you or someone you know might be depressed include:

a persistent feeling of sadness and low mood

lack of enjoyment and loss of interest in the wider world

lack of energy and feeling tired all the time

trouble sleeping at night and feeling sleepy during the day

finding it difficult to look after yourself and your baby

withdrawing from contact with other people

problems concentrating and making decisions

frightening thoughts - for example, about hurting your baby

Many women do not realise they have postnatal depression because it can develop gradually.

Speak to a GP, midwife or health visitor as soon as possible if:

you think you may be depressed

Many midwives and health visitors have been trained to recognise postnatal depression and have techniques that can help.

Remember that:

a range of help and support is available, including talking therapy

depression is an illness like any other

it's not your fault you're depressed - it can happen to anyone

being depressed does not mean you're a bad parent

it does not mean you're going mad

your baby will not be taken away from you - babies are only taken into care in very exceptional circumstances

Treatments for postnatal depression

Postnatal depression can be lonely, distressing and frightening, but support and effective treatments are available.

These include:

self-help - things you can try yourself include talking to your family and friends about your feelings and what they can do to help, making time for yourself to do things you enjoy, resting whenever you get the chance, getting as much sleep as you can at night, exercising regularly, and eating a healthy diet

talking therapy - a GP may be able to recommend a self-help course or may refer you for a course of therapy, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

antidepressants - these may be recommended if your depression is more severe or other treatments have not helped; your doctor can prescribe a medicine that's safe to take while breastfeeding

Local and national organisations, such as the Association for Post Natal Illness (APNI) and Pre and Postnatal Depression Advice and Support (PANDAS), can also be useful sources of help and advice.

Causes of postnatal depression

The cause of postnatal depression is not completely clear.

There are a number of things that may make you more likely to have postnatal depression. These include:

a history of mental health problems, particularly depression, earlier in life

a history of mental health problems during pregnancy

having no close family or friends to support you

a difficult relationship with your partner

recent stressful life events, such as a bereavement

physical or psychological trauma, such as domestic violence

Even if you do not have any of these, having a baby is a life-changing event that can sometimes trigger depression.

It often takes time to adapt to becoming a new parent. Looking after a baby can be stressful and exhausting.

Preventing postnatal depression

There are things you can do during pregnancy to help you keep well, such as maintaining a healthy lifestyle and having someone you can talk to and turn to for support.

Going to antenatal classes and making friends with other pregnant women or new parents can also be helpful.

If you are pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant, talk to a GP or your mental health team if:

you have a history of depression or mental health problems

someone in your family has had mental health problems after childbirth (for example, your mother or sister)

This is so they can offer you appropriate treatment.

You can also talk to a midwife, who can support you or refer you to specialist mental health services if needed. If you have had a mental health problem while pregnant, your doctor should arrange for you to be seen regularly in the first few weeks after birth.

The mental health team, maternity team and GP will work closely with you during your pregnancy and after you have given birth.

Myths about postnatal depression

Postnatal depression is often misunderstood and there are many myths surrounding it.

These include:

postnatal depression is less severe than other types of depression - in fact, it's as serious as other types of depression

postnatal depression is entirely caused by hormonal changes - it's actually caused by many different factors

postnatal depression will soon pass - unlike the "baby blues", postnatal depression can persist for months if left untreated and in a minority of cases it can become a long-term problem

postnatal depression only affects women - research has actually found that up to 1 in 10 new fathers become depressed after having a baby

These factors are equally true of antenatal depression.

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Postnatal depression is a type of depression that many parents experience after having a baby. It's a common problem, affecting more than 1 in every 10 women within a year of giving birth. It can also affect fathers and partners.

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post natal  depression and perinatal health

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How can I manage an existing mental health problem?

If you become pregnant, or are planning to become pregnant, it's important to think about how you can manage your mental health during this time. Whatever your feelings are about being pregnant or becoming a parent, this can be a stressful time for everyone.

Talk to your doctor as soon as possible. They will be able to help you make plans to manage your mental health during pregnancy. See our page on support and services for more information, and our pages on different mental health problems for more information on treatment and support.

I had been diagnosed with PTSD prior to my pregnancy. When I became pregnant with my daughter I had 'crisis' episodes and was referred to a consultant who helped me to identify my triggers.

Infant loss and mental health

Experiencing infant loss (for example, through miscarriage, still birth or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)) can be extremely traumatic and can have a big effect on your mental health. You don't have to cope alone, and there is support out there. You can find further information from:

If I became unwell last time I was pregnant, will it happen again?

If you've previously experienced a mental health problem during or directly after pregnancy, then you are at an increased risk of becoming unwell again - but this doesn't mean you definitely will. You might:

feel reluctant or anxious about having another baby

feel more confident about spotting any symptoms, and how to look after yourself

If you do become pregnant again, it's important to talk to your doctor about how you can look after your mental health, and find out about what support you can get. See our pages on support and services and self-care for more information.

This information was published in July 2016. We will revise it in 2019.

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Postnatal depression and perinatal mental health

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If you become pregnant, or are planning to become pregnant, it's important to think about how you can manage your mental health during this time. Whatever your feelings are about being pregnant or becoming a parent, this can be a stressful time for everyone. Talk to your doctor as soon as possible.

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Activity 4.3 Children and young people taking responsibility

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Activity 4.3 Children and young people taking responsibility

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Read the report Sky’s the Limit Phase 1 (Changing Our Lives and NHS Wolverhampton Clinical Commissioning Group, 2017). How are the young people described in the report involved in promoting their own health?

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Activity 3.16 Improving the social wellbeing of alienated youth

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Activity 3.16 Improving the social wellbeing of alienated youth

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The DRUMBEAT programme used drumming as a way of engaging young people through musical expression in order to enhance their relationships and social wellbeing, and reduce anti-social behaviour.

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Activity 3.15 Good practice in the community

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Activity 3.15 Good practice in the community

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Now find one other project that interests you from the Welsh, Irish and English sources given below (or you can search for your own example, perhaps one local to your area). Identify the proposed benefits of your chosen project and consider if there are elements that may be of use to your practice, current or future. These case studies might also provide material about the connections between society and practice that will be relevant to your TMAs.

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Activity 3.15 Good practice in the community

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Activity 3.15 Good practice in the community

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Good practice to support community cohesion can be found across the four nations of the UK and the projects frequently include children and young people as well as adults. Indeed, intergenerational interaction can be a significant aim.

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, , and (2015) Glasgow's Community Gardens: Sustainable Communities of Care. Project Report. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.114500).

Publisher's URL: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_398225_en.pdf

Abstract

Drawing upon new approaches to thinking about care this research set out to explore the inter-relationships between sustainability, health, well-being and the urban environment. Through actively engaging with existing grassroots projects involved in community gardening in Glasgow, the project goes beyond existing top-down public policy initiatives, to explore bottom-up and collaborative models of urban regeneration. The research project underpinning this report was designed in collaboration with grassroots community garden groups in the city. Bringing together the experiences and opinions of volunteers and staff working in these gardens and a number of experts and activists in the related areas of Urban Agriculture (UA) and urban green space use, the report identifies a number of ways in which gardens benefit communities. It also assesses a number of challenges faced by community groups as they try to construct a sustainable future for community gardening in Glasgow. After a brief introduction to community gardening in Glasgow, this report outlines a range of benefits accrued to individuals that participate in community garden activities and the wider communities that live in relative proximity to the gardens. The report then considers the main challenges faced by community garden groups in the city.

Item Type:

Research Reports or Papers (Project Report)

Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:

Crossan, Dr John and Cumbers, Professor Andrew and McMaster, Professor Robert and Shaw, Professor Deirdre

Subjects:
H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor

College/School:
College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School

Publisher:

University of Glasgow

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record

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Glasgow's Community Gardens: Sustainable Communities of Care

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and (2015) Glasgow's Community Gardens: Sustainable Communities of Care. Project Report. University of Glasgow, Glasgow. (doi: 10.36399/gla.pubs.114500). Publisher's URL: http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_398225_en.pdf Drawing upon new approaches to thinking about care this research set out to explore the inter-relationships between sustainability, health, well-being and the urban environment.

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Importantly BiB is an ‘applied’ health project so the findings will be used to support improvements in the health and wellbeing of the local population. The main focus has been on health but as the children go to school it is following their educational attainment. There is now a link between this project and the early years Better Start Bradford project.

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We work with families to give children the best possible start in life in Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton through a range of innovative projects to support them through pregnancy and the earliest years of their children's lives.

These projects focus on children's social and emotional development, language and communication skills, and health and nutrition and are delivered by a range of partners, overseen by Better Start Bradford.

Find out about each project below and if you'd like to get involved, or want to refer a family you're working with, please contact us at: [email protected]

If you'd like to get involved, or want to refer a family you're working with, please contact us at: [email protected]

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Child Development & Family Support Projects | Better Start Bradford

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We work with families to give children the best possible start in life in Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton through a range of innovative projects to support them through pregnancy and the earliest years of their children's lives.

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Bradford, an ethnically diverse city in northern England, experiences very high rates of childhood illness and extreme poverty, and this prompted the NHS and local authority to set up the Born in Bradford (BiB) research project.

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BiB Breathes

Our new BiB Breathes project is all about pollution. Please help us by filling in our survey.

BiB Families: Your copy will be dropping through your letter box or email inbox soon and one of our team may get in touch with you via phone. Please wait for your personal invitation before responding.

General Public: If you are not part of the BiB cohort (e.g. didn't sign up to the project during pregnancy between 2007-2011) you can complete your survey here.

(Remember - if you are already a BiB participant you will receive a questionnaire through post or via email or we will call you. Please wait for this invitation before taking part).

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Our new BiB Breathes project is all about pollution. Please help us by filling in our survey. BiB Families: Your copy will be dropping through your letter box or email inbox soon and one of our team may get in touch with you via phone. Please wait for your personal invitation before responding.

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To meet the needs of its adolescent population, Denmark, a nation known for its good practice, has developed a unique system of Efterskole. The term translates literally as ‘after-school’ but ‘beyond’ or ‘extended’ better capture the meaning. Efterskole should not be confused with the English-language tradition of clubs that provide care for primary-age children at the end of the school day.

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The charity for the homeless, Shelter, offers a range of guidance documents for educational professionals

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Shelter's Children's Service has produced a range of reports, briefings and guidance for professionals working with children and young people. We have also published the findings of an independent evaluation of our services.
Your First Home: Some Stuff You Really Need to Know

This booklet offers advice and tips for young people about to move into their own home for the first time. It looks at a range of topics, from paying the rent to laws and rights, decorating and cooking for yourself.

Know your rights: 16 or 17 and homeless?

This document provides advice for young people aged 16 or 17 who are homeless. It offers tips on what to do next, and details of organisations that can provide support.

