Christian Child Care Forum 13 April 2005 Contemporary Understandings of Childhood

1. Christian Child Care Forum 13 April 2005 Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Steve Connor, Director for Children and Young People

2. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children in the UK ‘We want to see a society that is composed of adults, people who can choose and act and change, who can hope, who can make a difference, who can be sorry when they fail, who can empathise, who can continue learning. It does not happen by accident. If we go on producing grown-up infants we can hardly wonder why different sorts of violence and dysfunction persist in our society.’ Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury,speaking at the Citizens Organising Foundation, 11 April 2005

3. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children in the UK • In 2002 there were 6,025,000 boys and 5,755,000 girls under 16 in the UK, a total of 11,780,000 • 88% of British children are white, 4% are black, 3% are of Pakistani/Bangladeshi ethnic origin and 2% are of Indian ethnic origin • In 2001, nearly one in four dependent children under 16 had experienced the divorce of their parents • In 2001, stepfamilies accounted for 8% of families with dependent children in Great Britain. • The Well-being of Children in the UK

4. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children in the UK • Overall government spending on children has grown by 17-19% in real terms between 1996/7 and 2001/2, more than the growth in expenditure on pensioners and working adults • Spending on poor children (those in families receiving either Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance) is, on average, twice as high as on non-poor children • Following Tony Blair’s 1999 pledge, child poverty rates have fallen and the Government will meet its objective to reduce child poverty by a quarter in five years from a 1998/9 base • The appointment of Children’s Commissioners in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and most recently England, and of a Minister for Children at the DfES potentially puts children at the heart of the government

5. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure ‘Plainly we live at a time when children are in the news. Both as victims and perpetrators of crime they tap into a national anger, panic and perhaps despair which is otherwise unvoiced. Their stories produce moral outrage, their scholastic achievements and failures make lead headlines on the national news. When they are central figures in events reported in the media they arouse potent anxieties about the health of society as a whole: they are our future – what will become of us?’ Thomas Coram Research Unit

6. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure ‘…a child-centred system which admits no failure and tells people they can all be pop stars, High Court judges, brilliant TV personalities or even…heads of state without putting in the necessary effort or having natural abilities.’ Prince Charles, in a private memo publicised November 2004

7. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure ‘Yobs and hooligans must be made to once more ‘fear the police’ if the nation’s growing problem with teenage violence is to be tackled…‘It’s time to give the yobs a dose of the fear they’ve been dishing out to the rest of us.’ Michael Howard, Leader of the Conservative Party, 31 March 2005

8. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure ‘Young people are a rich and vital resource this country needs to harness and engage with, not a rising tide of pestilence that needs to be tagged, controlled, restricted and demonised’ Janet Street-Porter, The Independent, 7 April 2005

9. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure ‘ “A paediatrician said, ‘What you don’t understand, Jamie, is that if the things I see on the inside were on the outside, it would be classed as child abuse’.” The doctor showed Oliver x-rays of a child whose intestines were so badly blocked that he had not been to the loo in weeks. “The doctor said, ‘If you change his diet I won’t have to see him any more. This is the first generation of kids who will die before their parents’.” And their shockingly bad diet is to blame.’ Jamie Oliver interviewed in The Sunday Times, 20 February 2005

10. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure ‘Dr Williams said there was a danger of rushing children through childhood, and that there needed to be a proper regime for the regulation of advertising aimed at children, to prevent the consumerisation and sexualisation of childhood.’ Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, reported in The Guardian, 12 April 2005

11. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure • Adolescent emotional problems (such as depression and anxiety) have increased for both boys and girls since the mid 1980s • Over a twenty-five year study period, non-violent adolescent conduct problems such as lying, stealing and disobedience showed a continuous rise for both boys and girls • Time Trends in Adolescent Well-being, The Nuffield Foundation, 2004 • UK-wide, older children experience more mental health problems than younger children; boys are more likely to experience conduct disorders and girls are more likely to worry and suffer from depression • The Well-being of Children in the UK

12. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure • More than three quarters (78%) of parents say their children are under far greater pressure than they were when they were growing up. • 17% said that their children were prone to panic attacks and depression • One in 20 (5%) of parents worry that their child is at risk of developing an eating disorder as a result of today’s pressures. Other worries also include not wanting to go to school (33%), nervous habits such as nail biting (16%) and unexplained stomach upsets (11%) • Norwich Union Healthcare, ‘Growing Pains’, 2004

13. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure • At any one time there are approximately 3,000 young people under 18 locked up in England and Wales. The majority of these children show signs of mental health disorders. • In 2003-4, 3,337 children officially recognised as vulnerable entered prison service custody. • Existing government measures to relieve poverty have only reached 600,000 children; 3.6 million children remain in poverty • Room for Improvement : A Manifesto for Children, 2005

14. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood Children under pressure ‘Childhood has been infected by a highly supervised techno-managerialism loaded with targets and statistics – developmental outcomes, tests, league tables – and perhaps we need to put back centre stage an old dream: happy children. What is just as important to a child’s life chances as a clutch of exam certificates is their emotional resilience to deal with what life will throw at them. It’s a troubling possibility that our teenagers are like the canaries they used to take down the mines to detect gas. Their acting-up is acting out a much bigger problem.’ Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 13 September 2004, commenting on The Nuffield Foundation study

15. Contemporary Understandings of Childhood The Good Childhood • In response to these concerns The Children’s Society is planning an inquiry into what makes a good childhood in the UK in the 21st century • We want to make sure that we listen to children and young people, rather than basing our work on adult perceptions of what children need. • We’ve begun by asking 1,000 children and young people what are the most important things that make for a good childhood. The initial results suggest that it’s friends (17%), parents (16%), family (15%), fun (10%) (NOP Young Generation Omnibus, March 2005) • We’ll be announcing more in the coming months

16. Christian Child Care Forum 13 April 2005