If we want to improve social mobility, we have to address child poverty

Kerris Cooper and Kitty Stewart discuss evidence from their new report on the effect of financial resources on children's development. They argue that the high quality evidence from the UK and other OECD and EU countries demonstrates that money in itself matters for children's development, above and beyond associated factors such as worklessness

Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes? An update

This report provides an update to Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes?: A Systematic Review, published in October 2013. Using systematic search approaches, we review the literature examining the relationship between household financial resources and children’s outcomes, focusing on OECD countries and on the last fifty years. We include studies looking at children’s health, cognitive development and social, emotional and behavioural development, as well as studies on relevant intermediate outcomes, including the home environment and maternal mental health and health behaviours. Studies are only included if they use methods that allow us to reach conclusions about causal relationships: this includes randomised controlled experiments, quasi-experimental situations, and longitudinal studies tracking both financial resources and outcomes over time. The update adds 27 new studies to the 34 in the original review, and slightly expands the country coverage, although the evidence base remains heavily US-focused. The studies provide strong evidence that income has causal effects on a wide range of children’s outcomes, especially in households on low incomes to begin with. We conclude that reducing income poverty can be expected to have a significant impact on children’s environment and on their development

Does money in adulthood affect adult outcomes?

This report examines the evidence on whether money in adulthood has a causal impact on wider adult outcomes. Individuals with less income tend to do worse on a range of indicators than those with more, including measures of physical health and subjective well-being. Would more money in itself make a difference? Or are these differences driven by other, associated factors (education, more satisfying work), or by long-term factors too well-established to shift with a boost to income during adulthood

Does household income affect children’s outcomes? A systematic review of the evidence

There is abundant evidence that children in low income households do less well than their peers on a range of developmental outcomes. However, there is continuing uncertainty about how far money itself matters, and how far associations simply reflect other, unobserved, differences between richer and poorer families. The authors conducted a systematic review of studies using methods that lend themselves to causal interpretation. To be included, studies had to use Randomised Controlled Trials, quasi-experiments or fixed effect-style techniques on longitudinal data. The results lend strong support to the hypothesis that household income has a positive causal effect on children’s outcomes, including their cognitive and social-behavioural development and their health, particularly in households with low income to begin with. There is also clear evidence of a positive causal effect of income on ‘intermediate outcomes’ that are important for children’s development, including maternal mental health, parenting and the home environment. The review also makes a methodological contribution, identifying that effects tend to be larger in experimental and quasi-experimental studies than in fixed effect approaches. This finding has implications for our ability to generalise from observational studies

What does Brexit mean for social policy in the UK? An exploration of the potential consequences of the 2016 referendum for public services, inequalities and social rights

The paper was written as part of a major research programme on trends in the distribution of social and economic outcomes in the UK and the design and impact of social policies. The paper seeks to map out the potential implications of Brexit for social policies and distributional outcomes in the UK. It explores the consequences of the referendum result itself while also looking ahead to the possible impact of the UK’s exit from the European Union. Future effects are considered under five main headings: the effects on the economy, with knock-on consequences for public services; withdrawal from European employment and human rights legislation; implications for EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU; implications of an end to free movement for public service delivery; and implications of gaining control over resources and regulations, such as those governing state aid. Given the continuing context of high uncertainty, the paper considers what different Brexit scenarios may mean, with a central focus on a scenario in which the UK leaves the single market

Parenting stress of caregivers of young children who are HIV Positive

Objective: Paediatric HIV remains a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. Paediatric HIV is a multi-generational disorder with far-reaching implications for the whole family. Parenting stress in caregivers of HIV infected children has been studied in developed countries but never in South Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the extent of parenting stress in caregivers of children infected with HIV in South Africa. Further objectives were to monitor the levels of stress over one year after caregivers started attending a paediatric HIV clinic and to ascertain what factors were predictive of a decrease in parenting stress over that time. Method: One hundred and twenty two caregiver and children dyads were recruited into this study. Caregivers completed the Parenting Stress Index/ Short form at baseline and after six and 12 months. Demographic information was collected and the children's heights, weights and CD4 counts were recorded at each visit. Results: The families that participated in this study came from very poor socio-economic backgrounds. Eighty five percent of the children were still being cared for by their biological mothers. The parenting stress levels of the caregivers in this study were extremely high at baseline. Although the parenting stress levels did come down significantly over the study period (p< 0.001) they remained high and warrant further investigation and management. A better level of education, better housing facilities and fewer adults living in the household were the three most important factors predicting a decrease in parenting stress over a one year period. Conclusion: Parenting stress of caregivers of young children infected with HIV is extremely high and warrants further investigation and long term management.African Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 10 (4) 2007: pp. 210-21

What will ‘taking back control’ mean for social policy in the UK? Brexit, public services and social rights

While social policy falls predominantly under national rather than European Union (EU) jurisdiction, there are nonetheless multiple ways in which social policy and social outcomes in EU member states have been affected by EU membership. This paper draws on existing evidence and analysis to review the consequences for UK social policy of the decision to leave the EU. We focus predominantly on the implications of the British government’s pledge to ‘take back control’ of money, borders and laws. Our conclusion is that Brexit is likely to have negative effects on the quality of public services and, for some groups in particular, social rights, and that these effects are likely to be greater the more distant are the future trading and wider relationships between the UK and the EU27

Enantioselective synthesis of non-proteinogenic 2-arylallyl-α-amino acids via Pd/In catalytic cascades

An efficient synthesis of both R- and S-enantiomers of 2-arylallyl-α-amino acids via a diastereoselective Pd/In mediated catalytic allylation of chiral N-sulfinyl-α-imino esters is described. The potential for further enhancement of molecular complexity and creating contiguous chiral centres by interfacing these processes with catalytic cyclisation–anion capture methodology is demonstrated