Skip over main navigation
  • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
Children England

A society that has children at heart is a better society for everyone. If you agree:

Join Us Donate
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
 
  
4in10 logo - 2021
  • Twitter
Menu
  • About us
    • Who we are
      • Staff
      • Trustees
      • Our members
    • How we work
    • Join us
  • England's Children
  • Campaigning
    • Towards a ChildFair State
    • Don't take child protection for granted
    • The Declaration of Interdependence
    • Open To All
    • Children at Heart
    • Grants for Good
  • Policy and practice
    • Reports and research
    • Resources for practice
    • The ChildFair State Inquiry
  • Debate
    • News
    • Members' Views
    • Kathy Evans, Chief Executive
    • Opinion
    • Care Commissioning
    • Outlook
    • Make the Most of Monday
  • Contact us
  • Covid-19 updates
  • Events
  • Admin
    • Log in
  • Basket: (0 items)
  • The ChildFair State Inquiry
  1. Campaigning
  2. Towards a ChildFair State

The ChildFair State Inquiry

In October 2019 Children England, Leaders Unlocked and 26 young people passionate about the welfare state gathered for the first time to start the youth-led ChildFair State Inquiry. Our aim was to re-design the welfare state with children and young people's needs at its heart.

We supported the young people to design and conduct their own research into children and young people's experience of state provision such as schools, hospitals and benefits. Then we helped them build a vision for how these support systems could be improved to respond better to what children and young people had told us they want.

The arrival of the pandemic and lockdown in March 2020, just after our Young Leaders had started their research, changed our plans somewhat, but it didn't stop the Young Leaders completing their inquiry! In fact they felt it was more important and urgent than ever.

Lauren, one of the Young Leaders, said:

Through the universal nature of this virus it is putting a strain on all our institutions and testing our country. However, through this it is highlighting what a society needs to function. Namely a strong universal healthcare system, strong communities to support those in need, strong social institutions such as schools which can adapt their support through challenging times... A lot of people are comparing our situation to the war and out of the war came Beveridge's welfare state. An example of the shift that this is already causing is the PM promising people 80% of their income up to a cap which is a clear move to UBI*. Basically... we should use the time to come with a clear vision for when we are out the other side because I think that would be the perfect time for implementation.

*UBI means Universal Basic Income

 

What the Inquiry has done so far

The Young Leaders have completed their research, analysed their findings and proposed new values and ways of organising services that respond to children and young people's needs. It's not over yet! We're continuing to work with them on what their ideas mean for individual services and areas, and how we can share and develop their ideas with all the other people who are interested in improving the welfare state. The Young Leaders will be launching an exciting new resource to make their visions interactive soon. But we now have a few ways you can see their work so far.

If you'd like to read about it in one big set of slides, scroll down to the embedded powerpoint and click through at your own pace. That includes the origins, process, main findings and emerging visions of the Inquiry.

If you'd rather see the Young Leaders describe it, watch this 20-minute clip of them presenting the Inquiry to our trustees:

 If you'd like to explore the Inquiry so far in more manageable chunks, have a click through to some individual chapters:

  1. The origins of the Inquiry - why did we want to re-imagine the welfare state, including the whole of housing, education, social security, health and neighbourhood-level issues?
  2. The process - who are our Young Leaders and how did they do their research into other young people's experience and hopes for the welfare state?
  3. The findings - what were their main findings as they spoke to 9 - 21 year olds about housing, school and so much more?
  4. Young people's emerging visions for a new, ChildFair welfare state - what ideas for change have the Young Leaders come up with?


Background

Children England is leading an inquiry into what the welfare state would look like if it recognised and supported all children's need for home, safety, love, health and purpose (a paraphrasing of Maslow's five needs).

ChildFair State tree diagram

The diagram above shows how we see the 'branches' of the welfare state informed by a child-centred version of Maslow's five needs, and fed by the 'roots' of a sustainable economy and environment, and authentic democracy and human rights.