Good practice briefing: The role of Housing Services in safeguarding children

This briefing highlights the important role that Housing Services have in safeguarding children and young people. It outlines the ways that safeguarding can promote health and wellbeing and protect children from abuse and neglect.

Good practice briefing: Working with families with complex needs

This briefing explains why families with complex needs are most at risk of housing problems. It sets out the good practice local authorities and housing providers are recommended to adopt to reduce the risk of homelessness and ensure that children in such families have their needs assessed and met.

Good practice briefing - eviction: assessing and meeting the needs of children

This briefing explains the impact that bad housing and homelessness has on children and highlights good practice by local authorities and other providers in the social and privately rented sectors.

Download Good practice briefing - Eviction: assessing and meeting the needs of children (PDF 524 kb) published March 2011.

Good practice briefing - tenancies for minors

Many social landlords refuse to let to 16- and 17-year-olds altogether, either because they are concerned that minors cannot hold a tenancy, or they are concerned that they cannot be held liable for rent. Where landlords do let to 16- and 17-year-olds, they often impose conditions, such as insisting upon a guarantor.

This briefing explains that, although there are some complications, the law allows 16- and 17-year-olds to hold tenancies, and that they can be held liable under contracts for 'necessaries', including rent. It looks at steps landlords can take to ensure that 16- and 17-year-olds' tenancies are successful.

Download Tenancies for minors - a good practice briefing (PDF 102.2 kb) published April 2007.

Child poverty: improving outcomes for homeless and badly housed children

This short briefing identifies actions local authorities can include in their Child Poverty Strategies to address and mitigate the higher risk of poverty for homeless and poorly housed children.

In their own words - Shelter's peer education services for young people

Shelter currently delivers two innovative Peer Education services, each empowering young people who have firsthand experience of being homeless to both participate in an accredited training programme and raise other young people's awareness of homelessness issues in local schools, youth centres, colleges and council Youth Services.

Supporting homeless children - guidance for children and family services

Although many children's services work effectively with other agencies and specialists such as health and education practitioners, it appears that links with housing providers and the homeless sector are not so well developed. This good practice briefing identifies how bad housing and homelessness affect children and outlines the ways in which children's sector professionals can engage more effectively with children and young people who are experiencing homelessness or bad housing.

Download Supporting homeless children - guidance for children and family services (PDF 165.4 kb) published March 2010.

Engaging with homeless children - guidance for children's centres

This Shelter briefing looks at issues faced by homeless children, and the actions that children's centres can take to engage with them. It examines how children's centres can help families at risk to avoid homelessness; the benefits of dedicated outreach services; engaging in multi-agency working; and information as to how children's centre workers can engage more effectively with children experiencing homelessness. Good practice examples are included, to illustrate how other children's centres work together to provide a complete service to homeless children and families.

Download Engaging with homeless children - Guidance for children's centres (PDF 220.6 kb) updated March 2009.

Engaging with homeless children - guidance for education professionals

This Shelter briefing identifies the issues faced by homeless children and children living in temporary accommodation. It looks at the actions and initiatives that some education professionals currently use to ensure that children experiencing housing issues remain in school and learning, such as volunteering, basic skills tutoring support and local transport schemes. The briefing also looks at ways in which schools can ensure that children experiencing homelessness are treated fairly at school, and not unduly punished for behaviour which is attributable to their housing situations.

Download Engaging with homeless children - Guidance for education professionals (PDF 132.2 kb) published May 2008.

Supporting homeless children - guidance for health visitors

This good practice briefing discusses the ways in which health visitors can engage more effectively with homeless children and their families. It identifies examples of organisations that promote good practice and discusses the services they provide. Although specialist health visitors or health teams for homeless families have been introduced in a number of areas, many more are still without such services, and links between housing providers and health services and the homeless sector are not as well developed.

Download Supporting homeless children - guidance for health visitors (PDF 157.4 kb) published March 2010.

Youth homelessness in Blackpool - prevention and provision

In 2010 Shelter's Children's Service worked with Blackpool Council to examine youth homelessness in Blackpool. This outline gives an overview of the work and proposes methods for indentifying young people most at risk, identifies areas of good practice and makes recommendations for improvement.

Improving outcomes for children and young people - benchmarking guide

Shelter's model of joint working will support local authorities' efforts to shape and develop first class services for homeless children and young people and their families. This comprehensive resource demonstrates how services can be benchmarked at governance, strategic and frontline delivery level. It is aimed at professionals working in local authority children's services and housing departments, and is a useful reference for partners including registered social landlords (RSLs) and voluntary sector organisations working within the homelessness field.

Download Improving outcomes for children and young people in housing need (PDF 1.58mb) published September 2011.

Children's Legal Service briefing - responding to youth homelessness

In May 2009, the House of Lords made a landmark judgment in the case of R (G) v London Borough of Southwark, which will affect how local authorities provide accommodation and support for homeless 16- and 17-year-olds.

Download Children's Legal Service briefing: Responding to youth homelessness (PDF 297.2 kb) published November 2009.

Keys to the Future - evaluation of Shelter's Children's Services

Shelter commissioned an independent evaluation of our Keys to the Future services by the University of Birmingham.

These reports evaluate the achievements of the programme and how they delivered against their overall objectives. They present the findings of qualitative research conducted with staff, service users and stakeholders.

Final report (published Jan 2012):

Evaluation: Shelter Keys to the Future (PDF 1937 kb)

Executive Summary: Shelter Keys to the Future evaluation (PDF 416KB)

Interim reports (all published March 2010:

Interim summary report of the programme (PDF 612 kb)

Interim report on policy, legal and advice work (England) (PDF 613 kb)

Scotland service interim report (PDF 789 kb)

Bristol service interim report (PDF 667 kb)

Gloucestershire service interim report (PDF 957 kb)

Knowsley service interim report (PDF 711 kb)

Newham service interim report (PDF 696 kb)

Against the Odds

This report presents the findings of a major investigation into what it means to be a child living in bad housing. Carried out between April and August 2006, the investigation looked at the impact of homelessness, overcrowding, insecurity, poor physical conditions, and deprived neighbourhoods

How do the lives of children living in bad housing compare with those of children with decent homes? What is the impact of their living conditions on their life chances and future prospects? Are the odds stacked against them because of their housing situation?

Download Against the Odds report (PDF 3.6 mb) published November 2006.

Chance of a lifetime - the impact of bad housing on children's lives

This research pulls together a wide range of existing studies to provide a compelling and robust account of the impact that poor housing and homelessness in childhood have on later life chances. The effects of bad housing and homelessness can stay with a child for a lifetime, revealing that the 'housing effect' means:

children growing up in bad housing have up to 25 per cent higher risk of severe ill-health and disability during childhood and early adulthood

homeless children are up to four times more likely to suffer mental health problems than other children

offending behaviour may be linked to behavioural problems that emerge among children living in poor housing conditions, highlighting evidence that almost half of young offenders have experienced homelessness.

Download Chance of a Lifetime - The Impact of Bad Housing on Children's Lives (PDF 1.6 mb) published September 2006.

Lessons from Shelter's Children's Service Advice Line and teenage parent child poverty pilots

In 2011 Shelter's Children's Service ran a series of nine events across the country in partnership with the Department of Education, exploring the learnings from teenage parent child poverty pilots (TPPs) and Shelter's experience and evaluation of delivering the Children's Service Advice Line. Here are the seminar presentations.

Download Working with homeless children and families (PDF 496 kb) Shelter presentation, 2011.

Download Teenage Parents Supported Housing Pilot: Working with Children's Centres (PDF 255kb) Department for Education presentation, 2011.

Download Shelter Children's Service Advice Line leaflet (PDF 119 kb) Shelter leaflet, 2011.

Download Children's Centre Events Quiz (PDF 241kb) Shelter, 2011.

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Shelter's Children's Service has produced a range of reports, briefings and guidance for professionals working with children and young people. We have also published the findings of an independent evaluation of our services. This booklet offers advice and tips for young people about to move into their own home for the first time.

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Activity 3.7 Environments worthy of children

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Activity 3.7 Environments worthy of children

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In November 2014, the Bernard van Leer Foundation, a charitable organisation specialising in preventative work in early childhood, co-organised an international conference in New Delhi, India to look at ways that Indian cities could be made child-friendly.

Read the conference report ‘Small children, big cities: impact through design intervention’ (Bernard van Leer Foundation and National Institute of Urban Affairs, 2015), looking particularly at the summary on page 2 and the key recommendations on page 43.

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Activity 3.5 Deprivation in your own backyard

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Activity 3.5 Deprivation in your own backyard

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iew the interactive maps of England, Scotland and Wales based on the official ‘Indices of Deprivation for UK countries’. This website also includes a link to material for Northern Ireland which is located on the NISRA website.

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This site contains interactive maps of deprivation in England, Scotland and Wales, using officially-published data. About this site This site is a personal project by James Trimble. Thanks to Alasdair Rae (University of Sheffield) and Maike Waldmann (Scottish Government) for helpful comments on drafts of the maps.

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Charles Booth’s 1886–1903 survey of London. Booth, in many ways an early sociologist, was typical of a number of Victorian philanthropists in his concerns about the plight of the poor. His London survey was a vast undertaking and is now largely digitised – see the Charles Booth London archive collection on the London School of Economics (LSE) website (some students may not be able to see all the features of the map on this site).

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Use Charles Booth's London to explore the famous poverty maps and search, browse and download the original notebooks from the Inquiry into Life and Labour in London (1886-1903).

Browse and search the maps

Browse and search the notebooks

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In Charles Booth's London you can search and view digitised notebooks of the Inquiry into Life and Labour in London and the associated poverty map.

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In office from 1997–2007, Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair also had clear views on society as a mechanism for ‘achieving together what we cannot achieve alone’ and he ascribes these values to ‘the vast majority of the British people’ (Blair, 1995). However, it is at the launch of the Respect agenda to tackle anti-social behaviour (10 January 2006) that Blair outlines the values he holds for an ‘open society’.

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The full text of Tony Blair's 'respect agenda' speech on 10 January:
The important thing about debating anti-social behaviour, and the measures we are proposing, is not to debate it at the crude level of 'tough' or 'not tough'; populist or not.

But, instead, to regard it as a genuine intellectual debate about the nature of liberty in a modern developed society such as our own.

I welcome the fact the director of Liberty is making a speech today on the same subject.

There is a serious argument against what we are doing and it is right at the centre of political debate with both opposition parties joining forces to dismiss what we're doing.

But I want to explain why I think this argument, serious though it is, is wrong and out of date.

Let us start from two propositions we all agree with. An innocent person should be protected from wrongful accusation. The public at large should be protected from crime.

Until we began the new crime measures of recent years, these two principles existed in a very simple theoretical construct of the criminal justice system. The police would charge the accused of whatever crime, that was appropriate. The CPS would prosecute. A magistrates court or judge and jury would decide guilt.

