UNICEF: generation of teens sidelined by govt
9:59 am - April 10th 2013
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A new UNICEF report places the UK in 16th* position, below Slovenia, Czech Republic and Portugal, in the UNICEF league table of child well-being in the world’s richest countries. The report is a follow-up to Report Card 7 which in 2007 placed the UK at the bottom of 21 developed countries for overall child well-being.
Despite child well-being improving during the first decade of this century there are still areas in which the UK ranks significantly low – most noticeably affecting young people, aged 15 to 19. These include a continuing high rate of teenage pregnancy and high numbers of young people under 19 not in education, employment or training.
UNICEF UK warns that the situation of children in the UK is expected to worsen as government’s cuts continue to impact on children and young people. More than £300 million has been cut from services for young people in the education department’s 2011-12 budget, a 26 per cent drop from the previous year.
As well, 400,000 more children are projected to be in child poverty by 2015-2016 due to austerity measures, according to the Family and Parenting Institute and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (2012).
The UNICEF report finds that:
– The UK has the lowest rates of further education in the developed world, with participation rates falling below 75 per cent compared to 80 per cent in all of the more populous developed countries.
– The UK has one of the highest rates of young people not in education, employment, or training, affecting 10 per cent of 15-19 year olds and ranking the UK 24th out of 28 economically advanced countries in this area.
– The UK is one of only three countries where teenage pregnancy rates have risen. Since the present government came into power, many services that were specifically developed to tackle teenage pregnancy have been cut.
The report indicates that between 2000 and 2010 the previous government’s policies paved the way for more children, particularly in their early years, to have improved lives. However, this investment in the early years of a child’s life was not matched by a sustained focus on the teenage years, and the present government is continuing to fail young people.
Although the Report Card shows the UK moved up the league table in overall well being, since 2010 the downgrading of youth policy and cuts to local government services are having a profound negative effect on young people.
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Reader comments
…and yet the government have the sheer nerve to suggest that austerity is all about ‘not making our children pay for our mistakes’.
On the contrary, making our children pay for our mistakes is *precisely* what the government is doing. Spending targeted at children and young people has been first in line for cuts from day one – Building Schools for the Future, EMA, Higher Education, Child Tax Credits, Child Benefit, the Child Trust Fund, etc. Higher VAT hits families with children hardest. The higher personal allowance benefits families with children least (since they’re less likely to include two full-time workers earning more than £10,000). Redistribution from households with children to households without – households which are, ceteris paribus, higher up the income distribution – has been one of the stories of this government.
I keep hoping somebody will crunch the numbers on what proportion of the burden of deficit reduction has fallen on (in politicians’ terms) ‘our children’ – say, households including children and young people up to 25 – as opposed to ‘our generation’ (say, households in which everyone is over 26 and still of working age) and ‘our parents’ generation’ (retired households). I suspect the picture would be broadly one of ‘our parents’ generation’ standing still, ‘our generation’ doing quite nicely out of tax cuts, and ‘our children’ losing out left, right and centre.
I didn’t realise Cameron was forcing our teenagers to have unprotected sex.
Shocking!!
“I didn’t realise Cameron was forcing our teenagers to have unprotected sex. Shocking!!”
*sigh*
Why are children’s achievements held up as examples of good education, and yet their ignorance is placed squarely on their own shoulders?
Where was the UK in the table in 1997?
I expect that Sally will claim it was below 21st out of 21
UNICEF isn’t really saying such a thing.
Judge for yourself, and read the report at
http://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc11_eng.pdf
By the way, isn’t it a bit odd to make a Web article about a report which is readily available in the Web, and not provide a link to it? Churnalism.
What you can see there is that UK and Portugal have gone up in the rankings. UK because of a number of health improvements, Portugal because improvements in education. Smoking (tobacco and pot) and drinking have gone down in Britain, as well as being overweight.
British education is unwell and Finland still tops that chart, with relatively monocultural schools where everyone can speak the school language, and read and write to some extent. Swedes have dropped in the charts, due to education performance dropping and and many smaller issues (generally, just not keeping up with how everyone else improves – how unfair).
“British education is unwell and Finland still tops that chart, with relatively monocultural schools where everyone can speak the school language, and read and write to some extent.”
Yes public and private schools in the UK. Strange Finland tops the PISA studies. Hardly any public schools, fully comprehensive until 16, tech schools after 16, high educational requirements for teachers, independent learning and hardly any testinf for under 16’s.
Swedes have dropped in the charts, due to education performance dropping and and many smaller issues (generally, just not keeping up with how everyone else improves – how unfair).
Yes and that is the model Gove wants us to follow
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