Teenage Pregnancies Have Hit a Record Low

Office for National Statistics data shows that the number of teenage pregnancies in England and Wales has fallen to its lowest level since 1969 when records began.

The data shows that the under 18 conception rate is now 24.5 per thousand women compared with 27.9 per thousand the year before.

This is a drop of 13% on the previous year. Pregnancies in under-16s also fell.

At the same time the conception rate among women over 35 has been rising.

Charities Warn That Homelessness Is More Widespread Than Official Figures Show

Rising numbers of people are at risk of homelessness in England, but official data does not show this, according to a study.

Research by charities Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggested "informal" methods used by councils to tackle the problem had masked a 9% rise in cases in 2013-14 - to 280,000 cases.

Official statistics put the number of "accepted homeless" cases at about 52,000 last year, down 3% from 2012-13.

The government claims that the charities' figures were "misleading".

The annual independent study - which drew on a survey of England's 326 councils in 2014 - said the rise in the number of people facing homelessness was in part the result of benefit cuts and sanctions.

It also blamed a "woeful lack of affordable housing" which meant growing numbers of people were having to live away from their area.

Authors said nearly two-thirds of councils thought "headline" homelessness figures no longer reflected local trends because authorities were increasingly reliant on "informal" approaches to homelessness which are recorded separately.

The study combined the official "homelessness acceptances" figure from last year (52,270) with the number of homelessness "prevention and relief" cases (227,800) - where councils had taken steps to tackle the problem.

You can read more about this story on the BBC News website here.

More Children Go Missing From Foster Carers

Ofsted statistics show that there was a large increase in numbers of children going missing from foster care.

Children went missing from foster care on 13,305 occasions in 2013-14 - a 36% rise on the previous year.
Nearly six out of 10 missing cases were from independent fostering agencies, rather than a local authority, which have just under a third of placements.

According to the Ofsted statistics, during the year 2013-14, 4,245 children and young people were reported to have gone missing from foster care - 900 more than in the previous year.

Contact with family or friends was the reason given in nearly half (6,596) the cases. And most of them went missing for less than a day.

However, 528 of these children who did go missing were deemed to be at risk of sexual exploitation, and 431 of the cases were said to be linked to substance misuse.

There was also a big increase last year in foster placements breaking down - up 21% on the previous year to 5,240. Although there has been a change in the way these are counted.

Youth Justice Statistics Released For 2011/12

Youth Justice statistics for 2011 - 2012 have now been released by the Youth Justice Board. They show that the number of children entering the criminal justice system for the first time is falling but that there has been a 17 per cent rise in the number of times restraint was used against children aged 10 to 17 in custody in England and Wales.

The report is available to download here: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/statistics/youth-justice/yjb-stats-2011-12.pdf

Latest Statstics From The Home Office On Arrests, outcomes and stop and searches Great Britain 2011/12 Released

Operation of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent legislation: Arrests, outcomes and stop and searches Great Britain 2011/12 | Home Office

Number Of Children In Care In England Rises

The number of children in the care system in England is rising, official figures show. 

Department for Education data shows the number of children in local authority care rose by 2% from 65,520 last year to 67,050 this year.The figures reveal 28,220 children were taken into care during the year ending 31 March 2012, an increase of 3% from the previous year's figure of 27,500. The data also shows more youngsters were adopted, with 3,450 given a home.

Most affected are 10 to 15-year-olds, with 24,150 currently in care. The main reason for children living apart from their parents is to protect them from abuse or neglect, with 41,790 of those currently in care falling in this category.

Family dysfunction was the next most common reason given for being taken into care, with 9,530 children falling into this category. After this, "family in acute stress" affected 6,000 youngsters. And a total of 3,490 children had absent parents.

The number of babies less than a year old taken into care has also risen, from 3,680 last year to 4,190 this year. The official figures show there has been a steady rise in children being taken into care since 2008, from 59,380 to 67,050 in 2012 - 7,670 more children in total.

