Search Results

CASEpaper

Unseen Children: The hidden lives of children in families seeking asylum in the UK

Ilona Pinter

Children seeking asylum with their families in the UK face significant challenges and marginalisation, yet they are rarely acknowledged in public and policy discourses and in publicly available data. This working paper s...Read more...

CASEpaper

Inequalities in provision for primary children with special educational needs and / or disabilities (SEND) by local area deprivation

Tammy Campbell

This paper explores how area deprivation-level is related to primary school children’s chances of: a) being allocated statutory support for special educational needs and / or disabilities (SEND) through an Education, Hea...Read more...

Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes Research Paper

Trends in Adolescent Disadvantage: Policy and Outcomes for Young People under Labour, the Coalition, and the Conservatives (1997 to 2019)

Moira Wallace

Over the last two decades, England has seen two enormous waves of change in the government’s approach to children and young people. The first wave of change was conducted by the 1997-2010 Labour government and involved s...Read more...

CASEpaper

Making Work Pay? The labour market effects of capping child benefits in larger families

Mary Reader, Kate Andersen, Ruth Patrick, Aaron Reeves and Kitty Stewart

Child benefits are typically paid on a per-child basis, without restrictions on family size. In this paper we generate unique evidence on the effects of capping child benefits by family size by examining the introduction...Read more...

CASEpaper

The sins of the parents: Conceptualising adult-oriented reforms to family policy

Kitty Stewart, Ruth Patrick and Aaron Reeves

A core element of a welfare state is the support that is provided to families with children, in recognition of the additional needs that dependent children create. Variation in the design, generosity and implementation o...Read more...

CASEreport

CASE Annual Report 2022

We are delighted to share with you our annual report for 2022 which this year is a bumper edition. In September we celebrated our 25th birthday with a special event to mark the occasion and this year’s annual report is ...Read more...

Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes Research Paper

Going backwards? The slowdown, stalling and reversal of progress in reducing child poverty in Britain during the second decade of the 21st century, and the groups of children that were affected.

Polly Vizard, Polina Obolenskaya and Kritty Treebhoohun

This paper has been written as part of the Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes (SPDO) research programme and provides an in-depth assessment of the slowdown, stalling and reversal of progress in reducing child po...Read more...

SPDO Knowledge Exchange Brief

Layers of engagement: learning from the Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes research programme public engagement exercise

Tania Burchardt, Bert Provan and Kerris Cooper

The purpose of this note is to share with the research community the lessons we feel we have learned from a public engagement exercise that we undertook, in collaboration with Sense about Science, as part of the Social P...Read more...

CASEpaper

Living arrangements, intra-household inequality and children’s deprivation: Evidence from EU-SILC

Eleni Karagiannaki and Tania Burchardt

Evidence from the 2014 EU-SILC indicates that a non-negligible proportion of children in Europe live in multi-family households. Leaving aside more complex household types, around 4% of children live with their grandpare...Read more...

CASEpaper

The two-child limit & ‘choices’ over family size: When policy presentation collides with lived experiences

Kate Andersen and Ruth Patrick

The two-child limit restricts the child element in Universal Credit and Tax Credits to two children in a household (for children born after April 2017). One objective of the two-child limit is to influence the fertility ...Read more...

CASEbrief

Children and Families Seeking Asylum in the UK

Ilona Pinter

This CASEBrief provides a summary of new administrative data on children and families seeking asylum in the UK and those receiving support from the Home Office under the Asylum Support system. Much of the recent debate o...Read more...

CASEpaper

A time of need: Exploring the changing poverty risk facing larger families in the UK

Kitty Stewart, Aaron Reeves and Ruth Patrick

Child poverty in the UK has seen rapid change over the last two decades, broadly falling from the late 1990s until 2012/13 and rising since then. As a result, child poverty rates converged with rates of poverty for worki...Read more...

CASEpaper

The birthweight effects of universal child benefits in pregnancy: quasi-experimental evidence from England and Wales

Mary Reader

Over a decade ago, in April 2009, the UK Labour government introduced the Health in Pregnancy Grant (HPG), a cash transfer of the equivalent of child benefit over the third trimester (£190) as a lump sum to all pregnant ...Read more...

