Introduction:
Provide a clear introduction in which you: a) state that the essay is concerned with the UK government’s social policy since 1997 (when New Labor came to power). Briefly demonstrate your understanding of what social policy is (define it in relation to government activity, not as an academic subject) and apply to the focus of your essay; b – Child Neglect) set out how you will analyse/evaluate policy – state which analytical tools you will be using
If you are using the UNCRC (good idea!), explain why you are doing so.
In order to help address the essay title you must provide some discussion of New Labour’s social investment approach – make sure you refer to the quote in the essay title. As your essay proceeds, you might wish to consider to what extent this social investment approach is being used by the coalition government/current government
Main part of essay:
Make sure you provide a clear structure for your essay. The best way to do this is to use the understanding of the policy cycle to structure your work. For each policy area (i.e. child poverty and child abuse), structure it as follows:
1. Identification of social problem/need – define the issue (1. Poverty)(2 Neglect) (using government definitions where possible), provide statistics (relating to when New Labour came to power) and information on effects. Basically, in this section you need to argue/show why this issue is an important one for the government to address. This section needs to be very succinct as the main focus needs to be on analysing/evaluating policy.
2. Policy proposals – what did the government do to address the problem/need? You must refer to specific policy – this might be, for example, statements by key politicians, written policy documents (such as Green Papers or White Papers), guidance documents, Bills or Acts of parliament. Refer to policy/legislation in date order. With regard to the issue of child abuse, I would expect you to include some discussion/analysis of some of the safeguarding measures introduced under Every Child Matters Act 2004 (e.g. Common Assessment Framework, ContactPoint). You need to refer to policy both under the New Labour government and the coalition government (in power since May 2010).
3. Evaluation of policy and effects (this should be dealt with alongside ‘policy proposals’) – to what extent was the government’s policy on child poverty/child abuse successful e.g. did New Labour meet their targets for reducing child poverty – if not, why not? What progress is being made under the coalition government? Try to update statistics. What were the strengths and weaknesses/criticisms of specific policy and the policy area as a whole?
Conclusion:
Pull together the main points in your essay to arrive at a pertinent conclusion in which you sum up progress in tackling child poverty and child abuse since 1997. What are the threads that run throughout your essay? What does the future hold?
Last Completed Projects
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