Why do I say theoretical? I say this because spitting at an old lady on her way to the shops is and has always been a crime; graffiti is a crime and always has been. Petty vandalism, the same. Having money on you that is from drug dealing, likewise. Most assaults, believe it or not, do not involve physical injury. But they are crimes and very threatening to the victim. Serious financial fraud or being engaged in organised criminal conspiracies are crimes and very serious ones.

In theory, in each case the police charge, the prosecutor prosecutes and the court decides.

In theory there is no need therefore to change these criminal law processes. Except that, in practice, its not what happens. In practice, the person who spits at the old lady is not prosecuted because to do so takes many police hours, much resource and if all of that is overcome, the outcome is a fine. The result is the police do not think it worth it; and so it doesn't happen.

In practice, to prove that person X with £10,000 on them in cash in the middle of the city at 2am got this money through specific acts of drug dealing is too hard. You may know it. But how do you prove it? So it doesn't happen.

In practice, the months and years of a court process, with a jury utterly bemused and the legal aid bills rising - spending is very unevenly distributed between case types, with over 50% of legal aid for crown court cases spent on 1 per cent of cases - to prove serious financial fraud or conspiracy means they rarely happen and if they do, often collapse.

The theory is basically treating Britain as if it were in the 19th or early 20th centuries. The practice however takes place in a post-war, modern, culturally and socially diverse, globalised society and economy at the beginning of the 21st century. The old civic and family bonds have been loosened. The scale, organisation, nature of modern crime makes the traditional processes simply too cumbersome, too remote from reality to be effective.

The result is that whatever the theory behind the two principles - protection of the accused, protection of the public - in practice the second has not been realised.

Since the self reinforcing bonds of traditional community life do not exist in the same way, we need a radical new approach if we are to restore the liberty of the law-abiding citizen. My view is very clear: their freedom to be safe from fear has to come first. Yes, in theory, that is what is supposed to happen through the traditional court processes. In practice it doesn't. We are fighting 21st crime with 19th century methods.

The real choice, the choice on the street, is not between a criminal law process that protects the accused and one that doesn't; it is between a criminal law process that puts protection of the accused in all circumstances above and before that of protecting the public.

A few years ago, we began to change this. The Proceeds of Crime Act gave the police the power to seize the cash of suspected drug dealers. anti-social behaviour law imposed fixed penalty notice fines, instant on-the-spot (usually down at the police station, in fact). ASBOs came into being where general behaviour not specific individual offences was criminalised.

This has, bluntly reversed the burden of proof. The person who spits at the old lady is given an £80 fine. If they want to challenge it, they have to appeal. The suspected drug dealer loses the cash. He has to come to court and show how he got it lawfully.

Now, as I shall say later, we want to take these powers further. Today I focus on anti-social behaviour. Shortly we will do the same on serious and organised crime.

But the principle is the same. To get on top of 21st century crime, we need to accept that what works in practice is a measure of summary power with right of appeal, alongside the traditional court process.

Anything else is the theory, loved by much of the political and legal establishment but utterly useless to the ordinary citizen on the street.

Backing this up, has to be new ways of policing such crime. This is why community support officers are so vital in support of warranted officers and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency is such an important innovation in fighting organised crime.

And the next stage of this will be to focus on the few 'problem families' from which so much of the disorder comes. Again traditional thinking will have to be overthrown if we are to get to grips with practical reality.

All of this, in the end, however, comes down to how we view our obligations to each other in the society we live in.

Respect is a way of describing the very possibility of life in a community. It is about the consideration that others are due. It is about the duty I have to respect the rights that you hold dear. And vice-versa. It is about our reciprocal belonging to a society, the covenant that we have with one another.

More grandly, it is the answer to the most fundamental question of all in politics which is: how do we live together? From the theorists of the Roman state to its fullest expression in Hobbes's Leviathan, the central question of political theory was just this: how do we ensure order? And what are the respective roles of individuals, communities and the state?

Legal stricture will never be enough. Respect cannot, in the end, be conjured through legislation. Government can provide resources and powers. It can do its best to ensure that wrong-doing is detected, that its powers against offenders are suitable, that its systems are expeditious and its enforcement strong. And the British system, like others, in the modern world, has not been good enough against these standards.

But, ultimately, the change has to come from within the community, from individuals exercising a sense of responsibility. Rights have to be paired with responsibilities.

Of course the overwhelming majority of people understand this intuitively and have no trouble living side by side with their neighbour. Indeed, in some vital ways, we are more respectful as a society than we once were.

Try telling ethnic minorities in this country that there was more respect fifty years ago. Try telling that to women who wanted to pursue a career but who were expected to stay at home. A few weeks ago the first civil partnerships began. Why not ask gay men and lesbians if they want to go back to the 1950s?

But it is sometimes said that, as we get more prosperous and as deference declines, respect for authority is bound to fall away. It is sometimes posed as if it were a choice: an ordered and hierarchical society based on knowing your place or a meritocracy at the price of social disorder.

Indeed, a modern market economy needs the attributes of innovation, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit. These qualities thrive best when we can be critical of authority, when people can make the most of themselves without feeling constrained by their background. This is precisely the ideal of the open society that we value.

All of this is true. But to help communities in the modern world, restore respect, these changes in lifestyle need to be accompanied by a new settlement between people, a new modus vivendi. We need to bear in mind RH Tawney's words, which simultaneously show us the way forward and that these questions are not new; "what we have been witnessing", he said, "is the breakdown of society on the basis of rights divorced from obligations".

So I am not today re-starting the search for the golden age. We are not looking to go back to anything. We have left behind an era in which we refused to respect people because of who they were. The only reason to withhold respect is because of what people do.

Anti-social behaviour is not evidence of a flawed moral sensibility in the British people. On the contrary, the need to act comes from the pressing moral urgency of the people.

We have made significant progress over the past 8 years on crime and anti-social behaviour. Crime reached a peak in the mid 1990s and since we came to power there have been substantial falls in crime: Overall crime is down by 35%; domestic burglary is down by 53% and vehicle theft is down by 46%.

Over the past few years, courts have issued 6497 anti-social behaviour orders; over 500 crack houses have been closed and 800 dispersal orders have been issued.

Over 170,000 penalty notices for disorder have now been issued and 13,000 acceptable behaviour contracts have been agreed.

Each of these powers was contested at the time. But it is now clear that they are working. Reports of vandalism and noisy neighbours have all been going down since 2001. Three years ago, one in five people thought there was a high level of anti-social behaviour in their area. Now that is down to one in six. As well as summary powers, there are innovations in the Court system which seek to close this gap such as the Liverpool Justice Centre and we want to see more of these, but so long as a gap exists between the real experiences of communities and the efficacy of the criminal justice system, we will need powerful out-of-court tools. There is no other way of providing people with the confidence and reassurance they deserve that their problems will be addressed.

Today's action plan will show how we intend to develop pre-court powers further to bring about a fundamental shift to give people control of their communities so that they can begin to re-build the bonds of community for a modern age.

We will take action to extend and enhance key programmes such as neighbourhood management and wardens; we will provide communities with redress to their local authority to ensure that their concerns are acted upon and we will reinforce our commitment to introduce neighbourhood policing in every community over the next two years. Some areas already benefit from these schemes and people in those areas tell me what a difference they make to their lives.

We will make it easier to address anti-social behaviour, sometimes without needing to go to court. Penalty notices for disorder, which can be issued on the street, will be raised from £80 to £100. Conditional cautioning will be extended, with funding for ten areas to pioneer ways of making offenders do unpaid work, to show the community that they are paying something back. And it is why we are consulting on a proposal for a new power to close down properties which are a constant focus for anti-social behaviour.

Freedom, however, is not just about the absence of restraint. It is also about the presence of resources.

The case for the Respect Action Plan contains both concepts of liberty. It does seek to ensure that wrong-doing is punished. But that is not all it does. The strategy in the plan has two elements: both to deter bad behaviour and to invest in good behaviour.

This is what makes the case for action against anti-social behaviour a progressive cause. Poverty and exclusion from the material norms of a prosperous society provide fertile ground for crime. Anti-social behaviour is more common in poor areas. Richard Sennett has written persuasively about the way the basic courtesies diminish with increasing material inequalities. The social capital literature also provides a large body of data to show that respect and trust are less evident in areas of high deprivation.

Throughout government, we are seeking to change the conditions of poverty in which criminal activity often flourishes. Sure Start, Neighbourhood Renewal, the New Deal for Communities, to name but three - these are all programmes in which we are doing our best on our side of the bargain.

In the case of young people, we tend to focus on what they are doing during school hours. But what they do with their spare time is really important too. Surveys show having more activities for teenagers to do is a critical issue for both young people and their parents.

Getting involved in the right kind of positive activities at the right age- for example, competitive sport or projects to help others in local communities - are important for all young people. But they can turn the lives around of teenagers who are at a difficult point in their lives, or who might get in trouble.

That's why we've placed so much emphasis on getting more teenagers involved. Last summer's Youth Green Paper proposed Youth Opportunity Funds, where young people themselves will decide what kind of activities will be supported in their local area. We've announced that we're making additional funding available over the next two years for that - £500,000 for an average local authority.

And as part of our radical vision for schools which are at the heart of their communities, our Extended Schools programme will provide an exciting range of activities for young people all year round - from eight in the morning to six in the evening."

In the Action plan we have placed a strong emphasis on expanding the role of sport and activities for young people. We will seek to take forward the recommendation by the Russell Commission to boost the number of young people volunteering by over a million over the next five years, as the Chancellor has set out.

So the Respect Action plan has a balance between enforcement measures and prevention.

It also stresses support for parents. We will focus, in particular, on teenage parents and give them stronger incentives to attend parenting classes and education.

Chaotic families lack the basic infrastructure of order. Not all parents find the task easy. The usual barriers against a teenager falling into low-level crime are often absent. Often young men lack role models. Drug addiction leads directly into criminal markets.

There are a small number of families who are out of control and in crisis. It is those families whose children are roaming the streets and disrupting the classrooms. We have to help those parents and their children.

We will base our approach on successful schemes such as those in Dundee and Bristol. We will establish at least 50 schemes across the country by the end of the year. They will combine supervision and sanctions with a project worker, to provide intensive help for those families who are facing multiple problems.

But the support comes with a tough message. If parents of children who are involved in anti-social behaviour refuse to take up the offer of help, then parenting orders will be made available to a wider range of agencies.

So, these are the principles on which this plan is based: a duty and a responsibility on the citizen to respect the rights of others; a duty on the state to protect the vulnerable from significant harm and a duty to uphold the rule of law in a system that is efficient and fair.

This is not a debate between those who value liberty and those who don't. Critics need to answer the following question: if the criminal justice system was failing people, as it clearly was, what ought we to have done? To do nothing is one option. But surely it is to do better by the British people to devise relevant powers, limited by the right of appeal, to ensure that communities do not have to live with unacceptable levels of fear and intimidation.

