Strengths And Weaknesses Of Neighbourhoods Young People Essay

Strengths And Weaknesses Of Neighbourhoods new-fangled People EssayThe phrase neighbourhood renewal/ novelty relates to a series of computer designs in beat to ascertain topical anesthetic needs and develop ways to deal with poverty and deprivation in the joined Kingdom which be known as Super Output Areas (SOAs). Local ara base initiatives fetch been a universal preliminary to the problems that deprived neighbourhoods have endured in Britain since the 1960s. The majority of programmes at that time were in truth short term and tended to focus on single issues. In the late 1980s an integrated approach was tried. (Imrie and Raco, 2003).Initiatives started to increase in the 1990s and as a result of this, the number of the governance of neighbourhood regeneration came to be characterised by a series of inter united and spatially overlapping partnerships (Imrie and Raco, 2003 85). sweat introduced the neighbourhood renewal scheme plan in 2001, this was a new approach to conf ront mixer exclusion and poverty in the most poorest neighbourhoods in UK. Tony Blair talked ab verboten the purpose of The Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy in his speech to the democracywhere no-one is seriously disadvantage by where they live, where power, wealth and opportunity be in the hands of the many non the few. This action plan is a crucial step in creating one nation, non separated by class, race or where large number live the purpose of the strategy was to narrow the gap between disclosecomes in deprived areas and the rest (Social Exclusion Unit, 20011) The main aims of local based anti-poverty and community development programmes are to fishing gear the issue of social exclusion in the more deprived areas of the country.In relation to British social policy, the term social exclusion is relatively new. The organization has described social exclusion as a shorthand term for what plunder happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems su ch as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime, bad health and family break pop up. (www.socialexclusion.gov.uk).There are many different explanations for social exclusion, and many different factors which add to social exclusion, by examining the different factors programmes can be developed in order to address the problems and try to promote a more viscid community. The individual can contri barelye to social exclusion by the nature of their race, gender, culture, beliefs, disability etc. pretermit of resourcesLack of opportunities to workLearning opportunitiesHealth issuesDecent housingDisruption of family life sentence.Living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods (Haralambos and Holbron, 2004253)Anti-poverty and community development programmes are fannying these areas with improvements in social housing, re-developing existing social housing, increasing cultivation opportunities (such as access to training and grant schemes for students), making health ca re more available, targeting the childlikeer generation to devise on matters that will effect their future, raising the profile of neighbourhoods.One of the projects I am more known with is the original erupt programme (now known as Childrens Centres) and I am going to discuss the strengths and flunk of the core groups.Governments PoliciesIn 2003, the Government make a green paper called E real Child Matters. This was published on base the report into the death of Victoria Climbie. The Green Paper prompted discussions slightly current gos for children, young people and families. There was a wide consultation with staff that worked in childrens services, and with parents, children and young people. Following the consultation, the Government published Every Child Matters the Next Steps, and passed the Children Act 2004.The Act provides a legislative spine for the wider strategy for improve childrens lives. This covers the universal services which every child accesses, and more targeted services for those with additional needs Department of grooming and Skills, Children Act 2004. http//www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrenactreportIndeed, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon brown MP, speaking about child poverty at the Sure lower Conference on 7 July 1999, acknowledges that poverty is a many-sided problem which requires many-sided solutionsFirst, we must tackle child poverty at its source the absence of work, in work poverty and providing increased pecuniary can for families to tackle child poverty, so that by our actions we lift a million and more children out of poverty.Second, what I want to concentrate on today, because improving public services health visitors, nurseries, playgroups, child care, learning take hold in the poorest communities is vital to tackling child poverty, our Sure number 1 programme will invest in young children in areas of greatest need.Third, we must mobilize non just governing body, local and national, but voluntary suffice and community action and in the programmes we are introducing non only in Sure starting but in the New Deal for Communities and our expansion of childcare provision we must mobilize the forces of concern and commiseration in new partnerships to tackle child poverty.Fourth, as David Blunkett has said, we must make sure that all our schools are as good as our best. In the old economy it was possible to survive with the old inequalities an pedagogy system that advanced only the ambitions of the few. http//www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/633.htmKey achievementsLabour has undertaken the biggest expansion in other(a) years education since 1945 investing 21 billion since 1997.Every three and 4 year old has the right to a free nursery place, which