New Labor and Social Exclusion
New Labour and Social Exclusion Did New Labour end social exclusion or did they make matters worse?
New Labour did try to do their bit to end social exclusion, or they forced people into unsuitable roles in a bid to end social exclusion, or they failed to end social exclusion, depending on whom you talk to and what side of the fence they sit on. It could be said that prior to 1997 the term 'social exclusion' was rarely, if ever, used when discussing social policy in the UK. Under the lead of Tony Blair the ‘New Labour’ government implemented a range of new policies which at the time fell into line with a number of social democratic ideals. The new measures introduced were aimed at ending what they termed as social exclusion; in order to implement change they introduced a number of policies which included Education, Housing and ‘welfare’ two of their biggest ideas of the time being ‘Sure Start’, and of course ‘New Deal’ for lone parents. The Sure Start venture had similarities to projects being run in both Canada and Australia, which were both seen as rather successful.
Sure Start was of course a venture set up to help low income and single parent families across the UK. Within a few short months of New Labour gaining power, Sure start centres sprung up across the country, they offered child care (at reasonable rates) for some low income families to encourage mothers to go out to work, free and greatly reduced child care was offered to ‘lone parents’ as part of the back to work deal being crafted by the government to help lower unemployment stats. Sure start offered a range of services including parenting classes, after school clubs and so forth. However the actual take up of these services from lone parents (the targeted user) was not what had been expected. Many places went to middle class families who used the service because it offered reduced rates of childcare. This in turn led to a shortfall of places needed by single parent families often without the
New Labour did try to do their bit to end social exclusion, or they forced people into unsuitable roles in a bid to end social exclusion, or they failed to end social exclusion, depending on whom you talk to and what side of the fence they sit on. It could be said that prior to 1997 the term 'social exclusion' was rarely, if ever, used when discussing social policy in the UK. Under the lead of Tony Blair the ‘New Labour’ government implemented a range of new policies which at the time fell into line with a number of social democratic ideals. The new measures introduced were aimed at ending what they termed as social exclusion; in order to implement change they introduced a number of policies which included Education, Housing and ‘welfare’ two of their biggest ideas of the time being ‘Sure Start’, and of course ‘New Deal’ for lone parents. The Sure Start venture had similarities to projects being run in both Canada and Australia, which were both seen as rather successful.
Sure Start was of course a venture set up to help low income and single parent families across the UK. Within a few short months of New Labour gaining power, Sure start centres sprung up across the country, they offered child care (at reasonable rates) for some low income families to encourage mothers to go out to work, free and greatly reduced child care was offered to ‘lone parents’ as part of the back to work deal being crafted by the government to help lower unemployment stats. Sure start offered a range of services including parenting classes, after school clubs and so forth. However the actual take up of these services from lone parents (the targeted user) was not what had been expected. Many places went to middle class families who used the service because it offered reduced rates of childcare. This in turn led to a shortfall of places needed by single parent families often without the