The death after months of abuse of Peter Connelly, in north London in 2007, is thought to have contributed to the increase. Social workers in the "Baby P" case were criticised for not removing the 17-month-old from his home sooner, prompting a mood of caution in the profession.

The figures also show that 3,450 looked after children were adopted during the year ending 31 March 2012.  You can read more on the BBC News website here.

Latest British Social Attitudes Released

The latest British Social Attitudes Survey was released today and is now available to read online here: 29th British Social Attitudes Report.

Headlines include a further hardening of attitudes to welfare.

How Much Does A Child Cost in 2012?

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has published a new report on how much it costs to bring up a child with a minimum level of participation in society, as well as catering for their needs in terms of food, clothes and shelter.

The main findings from the report are:

• It costs £143,000 in total to bring up a child to age 18 and meet their minimum needs, which is around £150 a week (averaged for a child across all ages and including childcare costs and housing). (Chapter 5)

•  The basic cost of raising children has risen faster than inflation (CPI) in recent years, meaning that with wages falling behind and benefits being cut, Britain is moving backwards for the prosperity of our children. (Chapter 7)

• Childcare can add as much as £60k to the total cost of childhood. Childcare is one of the factors most responsible for the costs of children’s needs rising faster than inflation. The main state support for childcare costs is through tax credits and it was cut by 12.5% in April 2011. (Chapter 5)

• State support fails to ensure basic physical needs are met, leaving many families lacking sufficient funds for a healthy diet for the whole family and living in unhealthy housing conditions with problems like overcrowding and damp (Chapter 3). The maximum support available only meets between 73% and 94% (depending on family composition) of basic costs for children. (Chapter 6)

• A full-time job on National Minimum Wage is not enough to meet minimum costs for children.  For single parent families, NMW leaves them with 89% of the basic requirement; and for couple families it is just 82% of the basic requirement (this is after benefits and tax credits have been included). (Scorecard and Executive summary)

• Child Benefit meets only 20% of childhood costs on average for couple families and just 18% for single parent families. Child Benefit has been frozen since 2010 and will have lost 10% of its value by 2014. Since the war, universal support with the cost of a child, first through family allowances and then child benefit, has been our national public commitment to all children. This universal arrangement will come to an end next year. (Scorecard and Chapter 6)

• Having children leaves adults on benefits worse off. Additional state support for families with children is lower than a child’s minimum needs, so families face a growing shortfall with each child. Parents react by spending less money on themselves; in some cases parents will even skip meals so that their children don’t go without. If a single parent of three children used his/her adult benefit income to top up the child-related benefits so the minimum needs of the children are met, they would have just £12 a week to meet their own basic needs. (Chapter 6)

• The cost of a child rises as they get older (excluding childcare costs). This is because of increased consumption needs – e.g. more food – and also because people believe children are less able to share a room with younger siblings once they reach adolescence. (Chapter 5)

• Costs are higher for single parents and, since cuts were implemented in 2010, the deterioration in income for single parents is worse than for couple families. A single parent has £107 less than they need and £166 less if they have three children. (Chapter 5)

• Parents have modified their own expectations since the recession with fewer meals out and fewer presents for each other. Parents clearly prioritise children’s needs over their own. All acknowledge that life changes when you have children, you make more sacrifices, eat out less, life is less spontaneous and holidays abroad often come to an end. Parents also have less time available. (Chapter 4)

The full report is available to download on the CPAG website here. 

Women Hold Fewer Than 1/3 Of Top Jobs - BBC Research

Figures compiled by BBC News show that fewer than 1/3 of the UK's most inflential jobs are currently held by women.

Women occupy on average 30.9% of the most senior positions across 11 key sectors analysed by the BBC, including business, politics and policing.The armed forces and judiciary have the fewest women in top posts - 1.3% and 13.2% respectively - while secondary education has the most (36.7%).

Campaign group the Fawcett Society said progress was still too slow.

"Men outnumber women by four to one in Parliament and only a third of local councillors are women," the group's Preethi Sundaram said.