Social Policies and Distributional Outcomes Overview Paper

The Conservative Governments' Record on Social Policy from May 2015 to pre-COVID 2020: Policies, Spending and Outcomes

This overview report provides an assessment of social policy developments under the three Conservative Governments that were in power between May 2015 and the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The report provid...Read more...

CASEbrief

COVID-19: has the pandemic affected relationships between children and their non-resident parents?

Caroline Bryson and Stephen McKay

The well-being and outcomes of children living in separated families are associated with the quality of their relationship with their non-resident parent, and child maintenance provided by that parent. It is therefore im...Read more...

CASEbrief

Inequalities in the experience of early education in England: Access, peer groups and transitions

Tammy Campbell, Ludovica Gambaro and Kitty Stewart

There are long-standing disparities in child development between children from different backgrounds. Progress in narrowing gaps is slow and differences remain wide, especially by household income. This Nuffield Found...Read more...

Journal Article

Demography:

IncomeRelated Gaps in Early Child Cognitive Development: Why Are They Larger in the US Compared to the UK, Australia and Canada?

Bruce Bradbury, Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook

Previous research has documented significantly larger income-related gaps in children's early cognitive development in the United States than in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. In this study, we investigate th...Read more...

Journal Article

Child Indicators Research:

Child Poverty Amongst Young Carers in the UK: Prevalence and Trends in the Wake of the Financial Crisis, Economic Downturn and Onset of Austerity

Polly Vizard, Polina Obolenskaya and Tania Burchardt

The article provides the first estimates of prevalence and trends in child poverty amongst young carers aged 5–19 in the UK using specialized income data from the Family Resources Survey / the Households Below Average In...Read more...

CASEpaper

Non-resident parents: Why are they hard to capture in surveys and what can we do about it?

Caroline Bryson and Stephen McKay

The under-representation of non-resident parents in surveys has long hindered research on family separation, leaving key evidence gaps for those making policy and practice decisions related to separating and separated fa...Read more...

CASEpaper

Does Part-Time Mothering Help Get a Job? The Role of Shared Custody in Women’s Employment

Carole Bonnet, Bertrand Garbinti and Anne Solaz

Though shared custody arrangements after divorce are more and more frequent in many countries, little is known about their economic consequences for parents. By relaxing family time constraints, does shared custody help ...Read more...

CASEreport

Child poverty and multidimensional disadvantage: Tackling "data exclusion" and extending the evidence base on "missing" and "invisible" children (Overview report)

Tania Burchardt, Polly Vizard, Polina Obolenskaya, Isabel Shutes and Mario Battaglini

This report provides an overview of the findings from the Nuffield Foundation research project, ‘Multidimensional child poverty and disadvantage: tackling “data exclusion” and extending the evidence base on “missing” a...Read more...

CASEpaper

Does Money Affect Children's Outcomes? An update

Kerris Cooper and Kitty Stewart

This report provides an update to Does Money Affect Children’s Outcomes?: A Systematic Review, published in October 2013. Using systematic search approaches, we review the literature examining the relationship between ho...Read more...

CASEpaper

How do experts think child poverty should be measured in the UK? An analysis of the Coalition Government’s consultation on child poverty measurement 2012-13

Kitty Stewart and Nick Roberts

This paper examines responses to a 2012-13 government consultation on child poverty measurement. It explores what these responses tell us about attitudes towards the child poverty indicators in the Child Poverty Act 2010...Read more...

Book

Social Policy in a Cold Climate: policies and their consequences since the crisis

Edited by Ruth Lupton, Tania Burchardt, John Hills, Kitty Stewart and Polly Vizard

A new book published by Policy Press offers a data-rich, evidence-based analysis of the impact government policies from 2007/08 to 2015 have had on inequality and on the delivery of services such as health, education...Read more...

Special or Commissioned Report

Research Report for the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission:

Downward mobility, opportunity hoarding and the ‘glass floor’

Abigail McKnight

Read more...

CASEpaper

Parenting and post-separation contact: what are the links?