No liberal democracy can countenance the tyranny of a minority in any of its communities. We, as government, will discharge our duties. We will attempt to create the conditions in which respect can flourish. I believe in the innate decency of the British people and I believe that, together, we will eradicate the scourge of anti-social behaviour and restore Respect to the communities of Britain.

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BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Blair 'respect' speech in full

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The full text of Tony Blair's 'respect agenda' speech on 10 January: The important thing about debating anti-social behaviour, and the measures we are proposing, is not to debate it at the crude level of 'tough' or 'not tough'; populist or not.

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Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s comment to Woman’s Own in 1987: ‘There is no such thing as society’ is often quoted.

Read an edited version of the interview in the Margaret Thatcher Foundation archive. See in particular pages 29, 30 and 45

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Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

May I begin with belated congratulations on winning third term?

Prime Minister

Congratulations are always welcome, even though they are belated!

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Sincere! Has it sunk in because it is history. You are not just a prime minister or a politician. You are now a statesperson in the history books.

Prime Minister

No, it does [?not] really sink in, because to me it is almost a continuum being here because there is still so much to do. There [end p1] is so much work to do, and one is constantly thinking of getting on into the future, and the fascinating thing to me is that the longer you are here and the more mature in experience you become, the more and more and more you think about the future.

So yes, third term, and people said it was a tremendous victory and it was a tremendous achievement. To me, it is just all in the course of a day's work, but I am very very grateful that it has happened because I know that the whole essence of democracy is that you submit yourself to the people and it is from the people that your only authority comes.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Some have said it is a shame the majority was so large.

Prime Minister

No, it is not. No, it is not. It is very very good and particularly is it good at this time, because there are various governments in Europe that are coalitions, some made up of many parties, some made up of a few and yet there are very important decisions to be taken.

Now, if you have a coalition government, it takes them much longer to make those decisions. They will negotiate the conclusions one with another. They may say: "If we agree to [end p2] what you want, we want something else in exchange!" Now to me, that is no way to make these very very important judgements on political questions, but we are the one country in Europe among those that who were involved in the last war who have a clear government policy and a clear majority and can negotiate with that clearly in mind, and therefore we can make our decisions much more quickly. All right! It was we who went first to send the minesweepers to the Gulf. Others followed but we had a clear majority and therefore we were able to make decisions knowing that we would have the majority in Parliament behind us. And, of course, you are coming up to a time as well when you are going into an unknown because we do not know what the result of the French elections will be-they come up in May next year. We are going into an uncertain period in the United States because they will have presidential elections coming up. So it is extremely good that we had a good majority here and that we are able to use it, and if we had not had it, then I think that they might have looked at it with rather different eyes and suggested that: "Ah well, Britain is retreating from the things that she has been achieving in the recent past!"

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

In a year or so you will be the undisputed western leader - the western leader with the most experience. [end p3]

Prime Minister

Certainly the one with the longest experience. Sometimes now, you know, you will say: "Oh yes, I remember when that came up before!" or you will remember the origin of some arguments or some agreements.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

A majority of over a hundred means you push ahead and do not worry too much about comments or criticisms?

Prime Minister

You worry about people's comments. "Worry" is not quite the word. You listen to people's comments, you ponder them, you consider them according to whether you think there is something in what they say.

I mean, it does not matter what your majority is. If there is something in what people say that you have not taken account of, you have got to take account of it.

In other words, as far as I am concerned, I look at the comments on whether they have merit and if there is something in them, then of course we take them into account and may alter what we do or the way we do things. [end p4]

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

People say you never listen, so give an example please.

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister does listen and listen a very great deal. Now I have to think of an example of that.

For example, when I went to Middlesbrough, one of the young people there said to me: "Look! You have your advertisements for enterprise allowance on the television!"

The enterprise allowance is for young people who want to start up on their own, have been on the unemployment register, and we recognise-I must tell you this as the background-that having got the income from unemployment benefit and social security, you cannot expect them to take the leap into self-employment with all its uncertainties unless you help them across that gap, and so three or four years ago, we devised a method: "If you want to start up on your own, we will guarantee you for a year an income of £40 a week, so that you know that you have got that coming in, but in order to get the enterprise allowance, to show that you have something to start off with, because you usually need a little bit of capital, you do have to raise somehow £1000!" A lot of people do it. It is astonishing how many find that their families, from their savings, will give them £1000. [end p5]

What this young man said to me was: "Look! You put enterprise allowance, apply your local employment office, but you must have £1000 to start with!" and he said: "There are an awful lot of people like me who are absolutely put off by that, because I have no way of raising £1000 and I do not think a bank, without anything behind me, would have helped me and unless I had met someone who said-you know there are various trusts that will help you-I might not have come along!" So I immediately come back and say: "Will you please look at these advertisements! We really put the very people off whom we are trying to help!" because if you are going to say you need £1000, what you simply must say is that there are many organisations who will help you to raise this, which we will tell you about when you come to the employment office, and that is an immediate very practical example that I got when going out.

We do find that we do a lot and people just do not know and so now and then we just have to find new ways of letting them know.

That is the one that is very much foremost in my mind.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

When people say you do not consult enough or employ "yes"-men and -women, that diminishes your strength? [end p6]

Prime Minister

I have never wanted "yes"-men or -women, but it also known that we do have very big discussions and debates within Cabinet and the two accusations are really totally contradictory. You cannot have very vigorous discussions and debates within Cabinet and have "yes"-men and women!

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

And people resign from Cabinet.

The last time we talked you said one of most difficult parts of your job-if not the most difficult- was having to ask somebody to make way for somebody else.

Prime Minister

Yes, it is, and they look at you and they say: "But I have done my job well!" and you say: "Yes, you have, but just as someone had to make way for you to come into that job, so we have got a lot of new young people and we have got quite a number who have been in the House for some time who have never had the chance to come into government. Some of them are very talented, and just as someone had to make way for you, I am asking you to make way for someone else!"

The real difficulty is that whatever I say to the newspapers or to television, the headlines will be: "So and So sacked!" and [end p7] it is very hurtful and it is very hurtful to their families and it is not necessary. If only they said: "So and So resigned" or "New people coming in, though of course, people have to go out!"

It is not only that. First, there is that prestige problem and you know, we are all hurt. I do not know of anyone, even some of the people whom the public think are the toughest people, who is not hurt by these things. In addition to that hurt to your pride, they come into that door there and they have got prestige; they have a car which helps them in their duties and they have a salary. They go out, a blow to their prestige which they could not possibly have known about when they came in; their car is taken away and of course they go back then to driving themselves; and, of course, they will still have many public engagements to go to and obviously they will miss the car.

But also there is one other thing which has bothered me such a great deal. It is the only job, I think in the United Kingdom, under which you do not get any severance pay or notice at all. I must say I find this inhuman, and having been here for quite a time now, I must be in a position to try to do something about it. It is inhuman, because many people, if you have got a much better income your expenditure has gone up from your last salary and as you go out, I know what they are worried about as well as the blow to their pride: they are going to get some quite big bills coming in for a long time, bigger than their reduced income might warrant. If they are in the House of Lords, they have no parliamentary salary to fall back on, so they are entitled to [end p8] three months pay, but in the House of Commons they have to go straight back to a parliamentary salary, and it is this transition which I really think we are not ...

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

You might be hoping to do something about?

Prime Minister

I could not do it without referring it to one of the salary review bodies, because it would have to be agreed, and you know, in this hard world in which I live, someone will say: "What! Is she going to sack so many that we have got to have a bridging?"

It would be totally wrong, because I know just exactly how I would feel and I know how their wives will feel. Perhaps it takes you time to adjust to a different level of income.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

When they talk of coming in and going out the door, have you ever been close to calling them back or is decision final?

Prime Minister

No, because I have to think about it very carefully and decide who shall go this time and I always-but always-see them first, because I am not entitled to offer their job to anyone else [end p9] until I have seen them and one does not call them back because one has agonised over it before, really agonised over it, and of course, the ones who come in afterwards they are absolutely thrilled and then one does sometimes say: "Well now, look! I think you would be very well advised to go and have a word with your predecessor who I am sure will be generous enough to advise you of things that are waiting to be decided!"

There is something else too: we all take pride in our job, great pride, and we all hope and believe that we have made some contribution by the way in which we did it, and then all of a sudden ... . they say to me, as I would say ... I think I have only ever lost my job through an election ... I was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions ... and instantly you think of all of those questions which have been before you, that you were considering, and you were deciding which way to go. All of a sudden they will go in front of someone else. That really is quite a shaking thought.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

A long time from now, hopefully, but will you feel the same about leaving No.10?

Prime Minister

I think everyone who leaves here, and people who work here, we all know that if we work here we are immensely privileged. We [end p10] all feel that, and we have parties for people who leave to retire and they are all very sad and thought the day would never come somehow. Well, they knew it would come, but did not realise it would be so sad. So everyone who leaves here with a mixture of feelings: immense privilege to have been involved in some way with this very great house of influence and history, No. 10; and it has been your life to walk in through that front door-because we all come in through the front door, there is not a back door ... there are back doors, but we all come in through the front door and we go out through the front door-and everyone is sad. They knew it had to come, but everyone is sad.

It is not only that you are losing your job; you are also losing a lot of friends. It is not only the work you do; it is the day-to-day contact with your colleagues, and so often your colleagues are your friends.

It is work-and this is the tragedy about unemployment-work is not only a means of earning your income; it is the whole social life, and so yes, it will be sad, and the longer you are here the sadder it will be because the longer you are here, the more it has become a part of your habit of life.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

We are same age-your age is published-and you are still stimulated by thought of what remains to do? [end p11]

Prime Minister

I am immensely stimulated by what I have to do. But do not forget this one big problem which you and my age group faces. Again, we are immensely privileged. We hope to be alive at the turn of the century, which is the turn of the thousand years.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Seems a long way away!

Prime Minister

Yes, of course it is something which is really special because you wish to mark that event in some way. Already one is beginning to think: "Now, what ought we to be preparing to do to have something really rather special?" and it will take a long time to work up to it, but you do not want to start too soon. You want to have something very special for 2000 years, and internationally as well.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Would you like to be PM in year 2000?

Prime Minister

I do not somehow think I shall be! One's thoughts are moving in certain directions about things that maybe we ought to do or targets which we ought to have achieved ... if you are very [end p12] keen, as I am, on planting trees and shrubs and beautifying Britain, which would involve everyone, whether it is in a village or town or countryside or the urban environment. We simply must be soon starting to get it and get rid of the dereliction. We must soon have some targets, but they have to be targets and they have to be objectives which involve everyone.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Only twelve years away, unbelievable!

Prime Minister

Yes. Twelve, thirteen years away. It is not quite time to start, but it is time to be thinking about it.