"When we look at the top quarters of power in the political world there are only five women there out of 22… It's quite an appalling fact really."

The European Commission is considering new laws to get more women into the top management jobs. Currently, just one in seven board members at Europe's top firms are women.

You can read more on this story as well as statistics on women in top jobs here: Women hold fewer than one third of top jobs.

Government Reports & Statistics - Week Beginning 16th January 2012

The following new Government Reports & Statistics may be of interest:

• Child rights impact assessment of the Welfare Reform Bill
  Office of the Children‟s Commissioner
  This impact assessment considers the Bill in the light of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the Human Rights Act 1998 and other international human rights obligations. It highlights the following risks as of real concern: An increase in child poverty as a result of the household benefit cap and housing benefit changes, resulting in poor health and educational outcomes for children.
  Published 11 January 2012
  http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_555

• The Good Childhood Report 2012: a review of our children’s well-being. Children's Society.
  Researchers questioned more than 30,000 children and young people aged eight to 16 in the UK. The report identifies six key priorities needed for a happy childhood including the conditions to learn and develop; a positive view of themselves; have enough of what matters; positive relationships with family and friends; a safe and suitable home environment and local area; opportunity to take part in positive activities to thrive. Other findings include: choice and family have the biggest impact on children's happiness; the quality of children's relationships with their families is far more important than the structure of the family that they live in; low well-being increases dramatically with age – doubling from the age of 10 (7%) to the age of 15 (14%).
  Published 12 January 2012
  http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/what-we-do/research/well-being/good-childhood-report-2012

• Cafcass care statistics, December 2011 . There were 795 care applications in December 2011. Care application demand has remained at a very high level. Between April and December 2011, Cafcass received 7,487 new applications. This figure is 10.5% higher when compared to the same period last year. Applications received between May and December this year have been the highest ever recorded by Cafcass for these individual months.
  Published 9 January 2012
  http://www.cafcass.gov.uk/news/2012/december_care_statistics.aspx

• Youth custody data – November 2011
  Ministry of Justice
  Monthly statistics on the population of children and young people in custody within secure children's homes, secure training centres and young offender institutions.
  Published 13 January 2012
  http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/statistics-and-data/youth-justice/custody-data.htm
  
  
  

British Social Attitudes No. 28

The latest British Social Attitudes survey is now available from NatCen. The survey asked over 3,000 people what is was like to live in Britain and how they think Britain is run. Chapters include:

• Childhood
• Child poverty
• NHS
• Housing
• Religion
• School choice
• Higher education

BSA 28 reveals that attitudes have hardened in the wake of the recession, with falling sympathy for the unemployed, lower support for tax rises to fund public services and slipping opposition to private health and schooling.

Some Useful Readings For Level 1 Sociology & Criminology BA Students

A number of you have been asking me about material on crime statistics in the UK. Below are listed some useful electronic materials which you may find useful. You will need to login with your library account to view them off-campus.

• The Economist (2010) 'How broken is Britain?' The Economist, 394(8668), p. 15.
  
• Emsley, C. (2002) 'Chapter 7: The history of crime and crime control institutions', in Maguire, M. et. al. (eds.) The Oxford handbook of criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 203-230.
• MacDonald, Z. (2002) 'Official crime statistics: their use and interpretation', Economic Journal, 112(477), pp. 85-107.
  
• Maguire, M. (2002) 'Chapter 11: Crime statistics', in Maguire, M. et. al. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 203-230.
• Tseloni, A. et.al. (2010) 'Exploring the international decline in crime rates', European Journal of Criminology, 7(5), pp. 375-394.
  

Website of the Week: Justice

The Justice website is a UK Government website aimed at all those working within and reliant upon information produced by the justice system. The site contains many free to download publications and reports including:

• The latest justice related news
• Court, criminal justice and prison statistics
• Research and reports
• Guidance on a wide range of policy areas including freedom on information, human rights, prisons and probation, youth justice and protecting vulnerable adults
• Consultations on reforms & changes to the law