Tina Haux, Lucinda Platt and Rachel Rosenberg

High rates of parental separation and the extent to which non-resident fathers lose contact with their child have led to concerns about the involvement of fathers in their children’s lives. In this paper, we draw on a na...Read more...

SPCC Working Paper

The Coalition's Record on Under Fives 2010-2015

Kitty Stewart

The Government's strategy for improving social mobility emphasised the importance of early childhood. Against a backdrop of tightening austerity, what happened in practice to children's services, family incomes and early...Read more...

CASEpaper

Does early centre-based care have an impact on child cognitive and socio-emotional development? Evidence from Chile

Marigen Narea

Worldwide, non-maternal child care during the first years of life has gradually become more prevalent. However, there is little evidence for Chile about the benefit of early attendance at centre-based care—especially uni...Read more...

CASEpaper

Labour's Record on the Under Fives: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 1997-2010

Kitty Stewart

When Labour came to power in 1997 it made commitments to reduce poverty and improve children’s health, education and wider life chances. Early childhood was considered central to the strategy, and considerable resources ...Read more...

CASEreport

Does money affect children's outcomes?

Kerris Cooper and Kitty Stewart

Children in low-income households do less well than their better-off peers on many outcomes in life, such as education or health, simply because they are poorer. While a parent's level of education, attitude towards brin...Read more...

CASEpaper

Labour's Record on Cash Transfers, Poverty, Inequality and the Lifecycle 1997 - 2010

John Hills

Cash transfers (benefits and tax credits) are crucial to the way that inequalities develop over time. This paper looks at how Labour’s aims, policies and achievements on poverty and inequality related to its reforms of a...Read more...

SPCC Working Paper

Labour's Record on the Under Fives: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 1997 - 2010

Kitty Stewart

When Labour came to power in 1997 it made commitments to reduce poverty and improve children’s health, education and wider life chances. How far did it act on these commitments, at what cost, and with what impact?...Read more...

CASEpaper

A question of quality: Do children from disadvantaged backgrounds receive lower quality early years education and care in England?

Ludovica Gambaro, Kitty Stewart and Jane Waldfogel

This paper examines how the quality of formal early childhood education and care is associated with children’s background. By using different indicators of quality, the research also explored how the relationship varies ...Read more...

CASEbrief

Equal access to high quality early education and care? Evidence from England and lessons from other countries

Ludovica Gambaro, Kitty Stewart and Jane Waldfogel

Read more...

CASEpaper

Understanding the relationship between parental income and multiple child outcomes: A decomposition analysis

Paul Gregg, Carol Propper and Elizabeth Washbrook

In this paper we explore the association between family income and children’s cognitive ability (IQ and school performance), socio-emotional outcomes (self esteem, locus of control and behavioural problems) and physical ...Read more...

CASEpaper

Freedom to be a Child: Commercial Pressures on Children

David Piachaud

Children’s lives have been transformed over the past century. Family incomes have increased, children lead more solitary lives, attitudes to childhood have changed, new products have been developed and commercial pressur...Read more...

CASEpaper

Welfare Reforms and Child Well-Being in the US and UK

Jane Waldfogel

This paper examines the effects of recent welfare reforms in the US and UK on the well-being of children in low-income families, looking specifically at the effects on poverty, family expenditures, and child health and d...Read more...

CASEpaper

Socio-Economic Status and Child Behaviour: Evidence from a contemporary UK cohort

Carol Propper and John A. Rigg

This paper examines whether and how socio-economic status is associated with children’s behavioural development in today’s children. Using a large cohort of English children born in the early 1990s we find significant so...Read more...

CASEpaper

Child Support Awards in Britain: An analysis of data from the Families and Children Study

Stephen Morris

This paper examines the extent to which mothers that care for children where the father is non-resident have an award or agreement for child support in place. Data from the Families and Children Study are used to explore...Read more...

CASEpaper

Work-Life Balance in a Low-Income Neighbourhood

Hartley Dean and Alice Coulter

‘Work-life balance’ generally refers to how people may combine paid employment with family responsibilities. The UK government’s attempts to promote work-life balance are connected to wider concerns to maximise labour-fo...Read more...

