Teenage mothers and young people with special needs : evidence from the Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots Database

This report uses quantitative data collected as part of the evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) Pilots to follow the life course trajectories of two groups of vulnerable young people as they aged from 16 to 18. Part A investigates the experiences of young women who had a child, or were pregnant, when they were first interviewed a few months after finishing compulsory education. Part B outlines the transitions of young people who had special educational needs and/or a health problem that limited their daily lives. The EMA evaluation was designed to yield a random sample of two cohorts of young people in ten pilot areas and 11 control areas. The two cohorts finished compulsory education in the summers of 1999 and 2000 respectively and were interviewed three times at yearly intervals, that is, when they were approximately 16, 17 and 18 years old. About a quarter of the young people in the full sample were ineligible for EMA on the grounds that the income of their parents exceeded £30,000 a year. These relatively affluent young people were excluded from this report for two reasons. Firstly, this facilitates an exploration of how EMA affects the choices made by vulnerable young people. Secondly, the two vulnerable groups tended to have parents with low or moderate incomes; consequently, the removal of high-income households increases the similarities between vulnerable and non-vulnerable young people. This selection process resulted in a sample of 7415 young women and 7319 young men. This sample has been weighted to be representative of all EMA eligible young people (from these cohorts) in the pilot and control areas. In both parts of the report, the analysis commences with a retrospective look at the Year 11 experiences of the vulnerable group and compares their situation to that of their ‘nonvulnerable’ counterparts (respectively, young women who were neither mothers nor pregnant (Part A) and young people who had neither special needs nor a limiting health condition (Part B)). This is followed by an account of their economic activity a few months after the end compulsory education. Finally, the report concentrates on the experiences of young people who remained in the study until the age of 18

Britain's poorest children revisited : evidence from the BHPS (1994-2002)

This is a follow-up to an earlier study of Britain’s poorest children (Adelman et al., 2003), carried out by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) on behalf of Save the Children UK (SCUK). The earlier analysis had used two data sets: the Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey (PSE) of 1999; and the first nine waves of the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) covering the period 1991-1999. The policy impact of the earlier analysis has been widespread, and the need for continued work on Britain’s poorest children is apparent. Three further waves of the BHPS (2000-2002) have since become available, making it possible to update the earlier analysis of the BHPS using more recent data sets. Hence, this study uses the nine most recent waves of the BHPS available (1994-2002) to update the earlier work on Britain’s poorest children, focusing on key issues of particular policy significance

Severe child poverty in the UK

This report contains the findings of a technical study, which aimed to identify a measure of severe child poverty that can discriminate between the experiences of children defined as severely poor and other children

A review of poverty dynamics research in the UK

Dynamics research presents a dramatically more comprehensive understanding of poverty than point-in-time studies. While point-in-time studies provide a static ‘snap shot’ of the population at a given single moment, dynamics or longitudinal research traces the same individuals or households over time and so is able to record stories of change. Research on poverty dynamics in the UK has taken root since the 1990s. This study aimed to gather and refl ect on existing poverty dynamics literature in order to: • examine the different forms of poverty, how different social groups experience it, and how people enter and leave poverty; • understand the implications for policy aimed at tackling poverty and disadvantage; and • highlight priorities for further research. The researchers conclude that the concept of ‘the poor’ given by point-in-time studies is misleading: poverty dynamics fi nds a broad population with diverse experiences of poverty, reveals who moves in and out of poverty and why, and sheds light on how life chances are stacked against certain individuals and families. However, there appears to be no clear understanding of poverty dynamics in current UK social policy. Progress to eradicate poverty has been held back by a failure to target persistent poverty and to safeguard against re-entry to poverty

The impact of tax credits on mothers' employment

This study reviews the impact of Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit on working mothers. April 2003 saw the introduction of two new tax credits, Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. Although working in different ways, these were both intended to support families with children, reduce child poverty, and make work pay for those on low incomes. They are a central plank of the Labour Government’s ambitious policy of reducing and eventually abolishing child poverty. This report: investigates the impact of the tax credits on the participation of women with children in the labour market ; explores why those eligible to receive these credits do not always take them up ; assesses whether the credits act as an incentive for mothers to reduce their working hours, and ; reviews the policy implications of the findings. The study used data from the three latest available rounds of interviews of the longitudinal Families and Children Study (FACS), 2002/03–2004/05. The methodology also has lessons for those interested in pinpointing the most appropriate way of modelling the impact of the new tax credits