So you see, that focuses your mind on the future. You are not only beginning another century, you are beginning another thousand years! You know, "A thousand ages in Thy sight are like an evening gone!" immediately comes back from that fantastic hymn "Oh God our Help in Ages Past".

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

You will get there!

Prime Minister

It is a bit special, isn't it? The last time it was one thousand years and my goodness me, it was totally different. Even two hundred years ago was a totally different world. [end p13]

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

People argue which is the beginning of the new century, 2000 or 2001.

Prime Minister

I know. Which is the beginning of a new decade? Which is the beginning of a new century? Which is the beginning of a new millenium?

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

You can sort that out for us.

Prime Minister

Well, you can sort it out but really, the thing is I think that people expect when it comes to the end of the year 1999 that it will be a very special New Year's Eve.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Next question is education morality; we have touched on this already.

There has been so much talk in the last month or so and it will continue: one, about national curriculum, two, about this very human problem of mixed racial schools and how we are going to solve that and also for parents, what is going to happen to their children? Are they going to have a choice? How is it going to work? [end p14]

Prime Minister

Let us start with the actual curriculum.

As one goes around, talking both to employers and to young people, and on the Youth Training Scheme, you will find that some of the young people who are in difficulty with getting jobs are in that difficulty because they found they are not very articulate, they find it difficult to express their thoughts. They are not very good at writing a letter. They are not always very good at reading and their idea of arithmetic and their idea of how to go to an interview and their ideas of what is wanted of them-that they must turn up on time and that they must be part of a team and so on. They have not got the normal grounding in those things that one would expect them to have, and so you find that there are a number of schemes now to give them that grounding and I can only say that I have seen some of them and the confidence that comes with it is a joy to behold.

I am overwhelmed with two thoughts: how is that these young people have had eleven years of compulsory education, but at no stage in their development did someone say: "Look! By the time they are about eight or nine, they ought to be reading. Even a late learner ought to be reading. They ought by that time to know the essence of writing a letter and they ought to have had the basic tables and the basic elements of arithmetic!" and if you do not get it into them then, then of course, when they go to secondary schools they are frightened because if you have not got the basic reading, there is an awful lot you cannot learn later. [end p15]

When I was at school, part of our education and training from the very good teachers we had was to teach you to express your own views and you were always talked to and you always took part. Sometimes, you know, children are not talked to at home as much in the days of television as we were, and so I think: "Well, how come? They have had all that eleven years and this is an automatic part and how can you let them go on? It is not fair to them".

And then you think in some very difficult areas where sometimes teachers have very difficult children and they are always playing truant it is very very difficult for a teacher sometimes to get the best out of a class and to put her whole heart and soul in it if you have constantly got to be looking at children whose behaviour is very difficult. So the teachers will say: "Well really, some of these things ought also to be sorted out at home!"

Some of those children really ought to go into a much smaller class where, if you have got to get them up to a standard which they ought to have got up to long ago, you have really got to give them special attention.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

So they do not hold back ...

Prime Minister

So that they do not hold back the others, but also to try to [end p16] get them up to standard, but because of this experience, I really began to think that it is our job as Government to see to it that these children do get that basic education.

We do not want to dictate the total of education to the teachers, but it really is a core curriculum. Not in every subject, but a core curriculum, and to work out a syllabus in certain fundamental subjects: your arithmetic, your English-the spoken, the written word and some of the literature-and basic science because you really need the kind of literacy in science these days; and then going on to a kind of basic geography and history. This ought to be a part of the education of every child, and parents are all for it because they want their children to be taught.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

What has gone wrong in last few years?

Prime Minister

Where has it gone wrong?

I sometimes think ... . there was an educational view that children will learn when they are ready and I think sometimes there was a view that they have to be taught individually and there was not perhaps enough group teaching, because you know, you learn from one another. Children learn very much from one another. [end p17]

But we have not, in fact, had control over the curriculum. We do not want to take over the total curriculum, but we have a duty to say: "These things must be taught and they must be taught for a certain number of hours during the week!", to give guidelines and other subjects. You really must also teach, for example, physical education. Religious education is compulsory, although my goodness me, it is very varied.

So this is really how we have come it it.

It also, I think, has another advantage. Some children will move. They will move from north to south, move from south to north, in the middle of their education. They will go to different schools, and it will be very much easier for the teachers where they go if they know that by the time they are at a certain standard they ought to be up to a certain level in those subjects. That will be a great help to teachers if they are. Also an enormous help to the children as they move about from one place to another.

And so this is why we have come to this core curriculum, so that it will help the general education of most children.

Now choice in schools. We are finding a number of things happen. Many MPs, certainly those who think the same as I do, will have found it in their constituencies. Often, you will find people very keen on church schools-schools which are run by the church although they get the money from the tax-payer. The property is owned by the church and they are voluntary-aided schools so they choose their own teachers and decide their own [end p18] curriculum. You will find that many many parents want their children to go to a church school. They may not themselves go to church, but it means that they recognise that if you go to a church school, the chances are you are going to be taught things that are good. They really like to have that extra assurance.

It sometimes might be a Roman Catholic school and they are not Roman Catholics. Never mind! It is a church school and they want to go there. Sometimes it will be a Church of England school. It sometimes might be a Jewish school. It would never surprise me if some people said: "All right, well we have a particular religion!" Some of the Moslem or Hindu will want their girls to go to a girls school.

Coming always to this: "Please, I want my child to go to a church school!" and you say: "But look! The church schools have much bigger classes because so many parents want their children to go to it, but there is another school down the road where they only have classes with sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen to a teacher!" "Never mind!" the parent will say: "I would rather my child went to a school with thirty-six in the class where I know that they will get a very good education and the reputation of that school, than to the other one!"

This is, of course, giving problems and so some local authorities were restricting the amount that a popular school could take and saying that they must go to others.

We are going to do away with that in the coming Bill, because we believe that so long as there are spaces in a popular [end p19] school, then the parents should have their right to send them to that school. What we had been going to do was to say that that certainly must be so for the secondary school, and this is a primary school in Dewsbury and I think we now have to consider that.

I do not think that I would take the Dewsbury school as ethnic problems at all. I think it is a practical problem and you see that some of the Indian families are really keen on their children getting on, and what you find is that the parents want their children to go to schools where they will get on, but if you have a considerable proportion of children who have got a language problem, that is why I think you come across this particular matter in Dewsbury. It is not a matter of colour or ethnic grouping at all. Parents want their children to get on and we are going to free it up when it comes to the new legislation, but we cannot do it at the moment because you have to have the powers to do so. It was in our manifesto. We were going to do it for secondary schools and now we have to see whether we do it for primary schools.

Incidentally, there is another point about the curriculum which I was searching in my mind. Just let me answer it now.

You have a large number of primary schools going to one secondary school. The primary schools may well have been taught many in a different way and their mathematics differently, their English different, they may be at different stages. It is going to help everyone if, when primary school pupils go to a secondary [end p20] school it is known that they have got to have reached a certain standard, or should have reached a certain standard and should have been taught in a certain way certain subjects, so the secondary school teachers know where they are.

So that is the core curriculum one and the choice.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

My family experience is that there are parents and children desperately keen to get on and work hard at school and quite a large number of parents who are not very interested in their children and how they get on, so the children therefore are not very interested. Are you not going to put all the bright and ambitious ones into one school?

Prime Minister

No, I am not. In my way of thinking, every child will have some talents. It is our job both as Government, as Local Government, as teachers as well as parents, to try to bring out whatever talents there are.

One is not trying to force a child. We are trying to bring out the best, and the child has got to have some kind of challenge to bring out the best, just as you have some kind of challenge in [end p21] getting someone who is interested in sports getting up to slightly better than they could do alone.

No. There are very many different talents and you need it in a school, and it has always been part, I think, of the British educational system that education is not just a forcing house. It is that you try to bring out the things of character in them, you really do and every teacher will know you have a prize for the child who has made the most progress, you have a prize for a child who is perhaps most helpful in school, because there are some qualities-a quality of getting on with other people, a quality of being able to get people to get together-you can see straightaway some children have got it. You can see through life that there are some people who do extremely well in life, who are not the people who do best at school, but somehow we have not necessarily brought out those qualities in them.

You will have a business flair which often we somehow do not bring out at school because perhaps we are not sufficiently in touch with the local businesses, and we are trying to do more about that now, because business flair is very important.

A person who is very considerate of others automatically and thoughtful will probably get on very well in industrial relations, very well in commerce, very well in business, so I am not just looking for an academic forcing house. That is not our educational system, but I do think we are letting children down unless we are living up to the best which they can give. [end p22]

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Is standard of teachers and teaching as good as it was twenty or thirty years ago ...

Prime Minister

I think the standard of some teaching is very very good indeed, very good indeed, and when you are looking at the things that are going wrong one forgets the enormous number of achievements that teachers have with their pupils. It is very good and there are some children who somehow are not benefiting as they should, and it is those that we have to look at.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Teachers' fault or that of parents or children?

Prime Minister

Look! Sometimes the children are not being taught the right subjects in the right way, but because of that, you do not condemn all teachers-very far from it!

Sometimes some of the teachers who want to teach all that is best, who want to bring out the best in children, say: "Look! I have got a real star pupil there. This is what I have worked for half my life. This child may go on and become a great scientist, may become a great musician!" Yes, it is your job to do the high flyers, to do the average and to bring out the best in a child who [end p23] may be a slow learner, but whose contribution to the process of life may be great-but different. It is all equally important, but all different, and you have got to identify the talents and bring out each.

But if you are not what is called stretching the minds of children, if you are not doing that, then you are not doing justice by their education.

If you are teaching them either a language or arithmetic or mathematics in a way that they do not understand and in a way that makes them frightened, then you are not really elucidating the subject for them, because I do not believe there is anything fundamentally difficult, certainly in the early days, of mathematics or arithmetic. It is difficult for them to understand you have got to know certain things to get through life, so constantly one is looking at ways that they must be taught certain subjects, a certain syllabus, get a certain kind of level of understanding of them, and most parents might not know a great deal about education, but I remember people saying to me when I was Secretary of State for Education: "They are not getting the best out of John or James or William. They are not getting the best out of them!" That is what the parents were worried about, and others saying: "Look! I do not mind which school they go to, even if we are not religious, but I want them to be taught everything that is good!" and sometimes, you know, there is far too little discussion between parents and children in the days of television. Now television has opened up enormous [end p24] vistas to our lives. Sometimes we know more of what is going on the other side of the world, more of what is going on there than we do in our neighbourhood!