Our inquiry will involve testing the branches of the current welfare state to see how well they deliver on children's need for home, safety and security, love and belonging, health, and purpose - and how new policies and practices could be designed and structured to enable them to do this better. There are of course other branches of the welfare state (for instance childcare) that don't affect children's lives as comprehensively, and we're prepared to include any other branches that become important or even to invent any that become necessary! We've used 'neighbourhoods' to conceptualise the physical spaces where people live, work and play (as opposed to communities of people, which might not be geographically specific) as well as environmental factors such as air quality.

We believe the welfare state - in all its provisions - should holistically support the needs of ALL children, irrespective of their background, history or immigration status. 

What does each of Maslow's five needs mean for people today?

HOME means shelter but also:

  • Warmth
  • Food
  • Clean air
  • A sustainable planet

SAFETY and SECURITY mean safety from violence and war but also:

  • Protection from injustice (and access to justice and redress)
  • Protection from abuse and discrimination
  • Being able to count on the things you need every day
  • Security of employment and income
  • Security of housing and tenancy

LOVE and BELONGING mean having a caring family around you (whoever it's made up of) but also:

  • Being part of various communities where you feel equal and valued, such as your neighbourhood, school or faith group
  • Being able to choose which groups you do and don't belong to, rather than being made to identify as or participate in a certain group 
  • Being treated with unconditional positive regard by any system or institution you're affected by, with your human rights respected

HEALTH means enjoying good physical health but also:

  • Being able to enjoy and develop your own optimal physical and mental health
  • Having your mental and emotional health treated as equally important as your physical health
  • Having your whole wellbeing as a person recognised and supported by the health system

PURPOSE means being able to do the job you want but also:

  • Having the freedom to develop your idea of yourself and your skills and interests
  • Having a meaningful and rewarding job or role in society
  • Understanding how you and your role relate to others in a positive way

What does this mean for the welfare state?

To flourish, each of us relies on all five needs being met at all times, whatever our age or status. This means that we need to be seen as a whole person by the systems we interact with, so that they support all our needs and don't undermine any of them inadvertently. This, clearly, has implications for current welfare systems and services that can only see a person as 'unemployed', for example, without understanding their mental health, or that can only treat someone's physical disease without influencing the poor conditions in which they're housed. The interdependence of Maslow's five needs is increasingly apparent as the welfare state fails to address them holistically:

A child who goes to school hungry will struggle to learn successfully at school.

A young person who is sofa-surfing because there is no affordable housing in their area will struggle to do well at their job.

A woman whose income is very low might decide not to leave an abusive partner because she can't afford to support herself and her children on her own wage.

An older man who has had a complicated operation is less likely to recover swiftly if he doesn't have a warm home to go to and caring people nearby after he's discharged from hospital. 

Maslow's framework also rejects the assumption of conditionality - that a condition or incentive should be attached to state support because the individual who needs it has chosen to behave as they are (or is ignorant of a better way to behave) and must be compelled to change that behaviour. Whether it's a little girl who doesn't share her crisps with school friends because her family can't afford to feed her enough, or a young man who isn't working because he can't find a job that leaves him time to see his baby, it's clear that people cannot make the 'right' choices when some of their most fundamental needs are going unmet. And that applies to all of us each day - not just the youngest or most vulnerable: it's why we make worse decisions when we haven't slept well and we struggle to concentrate if we're hungry.

Atif Shafique at the RSA has explained brilliantly why conditionality in social policy doesn't work.

The welfare state, intended to enable everyone to reach a decent standard of living and to support people at any vulnerable time in their life, must therefore support families if it is to support their children. It cannot punish parents without adversely affecting their children, and cannot leave adults in poverty whilst expecting targeted policies to protect their dependent children. 

A re-designed welfare state must see the whole child and the whole family; must enable professionals to do the same; and must address the basic needs of the family before making decisions about what their further needs and entitlements will be.