Britain’s poorest children : severe & persistent poverty and social exclusion

The current Labour government has made a commitment to abolish child poverty in Britain by 2020. In its efforts to do so, a number of targets have been established and indicators of progress are being reviewed annually. However, tackling severe child poverty does not feature in these targets or indicators. In fact, although there is now a wealth of information about child poverty in Britain, very little is known about either the extent of severe child poverty or the children who are affected. As a result, we do not know whether different policy measures are required to move these children out of poverty. To try and fill this knowledge gap, Save the Children UK commissioned the Centre for Research in Social Policy to investigate severe child poverty. Two areas of particular importance were identified: material deprivation combined with low income as an indicator of severe poverty and the extent to which severe poverty persists over time. Therefore, in this study severe child poverty was defined and analysed in two ways: 1. Children who experienced a combination of household income poverty, child deprivation and parental deprivation 2. Children who lived in households that experienced income poverty which was both persistent and severe. The research also aimed to establish whether severely poor children were more likely to experience different dimensions of social exclusion than other children. A wide range of dimensions was investigated but, broadly speaking, covered exclusion from social activities, services (including education) and citizenship, friendships and support, living in adequate housing or in an adequate local area, financial security

Education Maintenance Allowance Transport Pilots – quantitative findings from year 1 and 2 (2000-2001/2001-2002)

This report contains a summary of quantitative evidence from an evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance Transport (EMA(T)) pilots, commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES)

Young people not in Education, Employment or Training : evidence from the Education Maintenance Allowance Pilots Database

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has commissioned further analysis of young people who become NEET (not in education, employment or training) after leaving compulsory education. This report examines quantitative data collected as part of the evaluation of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), covering two cohorts of young people who completed compulsory education (Year 11) in summers 1999 and 2000. Random samples of young people from each cohort were interviewed in ten of the original EMA pilot areas and 11 control areas. The report comprises two parts: Part A uses data from the two cohorts of young people included in the first wave of interviews which were conducted face-to-face with young people and parents in 1999 for Cohort 1 and in 2000 for Cohort 2. The data include young people in both pilot and control areas, containing about 21,500 cases (unweighted) in total. Young people were interviewed in their first year following compulsory schooling and were either 16 year or 17 years of age at the time of interview. This part of the report explores attitudes and aspirations of parents of young people and of young people themselves. It also considers the level of support which parents gave to their children in their Year 11 decision making. The final section examines the extent to which young people and their parents were in agreement about aspirations and their attitudes to education, work and training. Part B exploits the longitudinal nature of the dataset by examining data from the two cohorts of young people in pilot and control areas who participated in all three survey interviews, which were conducted when the young person was approximately 16, 17 and 18 years of age. The sample size in Part B is approximately 11,700 (unweighted). This part of the report examines young people’s destinations at age 16, 17 and 18. It then considers the composition of the NEET group at ages 17 and 18, specifically considering inflows to the group. In the final section, the focus is on outflows from the NEET group, exploring young people’s destinations at age 17 and 18 by their socio-economic classification, Year 11 qualifications, gender and level of parental involvement in Year 11 decision making

The impact of childhood disability on family life

This is the second report of a study funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that explored the costs to parents of bringing up a child with a severe disability. The first report, Paying to Care(Dobson and Middleton, 1998), described a minimum budget standard, which is the minimum amount that parents believed to be necessary to bring up a child with severe disabilities. This report describes the actual spending patterns of parents on 182 children with severe disabilities, and presents a detailed examination of how much parents actually spend on bringing up a severely disabled child. Fieldwork was conducted during 1997–98 and so all figures presented have been up-rated to 2000 by the Retail Price Index

A child’s-eye view of social difference

Children are increasingly the focus of Government policy, and improvement of outcomes for children in disadvantaged areas is a priority. However, little is known about how children see and experience poverty, wealth, and ‘social difference’ in their everyday lives. This report explores their own views, using their terms. A participatory approach was used, which enabled the children to lead the research focus. The report compares the similarities and differences between the findings from the two groups. The study was conducted with 42 children aged between 8 and 13. Of these, 19 were from a disadvantaged housing estate and 23 attended a fee-paying independent school. The children participated in a series of workshops and helped to choose the research methods, which included role play, photography, mapping and ‘draw and write’ techniques. The report will be of interest to researchers and policymakers in the fields of education and child poverty