we will extend from 12.5 hours a week to 15 hours by 2010.Since 1997, the number of registered childcare places is up by just aboutwhat 644,000 from a place for one in eight children to one in four children.Delivered nearly 3 ,000 Sure bug out Childrens totals, reaching two million children and their families.Labour has expanded nationally the Bookstart scheme which gives every one and two year old a satchel of books and every three and four year old a treasure chest of books and crayons. http//www.labour.org.uk/early_yearsSure StartSure Start was the Labour Governments programme that aimed to deliver the best start in life for every child. They bring together early education, family support, childcare, health and welfare advice. It aims to develop services in some of the more disadvantaged areas (identified by the dual of deprivation indices. In Sure Start there is a normally a central part where all the team work together to support children and families in the local areas. The sure start programme was initially a ten year programme but was abolished in favour of childrens Centres. The change from Sure Start has not really been noticed and is still referred to as Sure Start.Amid all the hullabaloo about the governments 10-year childcare strategy, one quite momentous change has gone relatively unnoticed the governments much-lauded Sure Start programme has been abolished. N. Glass, The Guardian, Wednesday January 5 2005The Sure Start centres, provided integrated services including health services and family support services, as well as childcare. The different services that children centres provide for children and families contribute to the Every Child Matters outcomes. Local governing lead in planning and implementing centres.Some of the services I have seen implemented at RoseHill include, support that has been individually tailored to meet the families and their childrens needs such as, parenting assessment, working with families in the home or at the centre based on a one to one basis, providing parenting courses that aim to improve parental skills so improve the life and chances for children. There are also family workers at the centre that deal with over 11s and their families and carers, this service aims to work through problems the family may have and keep the children at their homes with their parents. One big issue the centre faces in relation to families is that of extended families and the centre provides a much needed support framework and advice for children and families that are going through divorce and separation issues, given the families a safe environment to discuss issues and problems. on side this are the other services normally associated with a Children Centre, education courses, healthy eating, reading and create verbally support, I.T. help, employment help such as C.V. writing and interview techniques, and childcare support.Some of the members include bringing up advisersActivities Volunteer co-coordinatorsMidwivesCrche WorkersHealth VisitorsPlay workersSpeech and language therapistChild care advisorsFamily maintain (Social ServicesPEEP WorkersIT TrainersOne of the most important facts that impacted on the programme was t hat the Sure Start programme was not allowed to run its affluent ten years span, and little or no followup evidence was available for analysis, before expansion.With principal responsibility for Sure Start alongside my DfES colleagues, I had to deliberate against its immediate expansion on the grounds that it would be better to accumulate some experience of streamlet it first. (By the October 1999, when I first discussed the scheme with the chancellor there were only two local projects actually running). My arguments did not win the day and in July 2000 the programme was extended to 550 local projects. Norman Glass Society Guardian, 20051The Sure Start programme was very generously funded and when the programme was agreed to be spread around a further 3,500 centres, the money had to come from somewhere. This meant that the generous funding had to be more evenly distributed. This has meant that the centres had very hold in funding and cuts had to be made.Although the Sure Start programme did not continue for the full aforethought(ip) ten year term and lost most of the generous funding, many of the good practice is carried out in the Children Centres that followed the Sure Start initiatives one of which is PEEP.PEEP is an early learning intervention, which aims to contribute towards improving the life chances of children, particularly in disadvantaged areas.It concentrates on supporting parents/carers to develop three particular aspects of learning with their childrenliteracy and numeracy self-assertionlearning dispositionsThe PEEP Learning Together programmefocuses on how to make the most of the learning opportunities in everyday life at home listening, talking, playing, singing, sharing books and having funPEEP supports parents and carersin their role as the first educators of their children. It works with adults about their childrens very early learning. http//www.peep.org.uk/section.asp?id=5 some other flaw of the Sure Start centres was that althoug h Sure Start centres were based in deprived areas not all deprived children lived in these neighbourhoods.Because not all disadvantaged children live in deprived areas each small sure start programme could serve only a minority of disadvantaged children those from adjacent areas could not could not participate and local authorities and health agencies were faced with relatively well-financed early years programmes in one part of their field of study and much less well provided areas next door. This was very difficult to handle. Norman Glass Society Guardian, 20051We know that children who grow up in poor families are less potential to reach their full