The disturbing scenes in London over the last few days bring in to a stark contrast the competing challenges of the immediate, short-term need for social order and the extended, long-term need for social inclusion. There are many thousands of pictures and words that will be written about this London summer. Jonathon Freedland, writing in the Guardian says: The soul…
Tag Archives Welfare
On social work training. 'Degrees in social work are viewed as being "difficult to fail" - a reputation that is unacceptable, a select committee of MPs has said.' From James A: As I wrote several years ago; When I taught on social work courses, on which the majority of other tutors were former social workers, they were often exemplary tutors.…
Inequality and Growth. Joshua Gans has a new paper out with Dan Andrews and Christopher Jencks, on the relationship between inequality and growth. We reach a finding that is pretty standard in this literature – when we restrict the sample to 1960-2000, more inequality seems to be good for growth. However, if the inequality arises from a transfer from the bottom…
Schools That Transform. - Andrew Leigh David Brooks reports on some surprisingly large impacts from a randomised trial of New York “Harlem Children’s Zone” schools. The effects are so big that I find it hard to imagine they’re readily replicable, but it’s tantalizing stuff. The fight against poverty produces great programs but disappointing results. You go visit an inner-city school, job-training program…
An ongoing, recurring and avoidable national disgrace.... Children are among the highest users of a government-funded program for the homeless, a report says. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report shows of the almost 160,000 people who accessed government-funded accommodation last year, 43 per cent were children. The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) is a shared responsibility of…
Some interesting and important work. The Australian Institute of Social Research (AISR) is based at the University of Adelaide and brings together The Centre for Labour Research; The Don Dunstan Foundation; The National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GISCA); The Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU); and The Social Health Unit. The AISR specialises in spatial information,…