with children, for children, with you

With children, for children, with you

The Good Childhood Shaping the Future

The Good Childhood

Evidence from children and young people

UNICEF Report Card 7

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Media coverage

Source: MORI 2008

media coverage

violence and crime

Trends in percentage of 11-16 year-olds self-reported offending: MORI 2006

violence and crime

Trends in disposals of 11-16 year-olds : YJB 2008

education and parenting

accident

accident

abuse and neglect

Source: Innocenti Report Card 5, 2003

5 year period 1971-75

5 year period 2000-05

Childhood deaths from maltreatment, abuse,

homicide

abuse and neglect

Risk: by age

Risk: by household income

lifestyle

lifestyle

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Children as a proportion of total UK population

05

1015

2025

3035

40

%

Dominant trendsdominant trends: demographic

dominant trends: family

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Dominant trends

Distribution of families

by household

Source ONS 2008

dominant trends: household

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Dominant trends

Distribution of children by household income

0

5

10

15

20

Income band - higest-lowest

2001 1951

dominant trends: poverty

dominant trends: disadvatage

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

White

Mix

ed

India

n

Pakis

tani

Bangla

deshi

Oth

er A

sia

n

Bla

ck C

arrib

ean

Bla

ck A

frica

Oth

er B

lack

Chin

ese

Oth

er

Families with dependent children as a total of all families by ethnic group (ONS 2001)

dominant trends: diversity

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The task of The Good Childhood Inquiry panel was to produce an evidence-based report that can help to improve the lives of children and young people in the UK today. It considered:

• What are conditions for a good childhood?

• What obstacles exist to those conditions today?

• What changes could be made which on the basis of evidence would be likely to improve things?

These may be changes in the behaviour of parents, teachers, government, voluntary sector or faith organisations, or in society at large.

The panels findings were published on 5th February 2009 in A Good Childhood: Searching for Values in a Competitive Age

the task

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Patron

The Right Revd Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Chair

Professor Judith Dunn, Professor of Developmental Psychology Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London

Panel Members

Professor Sir Albert Aynsley-Green, Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Shami Chakrabarti, Jim Davis, Professor Philip Graham, Professor Kathleen Kiernan, Professor Lord Richard Layard, Dr Barbara Maughan, Dr Stephen Scott, Bishop Tim Stevens, Professor Kathy Sylva

the panel

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Call for evidence

‘my life’ postcards and microsite www.mylife.uk.com

Oral evidence sessions at inquiry panel meetings

Partnership with CBBC Newsround

60 focus groups with children and young people nationwide

National survey (The Children’s Society and the University of York)

how?

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What children and young

people told us

Environment

Self

Health - physical, mental, emotionalLifestyle - leisure, fun, balance of time

Values and attitudesLearning and growth

Perceptions of the future

Safety

Freedom

Relationships

Love

‘Love and care by the people they want to love and care for them & an easy life’

Support

‘Someone to talk to and someone to lisene’

Fairness

‘Having choices, being treated fairly. Children getting heard’

Respect

‘being treated right by adults…’

Environment

Self

Health - physical, mental, emotionalLifestyle - leisure, fun, balance of time

Values and attitudesLearning and growth

Perceptions of the future

Safety

Freedom

Relationships

Respect

‘understanding parents, friends, people to speak to when in trouble, respect’

LOVE support fairness respect

Love

‘a home and freinds that love you and care about you’

Support

‘having family and friends to turn to if you are upset’

Fairness

‘parents allowing them to do stuff with there friends, but saying that, being strict as well’

Environment

Self

Health - physical, mental, emotionalLifestyle - leisure, fun, balance of time

Values and attitudesLearning and growth

Perceptions of the future

Safety

Freedom

Relationships

LOVE support fairness respect

Lack of love and care

‘having a nasty mum or dad. Having a really poor family’

Bullying

‘Being bullied an scared of life, to have nowhere to go where you feel safe, to not have anyone who understands

them or they can talk to’

Peer pressure

‘If there friends are bad they might be forced to do something they don’t want to just to impress their friends’

Lack of respect

‘teachers are nobheads with no respect. They don’t lisen’.

