Childhood poverty and social exclusion

Childhood poverty has moved from the periphery to the centre of the policy agenda following New Labour's pledge to end it within twenty years. However, whether the needs and concerns of poor children themselves are being addressed is open to question. The findings raise critical issues for both policy and practice - in particular the finding that children are at great risk of experiencing exclusion within school. School has been a major target in the drive towards reducing child poverty. However, the policy focus has been mainly about literacy standards and exclusion from school. This book shows that poor children are suffering from insufficient access to the economic and material resources necessary for adequate social participation and academic parity.Childhood poverty and social exclusion will be an invaluable teaching aid across a range of academic courses, including social policy, sociology, social work and childhood studies. All those who are interested in developing a more inclusive social and policy framework for understanding childhood issues from a child-centred perspective, including child welfare practitioners and policy makers, will want to read this book.Studies in poverty, inequality and social exclusion seriesSeries Editor: David Gordon, Director, Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research.Poverty, inequality and social exclusion remain the most fundamental problems that humanity faces in the 21st century. This exciting series, published in association with the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol, aims to make cutting-edge poverty related research more widely available. For other titles in this series, please follow the series link from the main catalogue page.

"Ridge's work enters a previously underdeveloped field of poverty-related research, and in doing so makes substantive, theoretical and methodological contributions. This book will be of interest to those involved in the development and evaluation of public policy, researches concerned with policy and poverty, and those involved in education - as well as to anyone wanting to move toward a rich, contextual understanding of how the world is experienced and negotiated by children." Family Matters "The sharp observations of these young citizens on their schooling, on problems in their neighbourhood and on the deficiencies of their leisure opportunities, set an agenda for any practitioner who aspires to tackle family poverty." Community Care "This book is an accessible and informative read for anyone researching, studying and working on poverty and social exclusion... It is a book that deserves to be widely read, and one that demands to be acted upon." International Journal of Social Welfare "... an extremely useful contribution to the literature on poverty. The value of recording and reporting children's experiences in their own words is indisputable." Children, Youth and Environments "... important and timely." Youth & Policy "...a vivid and comprehensive picture of what it is like to grow up poor in Britain today." Journal of Social Policy "This book provides richness and context to debates about childhood poverty, and remedies for it, from the perspectives of children themselves." Sue Middleton, Centre for Research in Social Policy, Loughborough University

Tess Ridge is a Research Fellow at the University of Bath. She has considerable experience in conducting research with children and young people.