It gives us a chance to listen to lovely music; the films of the sea around us, the world around us, the wildlife, I think are fantastic-or the skies. It gives us a chance to see marvellous plays wonderfully produced and it gives us the chance to hear about things we never hear about, but also, if people become television addicts, you have to look and see what television stops and if, because mother is very busy, a child comes home from school and mother says: "Here is tea!" and sometimes they are set down in front of the television and, you know, families seem to watch about four hours a day some of them, and they are not discriminating about what they watch. Then, the kind of family life which we regarded as our birthright, namely that you went home and yes, you would talk in the evenings to your parents about what happened at school during the day and your worries, and you know, I think the worries that children have,-tiny to us but enormous in their minds, are often bigger in their minds compared with their capacity to cope-than our much bigger worries are compared with our much bigger capacity. We used to talk about those problems and then you would ask parents about things that were going on. What is it? Why?

Yes, of course children ask the reason why, particularly when they are young and you must never say: "Do as I say because I say it!" Never! You say: "Look! This is the reason why we [end p25] ask you to be polite and courteous; because if everyone is polite and courteous, it is a very much better way to live. It is very much more thoughtful for the town and the village and the school in which we live and it is part of life that you should do to others as you would they would do to you! That is the reason for it!" And if we say: "You must be in at a certain time at night!" there is a reason for it. "First, it is better if you are brought up healthy, but secondly, there are certain temptations which it is much better for you not to come up against until you are older and you can cope with them! And this has been so throughout the years. It is freer than it used to be in some ways, but it is better for you and sometimes it is better that when you have teenage parties that there should be some adults about so that if you want some kind of protection there is someone for you to go to!" Always the reason why. The reason why for children, the reason why in politics, always. And a lot of that kind of discussion between the generations is stopped by television and it is stopped sometimes by something else.

I always think families are very lucky if there is a grandma who lives not far away, or we often had maiden aunts, for the most tragic of reasons-because we lost so many people in the First World War. You know, a family is not only mother and father and children-it is grandparents, it is aunts. [end p26]

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Moving around the country has split up families in many ways.

Prime Minister

And also, you know, in the days where there was no television, you used to bring your fellow children home. "Come to tea with us today!" or you went to tea with someone else. A lot of it obviously still goes on, particularly in smaller towns, but I think that children, young people, today are longing for some standards by which to live. You have got to have rules by which to live. If you live totally isolated and alone like Diogenes in the tub, maybe it does not mind (sic) but the moment you live in a community, you have got to have some rules by which to live. You have got to say: "These are the rules and we have to live by them!" Of course they will be broken from time to time, but that is quite different from there not being any rules. I mean, you could not begin to play any of the games-this is how I want mostly to explain this to children-how could you play a game unless there were certain rules to it? Our life is more important than the game. There are certain rules by which to live, and I think they want them and I think they want objective rules as they get older. Yes, they will break them, but the business of life is that everyone accepts that there are certain things which are done, certain things which you should think [end p27] about, certain courtesies, certain conventions, certain generosities to other people.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

When I first interviewed you six or seven years ago you used almost the same words. Government statistics show divorce rate under 35 is nearly 50%, abortions have nearly doubled. We seem to have more violence, we have the yuppies of the City sort of violent with money. We have competition and free enterprise and it seems somehow to go together with greed.

Prime Minister

No, it does not go with greed at all.

Most of us work so that our children can have a better life than we do. Most of us work so that if grandma needs help we can have something in our pockets ready to help or to give them a treat they might not otherwise have. I remember going round a housing association for older folk and going into a room. It looked absolutely lovely and I said: "Oh!" and she said: "Look! I have got fitted carpets throughout my small flat!" She said: "My son is doing very well. He treated me to them!" Another said: "My son is doing very well. He paid for me to go [end p28] overseas! Aren't I lucky" they said "to have such good families!

Now, they could not have done it unless they had worked hard for a higher salary and, yes, for money. There is nothing wrong with doing that. That is the great driving engine, the driving force of life. There is nothing wrong with having a lot more money. Every church which needs to be cleaned will have to appeal for money. If it needs its roof replaced, every historic building will have to appeal for money. You want to help some children to do things they might not otherwise do, you appeal for money. It is not the fact of having money. It is whether it becomes the sole or only thing in your life and you want money because it is money.

The exercise of the spirit and the inspiration is what you do with that money. There is nothing wrong in wanting more.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

... in deterioration ... .

Prime Minister

What is wrong with the deterioration? I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and [end p29] there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations, because there is no such thing as an entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation and it is, I think, one of the tragedies in which many of the benefits we give, which were meant to reassure people that if they were sick or ill there was a safety net and there was help, that many of the benefits which were meant to help people who were unfortunate-"It is all right. We joined together and we have these insurance schemes to look after it". That was the objective, but somehow there are some people who have been manipulating the system and so some of those help and benefits that were meant to say to people: "All right, if you cannot get a job, you shall have a basic standard of living!" but when people come and say: "But what is the point of working? I can get as much on the dole!" You say: "Look! It is not from the dole. It is your neighbour who is supplying it and if you can earn your own living then really you have a duty to do it and you will feel very much better!"

There is also something else I should say to them: "If that does not give you a basic standard, you know, there are ways in which we top up the standard. You can get your housing benefit."

But it went too far. If children have a problem, it is society that is at fault. There is no such thing as society. [end p30] There is living tapestry of men and women and people and the beauty of that tapestry and the quality of our lives will depend upon how much each of us is prepared to take responsibility for ourselves and each of us prepared to turn round and help by our own efforts those who are unfortunate. And the worst things we have in life, in my view, are where children who are a great privilege and a trust-they are the fundamental great trust, but they do not ask to come into the world, we bring them into the world, they are a miracle, there is nothing like the miracle of life-we have these little innocents and the worst crime in life is when those children, who would naturally have the right to look to their parents for help, for comfort, not only just for the food and shelter but for the time, for the understanding, turn round and not only is that help not forthcoming, but they get either neglect or worse than that, cruelty.

How do you set about teaching a child religion at school, God is like a father, and she thinks "like someone who has been cruel to them?" It is those children you cannot ... you just have to try to say they can only learn from school or we as their neighbour have to try in some way to compensate. This is why my foremost charity has always been the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, because over a century ago when it was started, it was hoped that the need for it would dwindle to nothing and over a hundred years later the need for it is greater, because we now realise that the great problems in life are not those of housing and food and standard of living. When we have [end p31] got all of those, when we have got reasonable housing when you compare us with other countries, when you have got a reasonable standard of living and you have got no-one who is hungry or need be hungry, when you have got an education system that teaches everyone-not as good as we would wish-you are left with what? You are left with the problems of human nature, and a child who has not had what we and many of your readers would regard as their birthright-a good home-it is those that we have to get out and help, and you know, it is not only a question of money as everyone will tell you; not your background in society. It is a question of human nature and for those children it is difficult to say: "You are responsible for your behaviour!" because they just have not had a chance and so I think that is one of the biggest problems and I think it is the greatest sin.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Divorce and break-up of family, the increase in that, does not make you think?

Prime Minister

In general no. Again let me say this: I have known families, both professionally as a lawyer, as a member of Parliament, and personally, where it was very much better that the family broke up because there was a streak of violence, there was constant rowing, and where the children have been better when it has broken up, and those things happen. It is no good saying [end p32] they do not-they do-and of course there has to be divorce and provision for that to happen.

And, of course, in any structure, in any society, the thing is that the overwhelming majority is the normal way of life and you marry and have a reasonable family life and you accept certain standards. When you have the overwhelming majority doing that you can always cope with the cases where things have gone wrong-and they do go wrong. I have seen them. It is much better for them to separate.

I think what is upsetting is if people go in to say: "Well, we will get married and if it does not work we can always get divorced!" because it is not that sort of commitment. It is an intention to enter into a lifetime's relationship and certainly, if you enter into it with that commitment, then when small things go wrong, you will try to overcome them and you will nevertheless try to say: "Well now, look! Can't we ... it is important that the family will continue!" but if you enter into it with an idea that it is easy to get out of it, then the commitment will not be the same and I think the effort will not be quite the same.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Since we last spoke greatest tragedy that has happened is AIDS. Has Government action been big enough and made enough impact? [end p33]

Prime Minister

I think it made a very very great impact and we felt we had to do it because it is a disease which is so fatal.

I think, from some of the surveys that we did, that it made a fantastic impact among young people and certainly at first it did alter the way in which they would have conducted their lives.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

At first?

Prime Minister

At first. I mean, fear is a very great component.

I am not quite sure whether that is so or whether now it is: "Well, these things will not happen to me!" but I still think if they know I would think at the point when they make a decision it might ... .

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Do you think it influences people and might change morale ...

Prime Minister

I think what some people have said to us and which is a criticism which certainly is so, is: "What you have been saying is: 'Do not do that! It is dangerous!' What you have been saying is: 'If you do that in a certain way, you will be safe!'" [end p34] Therefore, they have said: "Look! Do you not think, therefore, that it would have been better to say: 'Do not do that at all!'?" to which one has to say: "Well, there will be some people who will get together in any event and it is our duty to tell them of the dangers if they do!"

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Would you prefer return to ...

Prime Minister

But then, I think one is entitled to say to the great institutions of life, because I mean Parliament is not the only institute of life, your churches are your very great institutions, your great voluntary institutions or your great voluntary associations ... you are also, I think, entitled to look to them, to say: "Look" There are certain standards, and if you undermine fundamentally these standards, you will be changing our way of life!"

It is when sometimes the authority of those institutions is undermined because they have not been so forthright that then people turn too much to the State.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

They should say more?

Prime Minister

I feel so, yes. [end p35]

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Should not just be Government helping?

Prime Minister

That is right, but to do them justice, some of them have been very forthright about it and very forthright in their teachings and have taken up their teachings in the churches and in the synagogues.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Could still be our greatest problem in 2000.

Prime Minister

Yes it is, because although we are putting quite a lot into research, there is not a vaccine in sight that can stop it, but I think as young people come up to that age it still is a very considerable concern to them and that they will discuss it and I hope it will deter, the knowledge of what can happen will deter, and the fear that it might happen will be a very important part of the decision which they take.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Might return through AIDS to the morality of one man and one woman. [end p36]

Prime Minister

They do know the risks and I hope we can get it across. The important thing is that they put it very strongly that a nation of free people will only continue to be a great nation if your family life continues and the structure of that nation is a family structure.

Now it still is, you know, in spite of everything. It still is. The overwhelming majority of people live in the traditional family. Yes, there will be problems. There always will be and there always have been in life, but the overwhelming majority of people live within the structure of the family and the family continues. That is necessary because when there are problems, and there always will be-after all, the whole of religion is that the good Lord came into the world to help those who had these great problems-most of the problems will be solved within the family structure. You have to accept that these problems will occur, but it is best to have them solved within the family structure and you are denying the solution unless the family structure continues.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Your own family? Your husband was seventy or seventy-one I think when we last spoke. [end p37]

Prime Minister

Yes, Denis Thatcherhe is seventy, isn't he marvellous?