We are gathering ideas from policy and practice

There are plenty of ideas - some already being tested in the UK and beyond - for services and systems built holistically on people's needs. We'd like to hear from individuals and organisations with experience or expertise in any branch of the welfare state to share examples of what's working, what's not and which new ideas we should explore. They don't need to be directly aimed at children to provide a useful model to work from, for example:

  • The Buurtzorg community nurse model in the Netherlands, in which self-managing teams of 12 nurses have 'professional freedom with responsibility', taking their own referrals and building up relationships with their clients so they can plan bespoke support that involves the client's own informal and formal networks. 
  • Great Yarmouth council has hugely reduced housing problems in the area by removing its 'choice-based lettings' system, its forms and long waiting lists for people who need homes, and simply enabled housing teams to respond to each person or family according to their needs at the time they got in touch.
  • There are various trials of Universal Basic Income (described in two articles by Camilla Harris for us). Whilst none has so far been evaluated to show a model that delivers perfect results, and it's by no means an economic panacea for families, its potential for empowering families and mitigating the challenges of employment seems extremely worthy of exploration.
  • Communities in Zimbabwe have networks of 'aunties' - older women who befriend and advise younger women struggling with relationship issues, anxiety or depression, for example, and help them address these before they escalate.

Examples that fail to meet human needs and even cause greater need, on the other hand, include:

  • The 11+ (and other tests) that categorised children early on in their lives and determined their path through education, often leaving them feeling permanently defined by their success or failure in that single test.
  • Practices at Job Centre Plus, which young job seekers have found so stressful that their mental health has been affected

Published: 12th June, 2018

Updated: 4th February, 2021

Author: Chloë Darlington

Share this page
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Comments (0)

Please verify your action
Please enter your comment
Remove
✘
Please enter your first name
Please enter your last name
Please enter your email address Please enter a valid email address (e.g. [email protected])
Please enter your postcode and address Please enter a valid postcode
Please enter the first line of your address
Please enter your town or city

Contacting you about other Children England work

Children England offers various resources and campaigns you might be interested in. We can keep you up to date with these if you give us consent to do so - please confirm below which areas you're happy for us to contact you about:

We will generally use email to contact you about any of the above topics you choose to subscribe to.

Please enter numbers only Please enter your telephone number
Please enter numbers only Please enter your mobile number
Please enter your postcode and address Please enter a valid postcode
Please enter the first line of your address
Please enter your town or city

Children England privacy policy

Children England only gathers the data from you that we need to provide you with the service or information you've opted in to. We keep your data secure and do not share it with any other organisations. You can opt out, or request to know what data we hold about you, at any time.


Read our full privacy policy here.

By submitting this form you are agreeing to our terms and conditions

Children England Terms and Conditions of Use
Please also refer to our Privacy Policy.

Children England (registered charity no.1044239) operates one website. Please read these terms carefully before using this website. Using this website indicates that you accept these terms and conditions which take effect on the date of use of the website. If you do not accept these terms and conditions ("terms"), do not use this website ("site").

1. Use of site and copyright restrictions
We authorise you to view and download the materials at this site only for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you retain all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the original materials on any copies of the materials. You may not modify the materials at this site in any way or reproduce or publicly display, perform, or distribute or otherwise use them for any public or commercial purpose. For purposes of these terms, any use of these materials on any other web site or networked computer environment for any purpose is prohibited. The materials at this site are copyrighted and any unauthorised use of any materials at this site may violate copyright, trademark, and other laws. If you breach any of these terms, your authorisation to use this site automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed materials.

2. Links to other web sites
Links to third party web sites on this site are provided solely as a convenience to you. If you use these links, you will leave this site. We have not reviewed any of these third party sites and do not control and are not responsible for any of these sites or their content. Thus, we do not endorse or make any representations about them, or any information, software or other products or materials found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party sites linked to this site, you do this entirely at your own risk.

3. Disclaimer
The materials provided at this site are provided "as is" without any warranties of any kind including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property. We further do not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the materials at this site. We may make changes to the materials at this site, or to the information, products and prices described in them, at any time without notice. The materials at this site may be out of date, and we make no commitment to update the materials at this site.

