Here is a relevant publication.
Janet
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Scott-Samuel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 10:00 AM
Subject: Study highlights 'perverse' failures of welfare state
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Study highlights 'perverse' failures of welfare state
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2005 23:00:02 +0100
From: Martin Rathfelder
Sixty years after the founding of the welfare state, a
report has warned
that poorer people continue to have the worst access to
opportunities and
services.
A study published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows
those with the
greatest need for good health care, education, jobs, housing
and transport
continue to lose out.
Researchers at the Universities of Sheffield, Bristol and
Edinburgh found
that areas with the highest levels of poor health have the
lowest numbers of
doctors, dentists and other health professionals.
And areas with the greatest proportions of young people with no
qualifications have the lowest availability of working
teachers per head of
population.
High-status jobs were found to be concentrated in London and
the South East,
while in areas where such jobs are relatively rare, there
are higher
proportions of people with good qualifications in low-status
occupations.
The poorest neighbourhoods with high proportions of families
where no one is
in paid work also tend to have the highest proportion of
children and young
people providing informal care for relatives or friends.
"Our analysis exploits the unique power of the most detailed
Census data
ever gathered on health, education, housing, employment and
poverty," said
Professor Danny Dorling of the University of Sheffield.
"These are the aspects of British life that closely reflect
the five 'giant
evils' of disease, ignorance, squalor, idleness and want
that William
Beveridge identified in his 1942 report leading to the
creation of a welfare
state.
"From that point of view, it is acutely disappointing to
discover that so
many opportunities and resources still depend on where
people live.
"Wide and persisting inequality is reflected in big
differences between
'rich' and 'poor' areas in terms of housing, education and
health care as
well as economic wealth.
"Perversely, people living in the poorest neighbourhoods
with the greatest
needs are often the least likely to have access to the
services and support
that would help them improve their lives and life chances."
The findings prompted shadow work and pensions secretary Sir
Malcolm Rifkind
to call for "a much stronger focus on tackling poverty".
"I do not doubt Labour’s intention to tackle poverty, but
the results have
been patchy at best," he said.
"For real progress, we need to vastly expand the role of
voluntary and
commercial enterprises in helping the sick and unemployed
into work.
"They do so much more effectively and cheaply than the
existing state
employment services."
http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/0425.asp
******************************************************
Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your
message will go only to the sender of this message.
If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's
'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically
to [log in to unmask]
*******************************************************
|