CASEpaper

Health Supplier Quality and the Distribution of Child Health

Carol Propper, John A. Rigg and Simon Burgess

There is emerging evidence to suggest that initial differentials between the health of poor and more affluent children in the UK do not widen over early childhood. One reason may be that through the universal public fund...Read more...

CASEpaper

Expenditure Patterns Post-Welfare Reform in the UK: Are low-income families starting to catch up?

Paul Gregg, Jane Waldfogel and Elizabeth Washbrook

In this paper we provide evidence on how the UK government’s welfare reforms since 1998 have affected the material well-being of children in low-income families. We examine changes in expenditure patterns and ownership o...Read more...

CASEpaper

Parental Investment in Childhood and Later Adult Well-Being: Can More Involved Parents Offset the Effects of Socioeconomic Disadvantage?

Darcy Hango

Parental involvement in their children’s lives can have a lasting impact on well-being. More involved parents convey to their children that they are interested in their development, and this in turn signals to the child ...Read more...

CASEpaper

Teenage Expectations and Desires about Family Formation in the United States

Robert D. Plotnick

Using data collected in 2000 on a racially and ethnically diverse sample of high school seniors (typically 17-18 years old), this study analyzes teenagers’ expectations and desires about marriage, having children, and be...Read more...

CASEpaper

Social Mobility, Life Chances, and the Early Years

Jane Waldfogel

It is widely agreed that the early years are a particularly important time for efforts to increase social mobility, because a good deal of inequality is already apparent by the time children start school, and because chi...Read more...

CASEpaper

The Impact of Low Income on Child Health: Evidence from a Birth Cohort Study

Simon Burgess, Carol Propper and John A. Rigg

There is a growing literature that shows that higher family income is associated with better health for children. Wealthier parents may have more advantaged children because they have more income to buy health care or be...Read more...

CASEpaper

Social Exclusion and Children: A European view for a US debate

John Micklewright

The concept of social exclusion has been widely debated in Europe but its application to children has seen relatively little discussion. What could be meant by exclusion of children is the first main theme of the paper. ...Read more...

CASEpaper

How Effective is the British Government's Attempt to Reduce Child Poverty?

David Piachaud and Holly Sutherland

The new Labour Government in Britain has made the reduction of child poverty one of its central objectives. This paper describes the specific initiatives involved in Labour's approach and weighs them up in terms of their...Read more...

CASEpaper

Investing in Children: What do we know? What should we do?

Sheldon Danziger and Jane Waldfogel

In 1998, a conference brought together US psychologists, economists, sociologists, demographers, political scientists, social workers, and medical doctors, to review what we know about the processes that affect child dev...Read more...

CASEpaper

The Family Gap in Pay: Evidence from Seven Industrialised Countries

Susan Harkness and Jane Waldfogel

In this paper we use microdata on employment and earnings from a variety of industrialised countries to investigate the family gap in pay - the differential in hourly wages between women with children and women without c...Read more...

CASEpaper

Early Childhood Interventions and Outcomes (summarised in CASEreport 5, 'Persistent Poverty and Lifetime Inequality')

Jane Waldfogel

Recent advances in brain research have provided new evidence that early experience matters and have greatly increased interest in the effects of early childhood interventions on outcomes for children. This paper reviews ...Read more...

CASEpaper

Fathers under Fire: The Revolution in Child Support Enforcement in the USA (This CASEpaper is a summary of the book by the same title and authors, published by the Russel Sage Foundation, 1998)

Irwin Garfinkel, Sara Mclanahan, Daniel Meyer and Judith Seltzer

In the shadow of rising divorce and non-marital birth rates, nearly two-thirds of all American children today will live apart from at least one of their parents, usually the father. Clearly this astonishing proportion of...Read more...

CASEpaper

The Legacy of Parental Divorce: Social, economic and demographic experiences in adulthood

Kathleen E Kiernan

This study addresses three questions. Firstly, to what extent does divorce during childhood have long-term consequences for the educational attainment, economic situation, partnership formation and dissolution, and paren...Read more...