The Latest Bulletin

How busy someone is and how productive they are can be two very different things. Being busy can become a vicious circle. We can get so busy and have so many plates to keep spinning that we don’t actually manage to make much headway; we achieve relatively little. We can then become demoralised because we feel we aren’t getting anywhere. When morale goes down energy levels go down too. Less energy makes us less productive. Being less productive means we feel we have to do more, so we become busier, but not necessarily more productive. If we are not careful it can lead into a vicious circle of stress too. If our energy levels are low, but we have a…

Child Rights Partners brings together Unicef UK and local government to put children’s rights at the heart of public services and ensure all children have the same opportunity to flourish. The programme, launched as a three-year pilot in November 2013, is a partnership between Unicef UK and a small number of UK local authorities. With our partners, we are working to embed children’s rights in local authorities’ policy and practice. Our aim is to profoundly change how children’s services are planned and delivered in the UK so that all children and young people experience services that are adaptable, connected and empowering. Together with our partners, we are focusing on services aimed at some of society's most vulnerable children and young…

There is growing evidence that an individual’s relationships – their ‘social capital’ – can help reduce poverty. For disadvantaged people from ethnic minority backgrounds, there is also evidence of a limited but significant relationship between less diverse social networks and poverty. This ‘Solutions’ paper by Ryan Shorthouse at Bright Blue makes four policy recommendations: The receipt of Child Benefit should be conditional upon all parents eligible for the Early Years Free Entitlement when their children are between the ages of three and four (from aged two for the most disadvantaged parents) enrolling their children in quality pre-school education. Sure Start Children’s Centres should deliver key services, such as birth registration and English language classes. OFSTED should take into account in…

Last Saturday saw a very large and enthusiastic gathering of Equality Trust supporters and activists at Inequality Today, our annual conference. They came to see a preview of the beautifully filmed and thought-provoking documentary, The Divide, (produced by Dartmouth Films) which is inspired by The Spirit Level book - and to listen to Professor Mike Savage of the London School of Economics talk about the findings in his new book Social Class in the 21st Century. The afternoon started with The Divide which looks at the lives of people affected by inequality, in both the UK and US, across the income spectrum. It documents the corrosive aspects of living in very unequal societies where the rich are pulling away from the rest…

Bilbo Baggin's great quote about being stretched thin (“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”) reveals a profound truth: Most individuals and organizations complain of not having enough butter. We need more resources, we say, to cover this much territory. We need more (time/money/staff) to get the job done. What happens if instead of always seeking more butter, we find the discipline to cover less bread? ... Click here to read more