potential, less plausibly to stay on at school, or even attend school, more likely to fall into the dead end of unemployment and poverty as an adult, more likely to become unmarried teenaged mothers, more likely to be in the worst jobs or no jobs at all, more likely to be trapped in a no win situation poor when young, unemployed w hen older. http//www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/633.htmAnother weakness of the centres is that it involves trying to motivate and empower the local community to identify their needs and participate in the management side of the day to day running. This requires community workers who have good community and social skills to sanction local community members to actively take part. The concerns were that after the ten years were up that the community centres would not have been taken on by the local members and the centres would eventually be closed down.The Childrens Centre at Rosehill was throwerly a Sure Start Centre and the differences are striking. The centre has lost a abundant amount of staff members and the funding has been cut considerably. The workers continue to provide opportunities for the local parents and children so the principles of Sure Start are being maintained. Some of the local projects are working well such as the remedy your garden for food, Further education for par ents, IT sessions, and one particular programme that I am involved with is Without Walls. Without Walls aims to entanglement within the community to bring people together and try out new activities. It aims to break down barriers between people by organising little gaffes and coffee mornings with a view to a residential trip in the near future. The strengths of this project are that it encourages members of the community to mix with different groups within the community and to form a bond between them. Encouraging and empowering people to try different activities in a leisurely and safe environment. The only draw back is that Community Development takes time, patience and enthusiasm.Disadvantaged communities have to be persuaded to participate and their natural suspicious leads them to hang back until there is something to show. Norman Glass Society Guardian, 20051The childrens centre network is still being expanded, and there will be up to 2,500 childrens centre passim the cou ntry. Centers will be established to provide the most disadvantaged areas with links to local childcare networks and air centre Plus. The ten-year strategy for childcare recommends that more local area based and to ensure that services are more accessible.The Strengths of Local based and community development programs areThe strengths of these projects are-Brings diversity to local areasRaises education within the communityBuilds social capitalPromotes a more healthy lifestyleFacilitates more parents to be able to return to workDevelops individual social skillsEncourages participation of community membersPromotes cohesivenessUses a cigarette up approach as opposed to top downCreates Job opportunitiesAttracts other resourcesHas local government involvementThe Limitations of Local based and community development programs areIt doesnt always reach those that vulnerable and excludedResources limited opportunitiesCan cause discrimination over resourcesFunding limitationsCan be difficul t to evaluate/target and identify objectivesTime consumingCan have funding limitationsThe project was aimed at parents to enable them to urge on their children themselves, this in itself can prove difficult as many different cultures, races and societies have different views on what is considered winning parenting. Some of the more successful local projects seen at Rosehill/Littlemore Childrens Centre have been the parenting courses and Baby G, a group set up specifically to target under 25s with young children and childcare courses. This has brought a divers(a) group from the community together and is still successfully recruiting members that might not have attended the centre for various reasons. Again outreach work has enabled this to happen.In conclusion, local based area projects are as successful so long as participation is encouraged and that the projects are based on the communities needs. Community workers must continue to empower local residents to take part and in par t, own the projects themselves in order for it to be sustainable. The most important part of any project is to reach the more vulnerable members of the local tribe this can be achieved by successful outreach work. The success of any local area based projects depends solely on the community workers personal skills and support from local authorities, along with a good community based knowledge. To be able to continue with all the work at Childrens Centres) I believe the projects need more funding to grow and sustain the important work carried out by these centres. Only with more government funding will they survive and be successful.Bibliographies and Referencingwww.socialexclusion.gov.uk, 3rd November 2008Haralambos and Holborn, 2004, Sociology, Themes and Perspective, Sixth Edition, HarperCollins Publishers Limited.Brown, G., (1999) Speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown MP, at the Sure Start Conference, 7 Jul. 1999, London HM Treasury (online). http//www.hm-treas ury.gov.uk/633.htm November 3rd 2008Glass, N., 2005 Surely some mistake? Society Guardian 5th January, pg1Glass, N., The Guardian, Wednesday January 5 2005, pg 1http//www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrenactreport twentieth October 2008, 10.23amhttp//www.labour.org.uk/early_years 21st October 2008, 10.39amhttp//www.peep.org.uk/section.asp?id=5 20th October 2008, 10.13amImrie, R. and Raco, M. (2003), Urban Renaissance. New Labour, community and urban policy. Bristol, The Policy Press