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

One would not believe he was.

Prime Minister

Keeps very fit, very active, enormously active. Absolutely fantastic! Lively.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

In that conversation you were worried he was looking forward to his retirement and you were not going to have enough retirement with him ...

Prime Minister

We have a very full life together and we are very happy with that very full life together, and the longer you go on having a very full life together, the more it seems the natural way to continue.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

No change in that direction?

Prime Minister

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Your children? You are still looking forward to being a grandmother?

Prime Minister

We have to be very careful. I think it is very embarrassing to say to young people: "Now look! When can we expect ..." You really must not. It is one of the most embarrassing things to say. Everyone hopes they will be a grandparent in due course of time. Again, it is part of the family, isn't it?

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Very much. That is what family is about.

Is your son returning to London or going to hop backwards and forwards?

Prime Minister

Oh, comes backwards and forwards. Mark ThatcherHe will continue to live there but of course he comes over here I think as often as he can. His business takes him anywhere. If he will be on the continent of Europe, he will manage to come over here. We are very close as a family. [end p39]

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

What do you look forward to-politics aside-happening in the next thirteen years for you personally?

Prime Minister

What I would look forward to?

Let me put it this way. In view of what you said, I am fearful of giving any sort of materialistic image.

One of the reasons why ... . we give two things ... we want the spread of personal property ever wider, not only because we want the material benefits to spread further wider, but because we believe when you have that personal property you get a much greater feeling of responsibility because you have to exercise responsibility towards it. Because you respect your own you respect also other people's. Therefore, it is a way of bringing about much greater sort of personal responsibility to a society of which you are a part, and also a way of having some of the means in which you can help people who are unfortunate, or help some of the great things which you have a personal interest in. It may be music, it may be the arts, it may be the ancient churches, it may be restoring some of the rural heritage, so that is the spread of property ever more widely. It is going very well, but it has got to go much more widely. [end p40]

The other thing is trying to make certain that everyone does have the opportunity to develop their talents, and this is why I speak as I do about children who do not have and why we are putting so much emphasis on education, and also we are putting a good deal more emphasis on housing, so that people who will live in rented accommodation for ever will, I hope, be able to have more choice of what landlord they shall have and I hope that we can bring more private renting back, because that really was one of the things that enabled people to move from one town to another-rent a property for a time and then buy.

It really is a mixture of spreading the outward and visible signs of success ever more widely, but you can only do it through people's own efforts. You have to inspire their own efforts and then not take so much away from them that they have not the chance to go on improving themselves and increasing their personal property to their own and family's advantage.

And the way in which you use that is really the expression of the light of the spirit and also the ever wider opportunity. You only really get a responsible nation, responsible both to your own people and to other people, when you get a nation of responsible people and this is the way we wish to go about it.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

And for you personally? [end p41]

Prime Minister

I am also, as I said earlier, very keen that we retain our beautiful countryside; that we really look at the skyline of our cities. I confess I loved the skyline when we saw domes and spires and I am not mad keen on too many high-rise buildings and I do not think that they are the best way in which to live. I regret that we put up so many in housing, because I do not think it is easy for mothers bringing up young children and so one is very sensitive and I am constantly saying to people who like me are keen on the environment: "Look! The best thing we can all do is not to throw down litter and keep the street in front of our shop, factory, office, home tidy ourselves.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Saw programme in which Japanese programme schoolchildren or adoptees clean their own school, they do the desks, they clean them all before they start work. They serve meals to each other and clear up tables afterwards. Gives a sense of responsibility from early age.

Prime Minister

A sense of responsibility, yes, but not only a sense of responsibility, a sense that their contribution matters. I learned from a very able teacher, again when I was Secretary of State for Education and I watched her teaching some of her other [end p42] teachers to teach. "Look! Even though you are with deprived children, it is not enough just to ooze sympathy on them. Often, the way to make them feel they have some part in life is to make a demand on them, something that they can do and give them a chance to do it!" Because, as you say, when children do these things, it makes them feel they have a contribution to make, but you must never in fact use children to do the housework, if I might put it that way, and I think they can help.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

They must not be used.

Prime Minister

I have come across families where the amount that a child had to do before it went to school, no wonder some of them arrived at school tired.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

I sense that when your days here are over ...

Prime Minister

Happiness is not doing nothing! Happiness is doing something and happiness in an adult consists of having a very full day, being absolutely exhausted at the end of it, but knowing that you have had a very full day. [end p43]

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

And done something with it.

Prime Minister

Yes.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

Am I right that when your days here over you will move into a wider ...

Prime Minister

Yes, one will always do something. I cannot do nothing.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

The environment may be the area in which you will ...

Prime Minister

Yes, I flew some time ago over the West Midlands and we are very lucky with the amount of grass and trees and parkland that we have in our cities and squares, we really are, but you could see how much the trees and shrubs meant and where they were not there things did not look as nice and it was not quite such a ... .

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

It was not England! [end p44]

Prime Minister

Or Scotland or Wales. Mind you there is a beautiful rural environment in Scotland, but these things are not the hills of home, they are the Scottish hills and some of them have not got a great lot of trees on them; others have. There is a beauty of those hills ... . you get the heather on them ... .

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

You don't like tall buildings and conifers.

Prime Minister

Well, a limited number of conifers, but they must be mixed with other things.

Douglas Keay, Woman's Own

A tax dodge now, I am told.

Prime Minister

Well, we import far too much timber and really, if Sweden and Norway can grow their own timber-they are rather more to the north of us-then we really ought to be able to grow quite a lot of our own.

[+Appendix: statement issued to Sunday Times, published 10 July 1988:] [end p45]

All too often the ills of this country are passed off as those of society. Similarly, when action is required, society is called upon to act. But society as such does not exist except as a concept. Society is made up of people. It is people who have duties and beliefs and resolve. It is people who get things done. She prefers to think in terms of the acts of individuals and families as the real sinews of society rather than of society as an abstract concept. Her approach to society reflects her fundamental belief in personal responsibility and choice. To leave things to 'society' is to run away from the real decisions, practical responsibility and effective action.

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Interview for Woman's Own ("no such thing as society")

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Douglas Keay, Woman's Own May I begin with belated congratulations on winning third term? Prime Minister Congratulations are always welcome, even though they are belated! Douglas Keay, Woman's Own Sincere! Has it sunk in because it is history. You are not just a prime minister or a politician.

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look at an article that reports on a research study, exploring what young men value in relationships with social care workers.

Read ‘“They are just good people…generally good people”: perspectives of young men on relationships with social care workers in the UK’ (Featherstone et al., 2016)

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The Diana Award (2016) is a charity legacy to Diana, Princess of Wales, and her belief that children and young people have the capacity to make positive contributions to society and to drive change. The charity’s mission is ‘to foster, develop and inspire positive change in the lives of young people’. A core aspect of its mission is to tackle bullying.

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Action for Children is one of a number of national charities supporting disadvantaged children and their families, through a wide variety of services throughout the UK.

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Find services and support in your area and online. We're here when you need us, in the way that best works for you.

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New legislation to support family relationships was introduced in 2014. Read this summary of the main provisions of the Children and Families Act 2014.

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Legislation is available in different versions:

Latest Available (revised): The latest available updated version of the legislation incorporating changes made by subsequent legislation and applied by our editorial team. Changes we have not yet applied to the text, can be found in the 'Changes to Legislation' area.

Original (As Enacted or Made): The original version of the legislation as it stood when it was enacted or made. No changes have been applied to the text.

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Latest Available (revised): The latest available updated version of the legislation incorporating changes made by subsequent legislation and applied by our editorial team. Changes we have not yet applied to the text, can be found in the 'Changes to Legislation' area.

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2.1 Exploring family structure in the UK

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2.1 Exploring family structure in the UK

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Spend some time reviewing the table, which compares the situation in the UK for each year between 1996 and 2016. Note that the numbers are in thousands.

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Locate the standards that are most relevant to you, perhaps relating to a particular area of practice or a job role, and bookmark them or download them now. For example:

Code of Practice for Social Care Workers (Care Council for Wales, 2012)

Teachers’ Standards (Department for Education, 2011)

Code of Ethics (Early Education: The British Association for Early Childhood Education, 2011)

Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics (Health and Care Professions Council, 2012).

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These standards set the minimum requirements for teachers' practice and conduct.

Details

This guidance is for:

The standards themselves (part 1 and part 2) have statutory force (under regulation 6(8)(a) of the Education (School Teachers' Appraisal) (England) Regulations 2012).

They are issued by law; you must follow them unless there's a good reason not to. They define the minimum level of practice for trainees and teachers to achieve qualified teacher status.

You can also use them to assess the performance of all teachers with qualified teacher status who are subject to The Education (School Teachers' Appraisal) (England) Regulations 2012.

The standards replace the 'standards for qualified teacher status' and the 'core professional standards', previously published by the former Training and Development Agency for Schools.

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These standards set the minimum requirements for teachers' practice and conduct.

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Activity 1.15 Thinking about values and beliefs

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Activity 1.15 Thinking about values and beliefs

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Read the section from Key Capabilities in Child Care and Protection entitled ‘Values and Ethical Practice’ (Scottish Executive, 2006).

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Key capabilities in child care and protection

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These key capabilities are designed to allow students within social work degree programmes to map their specific learning in this area.

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Statutory guidance

Early years foundation stage statutory framework (EYFS)

The standards that school and childcare providers must meet for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5.

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definition and explanation of resilience provided by Mind, which is a UK charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people.

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Resilience | Mind, the mental health charity - help for mental health problems

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Read ‘Why are more young people living with their parents?’ (ONS, 2016).

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Why are more young people living with their parents? - Office for National Statistics

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Young adults (aged 20 to 34) in the UK are more likely to be sharing a home with their parents than any time since 1996.1

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1.2 What do children and young people think?

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1.2 What do children and young people think?

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The Good Childhood Report (Children’s Society, 2015) is an extensive survey of the wellbeing of children and young people in the UK. The survey has been developed and repeated, so has built up a detailed picture over time. The whole of the report is relevant to this module, but here you just need to read from page 12 – from the heading ‘What does subjective wellbeing mean from children’s perspectives?’ – to page 15. We’ll ask you to answer a series of questions in the next task, so you might want to bear them in mind as you read.

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The Good Childhood Report 2015 is the fourth in a series of annual reports published by The Children's Society about how children in the UK feel about their lives. Our latest report shows children in England ranked low with regards to bullying, their experience of school and their self image.

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The article refers to Unicef research in 2007 and 2011, but there is a later report (Unicef, 2013) that put the UK 16th out of 21, rather than 21st. Does this change your views in this discussion?

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Activity 1.1 Is the wellbeing of children and young people in the UK in crisis?

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Activity 1.1 Is the wellbeing of children and young people in the UK in crisis?

