The impact of child poverty and inequality - the UK retains one of the highest levels of income inequality in the developed world - is explored in a new Channel 4 documentary. In Rich Kid - Poor Kid, children in Britain are described living in more fear and ignorance of each other. The well-off are ferried around by car, told not to walk down the wrong street. Poorer children are told they are worth less in comparison with others and labelled as failures in a country where we avidly count academic qualifications. The film by Zac Beattie allows the ‘rich kid’ and ‘poor kid’ brought together in the film, to flush out the issues and concerns and confront their differences.

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13 November 2008
© Church Urban Fund

Deborah Scaife, equalities officer for early years, childcare and play, department of services to children and young people, Bradford Council – took part in Q & A session on the EqIA Support Network Community of Practice (CoP). The session looked at: barriers to EqIAs, such as the process being made too complicated; pragmatic, practical approaches; how to make plans clear and workable; Key issues in children and young people’s services; EqIAs and Every Child Matters; EqIAs and the Children’s Plan; Equality Impact assessment Plans. A full set of resources can be downloaded from the site as PDFs: Key issues in children and young people’s services, EqIAs and Every Child Matters, EqIAs and the Children’s Plan, Equality Impact assessment Plans.

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10 November 2008
© I&DeA

A new high-profile Digital Champion will help promote the Government’s Digital Inclusion agenda, the Minister for Digital Inclusion Paul Murphy announced today (Friday, 24 October).
The creation of an independent Digital Champion is one of the key proposals to achieve greater digital inclusion included within the new cross-Government report ‘Delivering Digital Inclusion: An Action Plan for Consultation‘, published today. Around 17 million people in the UK today are excluded from the digital revolution, with no access or experience of the Internet and other digital technologies. Launching the Action Plan at Holborn Library’s UK online centre as part of the National Get online Day, Paul Murphy said: “Technology and the Internet are now woven into the fabric of our society. However, we cannot ignore the fact that those who are socially excluded are much less likely to have access to and benefit from technology. “Digital inclusion aims to create a fair society and bring social and economic benefits to individuals, communities and the economy as a whole. It is the links between social and technological disadvantage that makes digital inclusion a priority today.”

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24 October 2008
© Wales Office

Women mainly provide family care, but as women’s economic opportunities increase they will not continue to bear the costs of providing care unaided. To create a sustainable care system, care and carers must be better supported and more highly valued to involve more men in caring and reduce gender inequalities. Download viewpoint as a PDF: www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialcare/pdf/2293.pdf

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2 October 2008
© Joseph Rowntree Foundation

This Viewpoint reviews some of the key proposals in adult social care of the last ten years from an equity perspective. It uses the analysis to argue that we can develop practical policies that are informed by clearly stated equity principles which serve to ensure that the most disadvantaged groups of people are treated more fairly.Download: http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialcare/pdf/2292.pdf

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25 September 2008
© Joseph Rowntree Foundation

IDeA have commissioned a new report on measuring equality at a local level to help authorities gather equality data. Measuring equality at a local level - the full report (PDF, 63 pages, 599KB): http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/8850673 The new comprehensive area agreements (CAA) will specifically test outcomes of ‘how well inequality is being addressed’. To tackle these issues, councils will need to demonstrate they know their communities. They will need to understand both their local community profiles and key ‘equality gaps’ often experienced by different communities. Councils will therefore need to understand national equality data and where this can be supplemented by local data sources. Accessing and analysing this information will be crucial to delivery on a number of key national indicators. The report clarifies the need for high quality equality information across the sector. It informs local partners of the availability of equality information in a wide range of data sources at a national and local level.

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22 September 2008
© IDeA

As previously announced in a statement to Parliament on 8 July, the Department for Transport (DfT) has today begun a consultation on how airport development at Heathrow might affect different demographic groups living near to the airport. The Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA) forms part of the Impact Assessment underpinning the ‘Adding Capacity at Heathrow Airport’ consultation document and seeks to establish the impact of airport development on different groups in terms of race, disability, age and social deprivation. Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: “Aviation contributes over £11bn to the economy and Heathrow alone supports over 100,000 jobs. While Heathrow is vital to the UK’s economy, we have always made clear that expansion will only go ahead if strict local environmental conditions on air quality and noise can be met and improvements made to public transport access to the airport.The EqIA will ensure we fully understand how airport development might affect different groups around Heathrow by reason of their race, disability, age or level of income.”

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15 September 2008
© Department for Transport

Recently highlighted by Nonprofit Online News: a political role-playing framework the Global Justice Game, intended as a training tool for global justice activists and for undergraduate courses on globalisation issues. There are seven scenarios, with complete material for both coordinators and participants available online at http://www.globaljusticegame.mrap.info

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15 September 2008
© VoluntaryNews

The Government recognises that increasing the representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) women starting up social enterprises will potentially enable many groups of ethnic minority women, such as Pakistani and Bangladeshi women who are under represented in the workplace and in society, to become more economically independent and participate more fully in communities. There are at least 55,000 social enterprises in the UK which contribute £8.4 billion pounds to the UK economy, but evidence suggests that BAME women are underrepresented as social enterprise owners. A report published today, Social Enterprise: Making it Work for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women identifies new ways to progress forward in encouraging and supporting BAME women into starting social enterprises.

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© Policy Dialogue International 2005-08

22 August 2008

Scotland’s population will be better understood by a new way of recording ethnicity in Scottish Official Statistics. If Parliament agrees, this will also be used in the next census in 2011. Scotland’s Chief Statistician and the Registrar General for Scotland today published a report on Scotland’s new official ethnicity classification. The new classification will: extend the number of ethnic groups we collect information on from 14 to 21; build a more accurate picture of Scotland’s population; identify discrimination when used with other census and survey questions. A national identity question is also being tested and developed for the census and relevant Scottish Official Statistics. This will let people express their national identity fully - be that ‘Scottish’, ‘British’ or any other national identity - before expressing their ethnicity. The Registrar General is developing a question for publication in Autumn 2008.

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4 August 2008
© Scottish Government