RelationshipsLove and care

SupportFairnessRespect

Environment

School

‘‘support from teachers who believe you can do well’

‘I play with my friends at school’

Home

‘A secure and safe home with family and friends’

Money

Having close friens, a loving family, a nice home and enough money..

Local area

‘places to have fun and places to socialise’

Church

‘nice vicer, nice people’

RelationshipsLove and care

SupportFairnessRespect

EnvironmentMoneyHome SchoolChurchLocal area/outdoorsNational and local

Societal attitudes

‘Young people get blaimed for Britains ‘rising crime’ making people scared of us’

School

‘A rubbish school that doesn’t care’

Local area

‘‘Adults don’t want you to play there – they are being unsociable to us’

Home

‘Not having nowhere to go and then being moaned at’.

Money

‘there’s nowhere safe to go if you got no money’

Church

‘‘we should be aloud to do more things and not just sit there.

Relationships EnvironmentLove and care

SupportFairnessRespect

MoneyHome School

Local area/outdoorsNational and local

Self

Health – physical/mental/emotional

‘less stress, less pressure, social life’

Lifestyle – leisure and fun

Enough free time to relax or do stuff with your mates

Values and attitudes

‘live life as if its your last day and get on with others’

Learning and growing

‘growing up and learning and taking responsibility

Perceptions of the future

‘get good grades, get a good job and get money’

Relationships Environment

Self

Love and careSupportFairnessRespect

MoneyHome School

Local area/outdoorsNational and local

Health - physical, mental, emotionalLifestyle - leisure, fun, balance of time

Values and attitudesLearning and growth

Perceptions of the future

Safety

Freedom

Within the family

‘a secure and safe atmosphere with a family that care about you’

Within friendships

‘stop spitful frends and bullies’

In school

‘a school without bullies and chavs outside

In the local area

‘a good and safe environment, a place to go and play

Societal attitudes

‘To be able to socialise and not be discriminated against just because we are young. We all aren not thugs and vandals’

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•The quality of children’s relationship with others

Love

‘Love and care by the people they want to love and care for them & an easy life’

Respect

‘understanding parents, people to speak to when in trouble, respect’

Support

‘Someone to talk to and someone to lisene’

Fairness

‘Having choices, being treated fairly. Children getting heard’

cross-cutting themes

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cross-cutting themes

•Safety, security and protection

Within the family

‘a secure and safe atmosphere with a family that care about you’

Within friendships

‘being bullied and scared of life and have nowehere to go and feel safe’

Within the their local communities

‘not having to fear druggies drunks gangs and kiddie fiddlers’

cross-cutting themes

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cross-cutting themes

•FreedomIn a general sense

‘let the enjoy their lives and make their own decisions, let them make their own mistakes so they can learn from them’

Being free from certain restrictions within the family or in society

‘to be able to go out with mates’

‘age restrictions and other young people stopping free will’

Freedom from pressure

‘too much pressure, not enough free time’

A recognition that there is a need for limits to freedom

‘be able to be free and still have good discipline and feel safe and secure.’

cross-cutting themes

Relationships Environment

Self

Love and careSupportFairnessRespect

MoneyHome School

Local area/outdoorsNational and local

Health - physical, mental, emotionalLifestyle - leisure, fun, balance of time

Values and attitudesLearning and growth

Perceptions of the future

‘people think we are all the same e.g. a teenager might have been rude to someone, elderly, person etc. So they think we are all like that and then be rude to other teenagers’

‘Equality and respect from adults e.g. freedom to go out with our friends’

‘Give them opertunitys and things to do’

‘you can be free in the choices we make and still have have good discipline and feel safe and secure’

‘Less stress, more well respected, a social life’

‘Some parents are soo overprotective because they stereo type the world and that effects their children because they won’t be aloud to do things because parents are shit scared paranoid people’

cross-cutting themes