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e ‘Why are British children so unhappy?’ (Henley, 2012),

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For more than five years, evidence has been mounting that children in Britain are worse off than those in other developed countries.

Back in 2007, Unicef published a table of 21 economically advanced countries. It compared 40 indicators -- poverty, family relationships, health and safety, education and children's own sense of happiness -- that might affect the wellbeing of children.

Top of the list were the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. At the bottom, in 21st place, was the UK, just below the United States. The report concluded, essentially, that children growing up in the UK were the unhappiest in the industrialised world, and that parents in more than half the countries surveyed spent more time "just talking" to their children than did those in the UK; and that just 40% of UK 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds find their peers "kind and helpful".

Four years later, a second report form the UN body found that while children themselves said their happiness relied more on time spent with family and friends and "having plenty to do outdoors", UK parents -- particularly in lower-income households -- instead felt under "tremendous pressure" to ply them with consumer goods. Earlier this year, the Children's Society found that at any given moment, one in 11 children in the UK aged between eight and 15 have a low sense of wellbeing. And according to the ONS, one in 10 UK children aged between five and 16 has a clinically diagnosed mental health disorder

In response to this avalanche of bad news, a new group, the Save Childhood Movement, launches this week. Bringing together childcare experts, welfare organisations and academics, it aims to highlight the exceptional pressures that modern life imposes on childhood. "It's about bringing together all these voices, all these concerns, to form a critical mass and get a real conversation going," says Richard House of the university of Roehampton.

The movement's development director, Wendy Ellyatt, says the statistics relating to childhood wellbeing in the UK are now "genuinely extraordinary". Drawing on evidence from experts including educationalists, psychologists, neuroscientists and biologists in key fields such as child wellbeing, the importance of family relationships, the purpose of education, the role of play, children's connection with nature, the impact of digital technology, the commercialisation of childhood, the group aims eventually to mount a coherent call for change.

"Children in the UK are among the most pressured, unhappy and commercially vulnerable in the western world," Ellyatt says. "The cultural and environmental tensions are unprecedented. And in this country more than others, we have focused away from children and the family, and on to work and the economy." The new group, she says, "doesn't necessarily have the answers. But what we can't say any longer is that we don't have a problem."
Topics

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For more than five years, evidence has been mounting that children in Britain are worse off than those in other developed countries. Back in 2007, Unicef published a table of 21 economically advanced countries. It compared 40 indicators -- poverty, family relationships, health and safety, education and children's own sense of happiness -- that might affect the wellbeing of children.

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definition and explanation of resilience provided by Mind, which is a UK charity committed to improving the emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people

Discussion

In describing resilience, Mind suggests that avoiding life’s challenges completely isn’t possible, but developing the skills to deal with them effectively when they arise will help to guard against potentially catastrophic consequences. Mind suggests that ‘resilience is something that can change over time’ and furthermore, ‘can be taught, and learned’ (Mind, 2017). One might consider resilience as an important life skill linked to wellbeing. Resilient behaviours and qualities can act as buffers that protect children and young people from further stress and anxiety. Yet the concept of resilience is very broad and includes a number of skills, qualities and behaviours.

Daniel and Wassell (2002) have proposed a wide range of factors from individual characteristics (such as empathy and problem solving skills) to family factors (such as a close bond to at least one person), through to those that are community wide (such as good a school experience and extended network of support).

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Resilience | Mind, the mental health charity - help for mental health problems

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2 What do children and young people think?

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2 What do children and young people think?

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The Good Childhood Report (Children’s Society, 2015) is an extensive survey of the wellbeing of children and young people in the UK. The survey has been developed and repeated, so has built up a detailed picture over time.

Discussion

1. Rather than use the term ‘wellbeing’, the researchers asked open-ended questions about what makes a ‘good life’ for young people and what the barriers to a good life are. The ideas were initially generated with eight thousand 14- and 15-year-olds, although the survey now covers the 8 to 17 age range.

2. You will have seen from Table 3 of the report (p. 13) that a long list of key words was generated from these questions. The top 88 here include a wide range from ‘friends’ to ‘freedom’ to ‘football’. The research team argues that they can all be related to three areas of the lives of children and young people – relationships, self, and environment.

3. There are many interesting features to these responses that might not be included in adult perspectives on young people’s lives. Below are some examples.

a.Surveys with younger children highlighted the importance of pets.

b.Family structures were less important than the substance of relationships in them.

c.The most common response to what prevents a good life is bullying.

d.Children describe the ingredients of relationships in slightly different terms, highlighting love, fairness, support and respect.

e.An emphasis on the importance of physical spaces that are safe, clean and pleasant.

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‘Why are British children so unhappy?’ (Henley, 2012),

Discussion

The newspaper article uses the terms ‘wellbeing’ and ‘happiness’ interchangeably to describe children and young people’s experiences in the UK during the twenty-first century – you will consider the differences between these two terms in a later activity. It draws on a range of reports to suggest that, relative to other countries, children and young people in the UK have a low sense of wellbeing. The different ways in which the article refers to wellbeing and how it might be measured will be discussed further in this course.

Whether you felt this was a fair representation of the UK might depend on your own experiences. There are frequent media reports claiming the mental or physical health of children and young people today is getting worse and their wellbeing is in crisis but they are not always well-substantiated.

The article refers to Unicef research in 2007 and 2011, but there is in fact a newer report (Unicef, 2013) that put the UK sixteenth out of twenty-one, rather than twenty-first. Does this change your views in this discussion?

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For more than five years, evidence has been mounting that children in Britain are worse off than those in other developed countries.

Back in 2007, Unicef published a table of 21 economically advanced countries. It compared 40 indicators -- poverty, family relationships, health and safety, education and children's own sense of happiness -- that might affect the wellbeing of children.

Top of the list were the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. At the bottom, in 21st place, was the UK, just below the United States. The report concluded, essentially, that children growing up in the UK were the unhappiest in the industrialised world, and that parents in more than half the countries surveyed spent more time "just talking" to their children than did those in the UK; and that just 40% of UK 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds find their peers "kind and helpful".

Four years later, a second report form the UN body found that while children themselves said their happiness relied more on time spent with family and friends and "having plenty to do outdoors", UK parents -- particularly in lower-income households -- instead felt under "tremendous pressure" to ply them with consumer goods. Earlier this year, the Children's Society found that at any given moment, one in 11 children in the UK aged between eight and 15 have a low sense of wellbeing. And according to the ONS, one in 10 UK children aged between five and 16 has a clinically diagnosed mental health disorder

In response to this avalanche of bad news, a new group, the Save Childhood Movement, launches this week. Bringing together childcare experts, welfare organisations and academics, it aims to highlight the exceptional pressures that modern life imposes on childhood. "It's about bringing together all these voices, all these concerns, to form a critical mass and get a real conversation going," says Richard House of the university of Roehampton.

The movement's development director, Wendy Ellyatt, says the statistics relating to childhood wellbeing in the UK are now "genuinely extraordinary". Drawing on evidence from experts including educationalists, psychologists, neuroscientists and biologists in key fields such as child wellbeing, the importance of family relationships, the purpose of education, the role of play, children's connection with nature, the impact of digital technology, the commercialisation of childhood, the group aims eventually to mount a coherent call for change.

"Children in the UK are among the most pressured, unhappy and commercially vulnerable in the western world," Ellyatt says. "The cultural and environmental tensions are unprecedented. And in this country more than others, we have focused away from children and the family, and on to work and the economy." The new group, she says, "doesn't necessarily have the answers. But what we can't say any longer is that we don't have a problem."
Topics

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For more than five years, evidence has been mounting that children in Britain are worse off than those in other developed countries. Back in 2007, Unicef published a table of 21 economically advanced countries. It compared 40 indicators -- poverty, family relationships, health and safety, education and children's own sense of happiness -- that might affect the wellbeing of children.

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connecting informal and formal learning

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Selecting ICT resources
Read ‘Selecting ICT tools’, an excerpt from Harlen and Qualter (2014),  paying particular attention to Figure 14.1 and Table 14.2.

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videos illustrating the use of ICT and other digital technologies across the curriculum

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The Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) Technology in Education promotes the integration of ICT in learning and teaching in first & second level…

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This PowerPoint presentation on multimodality introduces you to the concepts of different forms of text.
Note that Slide 6, ‘Key texts today’, presents a number of different types of text.
Note: This activity and PowerPoint are adapted from a resource produced by the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) for modules in the Vitalcontinuing professional development programme, run by The Open University.

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Seven myths about young children and technology

(Plowman and McPake, 2013).

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seven myths about young children and technology L Plowman, J McPake

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Online communities for professional development

Teachers making connections

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teachers making connections Duncan Howell

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Effective integration of digital technologies

Section 8 of the report, ‘Conditions to bring about effective use and integration of digital technologies’ (pp. 37–40).

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Literature review on the impact of Digital technology on learning and teaching - scottish 

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Flipped learning and maths

The NFER and Nesta (2015) report  is an interesting and useful read. However, we suggest you focus on reading the following areas:
Part 1 Section 1.1, ‘Flipped learning’ (pp. 9–10), for a definition of flipped learning, Part 3, ‘The impacts of flipped learning’ (pp. 19–26), Part 4 Sections 4.1, ‘Enablers of success’, and 4.2, ‘Barriers to success’ (pp. 27-35).

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The impact of ICT in maths learning

Literature Review on the Impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching  (Scottish Government, 2015, pp. 18–21 and 23–4)

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Literature review on the impact of Digital technology on learning and teaching - scottish 

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Other resources

NFER and Nesta (2015) Flipped LearningFile

Selecting ICT tools (Harlen and Qualter, 2014)File

Teaching scientific concepts using a virtual world – Minecraft (Short, 2012)File

Computing and ICT lesson observation guidanceFile

Literature Review on the Impact of Digital Technology on Learning and Teaching (Scottish Government, 2015)File

Seven myths about young children and technology (Plowman and McPake, 2013)File

Multimodality presentation (UKLA)File

Block 5 Additional resourcesFile

Teachers making connections (Duncan-Howell, 2010)

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Digital literacy Futurelab (2010). Read pp. 18–45 of Section 3, ‘Digital literacy in practice’. This includes creativity, critical thinking and evaluation, cultural and social understanding, collaboration, finding information, effective communication and e-safety.

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IT QuickStart Computing (2014d).

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IT QuickStart Computing (2014c).

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Programming
QuickStart Computing (2014b). This covers definitions of programming, how to program a computer, a basic robot, to move around a screen, and how to debug code.

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Computational thinking

key concepts within computational thinking, including logic, algorithms, decomposition, patterns, abstraction and evaluation.

QuickStart Computing (2014a).

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Computational thinking

key concepts within computational thinking, including logic, algorithms, decomposition, patterns, abstraction and evaluation. S5. ‘What the experts say’, of Charlton, P. and Luckin, R. (2012).