ippr north

An attitude problem

Here’s a shocking statistic: in the UK, in 2005/06, more than one in five children are living in poverty (according to DWP data).

And here’s another one that some of you may find even more shocking: according to the recently published British Social Attitudes (BSA) report, 34% of you will think this is an inevitable part of modern life, and 27% of you will think that poverty is due to laziness or lack of will power (presumably on the part of the parents, rather than the children themselves).

This marks a considerable shift in opinions, as in 1986 only 19% thought poverty was due to laziness and lack of will power. According to the BSA report, this shift in views has occurred alongside declining support for redistribution of income from the better off to the less well off (down from nearly 47% in 1995 to 34% now).

This creates something of a policy problem for a government that has pledged to eradicate child poverty by 2020, as the redistribution of income is a key policy lever for reducing poverty.

ippr north is just one of several organisations in the North East of England that is involved with the Government Office for the North East’s plans to drive forward the eradication of child poverty in the region. While a number of the key policy instruments - such as tax and benefit levels - rest with central government that is not to say there is nothing that can be done at regional and local levels.

One of the priorities the group has highlighted is public perceptions of child poverty. A problem today is that the paths of the very rich and the very poor in our society rarely cross. We suspect that if there were better public understanding of what child poverty in UK in the 21st century looked like, then perhaps public attitudes would change.

Equalities combined...

Today sees the launch of the Equality and Human Rights Commission which combines the work of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) into one.  The new commission also takes responsibility for strands on sexuality, religion and age, better to work the differing ‘strands’ into one integrated approach.

This is of particular interest to me as earlier this year I chaired a seminar in conjunction with them (as part of a wider review involving ippr) looking at the challenges they face (ippr north also held two events in the North West looking at the equalities agenda on gender and local government).  For me there were two elements to the seminar discussion which stood out, both difficult, but due consideration.

Firstly, tackle the media head on and really challenge the seemingly constant stream of messages attacking the Human Rights Act.  It is not a ‘terrorist’s charter’ or ‘political correctness gone mad’. Speaking of PC, one seminar attendee made the very good point that we need to come up with a message or slogan as inherently positive and strong, as PC is now (wrongly) tarred with negative connotations.

Secondly, we must challenge the dynamic that it is up to the minority to ‘fit in’ with the majority.  A key element in securing this may well be the idea of a seventh strand which ensures everything is mainstreamed through HR, thereby strengthening their work.  We wish it well.