The seventh in a regular series of reports monitored indicators of poverty and social exclusion in Great Britain. It highlighted issues concerning disabled people in particular. 3 out of every 10 disabled adults of working age were living in poverty a higher proportion than a decade previously, and double the rate among non-disabled adults. Disabled adults were more likely to live in poor households than either pensioners or children.
Source: Guy Palmer, Jane Carr and Peter Kenway, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2005, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report | JRF Findings | JRF press release | CPAG press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Dec
A report said that the digital divide needed to be bridged, and electronic public services delivered, in a way that excluded people would use that suited their experience.
Source: Inclusion Through Innovation: Tackling social exclusion through new technologies, Social Exclusion Unit/Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 5550)
Links: Report | SEU press release | Crisis press release
Date: 2005-Nov
A briefing paper explored how and why those experiencing social disadvantage tended to also be the most politically excluded in society.
Source: Social Exclusion and Political Engagement, Electoral Commission (020 7271 0500)
Links: Briefing
Date: 2005-Nov
A study monitored a range of indicators of poverty and social exclusion in Wales, including low income, education, work, health and well-being, and access to services. Welsh poverty rates had fallen faster than those in England or Scotland in the previous decade, and were no worse than the average for Britain as a whole.
Source: Peter Kenway, Naomi Parsons, Jane Carr and Guy Palmer, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion in Wales 2005, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report | Report (Welsh) | JRF Findings | JRF press release | WAG press release
Date: 2005-Nov
The government said that (according to an unpublished analysis conducted for it by the Institute of Social and Economic Research/ University of Essex) the number of adults - both of working age and pensioners - who experienced five or more disadvantages fell from 4.8 million in 1997 to 3.66 million in 2003.
Source: Press release 29 November 2005, Social Exclusion Unit/Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 5550)
Links: SEU press release | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Nov
The government published the seventh annual report on action to tackle poverty and social exclusion. For the first time the publication contained a chapter on women s position relative to men: it looked at areas of social, professional and economic life, and described the financial and social status of women in the 21st century.
Source: Opportunity for All: Seventh Annual Report 2005, Department for Work and Pensions (020 7962 8176)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | DWP press release
Date: 2005-Oct
A study examined seven initiatives which had sought to involve people with direct experience of poverty. It found that powerlessness was central to people's experience of poverty and disadvantage; and it identified best practice in improving participation among such groups.
Source: Peter Beresford and Martin Hoban, Participation in Anti-Poverty and Regeneration Work and Research: Overcoming barriers and creating opportunities, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report (pdf) | JRF Findings 0395
Date: 2005-Aug
Disadvantaged people who were asked (as part of a government consultation) what public services could make a real difference to their lives highlighted benefits, healthcare, and education and training.
Source: Improving Service Delivery for Disadvantaged Adults: Summary of consultation responses, Social Exclusion Unit/Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 5550)
Links: Report (pdf) | SEU press release
Date: 2005-Aug
A new book used data from a nationally representative survey of British households to quantify levels of social exclusion and the composition of the socially excluded population. It also incorporated data from a European Commission-funded household survey to compare social exclusion in Britain with 11 other countries in the European Union. The author argued that social exclusion referred to enduring disadvantage on a wide range of living standards, not just those that reflected economic values.
Source: Matt Barnes, Social Exclusion in Great Britain: An empirical investigation and comparison with the EU, Ashgate Publications (01235 827730)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Jul
A revised book examined changes in approach towards poverty and social exclusion appearing in various influential documents of the 1990s. It identified three competing meanings of social exclusion, emphasizing poverty, employment and morality. It argued that there had been a shift away from understanding social exclusion as primarily a problem of poverty, towards questions of social integration through paid work and moral regulation.
Source: Ruth Levitas, The Inclusive Society? Social exclusion and New Labour, Palgrave Macmillan (01256 329242)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-May
A report (prepared for the European Union) said that, from a poverty base which was "historically and comparatively dire" in the mid-1990s, most key indicators of poverty and social exclusion in the United Kingdom had continued to move in the right direction.
Source: Jonathan Bradshaw and Fran Bennett, Fifth Report on UK National Action Plan on Social Inclusion 2003-2005, Social Policy Research Unit/University of York (01904 433608)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-May
An article explored the government's approach to combating social exclusion since 1997. New Labour's approach to social exclusion was 'contractarian', offering conditional access to the mainstream to outsiders. It was distinct from, and in opposition to, traditional socialist and social democratic politics.
Source: Jonathan Davies, 'The social exclusion debate', Policy Studies, Volume 26 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Mar
The government's Social Exclusion Unit published an interim report on ways to help young adults (aged 16-25) with severe or multiple problems become independent adults, and escape the spiral of disadvantage. It said that young adults often lost continuity in treatment and support when making the transition between adolescent and adult services; and it called for a focus on the invisible early twenties, the age at which youth policies had tended to end.
Source: Transitions: A Social Exclusion Unit interim report on young adults, Social Exclusion Unit/Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 5550)
Links: Report (pdf) | SEU press release
Date: 2005-Mar
A think-tank booklet reported three seminars that investigated the roles that sport and active recreation, the arts, and architecture and the built environment could play in promoting greater social inclusion. If the government were to succeed in its overall strategy to promote social inclusion, these issues would have to play an increasingly important role.
Source: Tony Pilch (ed.), Achieving Social Inclusion, Smith Institute (020 7592 3618)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary
Date: 2005-Mar
A new book surveyed the impact of the Labour Government s social policies since its election in 1997. It suggested that the government had taken poverty and social exclusion very seriously, marking a clear distinction from recent previous administrations. A wide range of the problems faced by Britain in the mid-1990s had been recognized, as had their multi-faceted and inter-linked nature. Poverty and social exclusion had been the subject of some of the government's most high-profile targets, particularly to cut and eventually 'eradicate' child poverty; and to ensure that, within 10-20 years, no one was seriously disadvantaged by where they lived. However, there were no targets for working-age poverty, for poverty of the population as a whole, or for overall inequality. There were vulnerable groups not covered by specific initiatives; and in the case of asylum seekers, government policy had increased exclusion (in the terms applied to other groups).
Source: John Hills and Kitty Stewart (eds.), A More Equal Society? New Labour, poverty, inequality and exclusion, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: JRF Findings 0015 | JRF press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2005-Jan
An article examined contending philosophical perspectives on the underclass', by reference to a taxonomy of methodologies. Policy analysts needed to be critically reflective before they sought to describe, explain, understand, judge and address related problems and issues.
Source: John Dixon, Kerry Carrier and Rhys Dogan, 'On investigating the "underclass": Contending philosophical perspectives', Social Policy and Society, Volume 4 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jan