4. Limitation of liability
In no event will we, our suppliers, or other third parties mentioned at this site be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, those resulting from lost profits, lost data or business interruption) arising out of the use, inability to use, or the results of use of this site, any web sites linked to this site, or the materials or information contained at any or all such sites, whether based on warranty, contract, tort or any other legal theory and whether or not advised of the possibility of such damages. If your use of the materials or information from this site results in the need for servicing, repair or correction of equipment or data, you assume all costs thereof. Applicable law may not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you.

5. Applicable laws
This site is administered by us from our registered office in England. We make no representation that materials at this site are appropriate or available for use outside the United Kingdom, and access to them from territories where their contents are illegal is prohibited. You may not use or export or re-export the materials at this site or any copy or adaptation in violation of any applicable laws or regulations including without limitation UK export laws and regulations. If you choose to access this site from outside the UK, you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws. These terms will be governed by and construed in accordance with English law, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of laws.

6. Intellectual Property
The names, images and logos identifying and owned by us or third parties and their products and services are subject to copyright, design rights and trade marks of ours and/or third parties. Nothing contained in these terms shall be construed as conferring by implication, estoppel or otherwise any licence or right to use any trademark, patent, design right or copyright of ours, or any other third party.

7. Contributions to our site
Where you are able to submit any contribution to our website, any of our mobile applications, our Facebook, Twitter or any other of our social networking pages, you agree, by submitting your contribution, to grant us a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to your contribution worldwide and/or to incorporate your contribution in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in your contribution. If you do not want to grant us the rights set out above, please do not submit your contribution to us. By submitting your contribution to us you warrant that your contribution is your own original work and that you have the right to make it available to us for any or all of the purposes specified above. Furthermore, you warrant your contribution is not defamatory, does not infringe any law, you indemnify us against all legal fees, damages and other expenses that may be incurred by us as a result of your breach of the above warranty and waive any moral rights in your contribution for the purposes of its submission to and publication on our website and the purposes specified above.

8. Changes to the terms
We may revise these terms at any time by updating this posting. You should visit this page from time to time to review the then-current terms because they are binding on you. Certain provisions of these terms may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms located on particular pages at this site.

9. Payments
Refunds will be given at the discretion of Children England. Children England reserves the right to vary event registration fees and the prices of any products listed without notice. All event registrations and orders for products are subject to availability and Children England reserves the right to refuse to accept any registration and to refuse to supply any products to any individual.

2016

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you! We have sent you an email to verify your account. Your comment will be published, subject to approval, after you have confirmed your email address.

Thank you! Your comment is waiting for approval and we will let you know when it goes live.

In the meantime, why not add a profile picture?

Thank you! Your comment has been added below.

Why not add a profile picture?

Latest

  • Competition & Markets Authority children's social care inquiry - Children England submission

    Children England's submission of evidence to the CMA's inquiry into the children's social care market

  • Funding List Spring 2021

    Children England member-only list of funding opportunities for charities working with children and young people

  • Maritime Cadets Association

    Maritime Cadets Association

  • The role of infrastructure is evolving - and Children England's new strategy reflects that

    Kathy Evans introduces Children England's new strategy

Related

  • Competition & Markets Authority children's social care inquiry - Children England submission

    Children England's submission of evidence to the CMA's inquiry into the children's social care market

  • The ChildFair State Inquiry - visions for change

    Young Leaders' proposals for a ChildFair welfare state, based on peer research

  • The ChildFair State Inquiry - our process

    How we supported young people to research and re-imagine the welfare state

  • ChildFair State Inquiry: summary of findings

  • Comprehensive Spending Review 2020: Children England's representation

    Including the Children Act Funding Formula and latest government data

  • The flexibility of the voluntary sector has been breath-taking. Commissioning must match it.

    The flexibility of the voluntary sector has been breath-taking. Commissioning must match it.

    A view of contracting during the coronavirus crisis

  • Responding to Covid-19: issues affecting services for children and young people

    Reporting from the joint survey of children's professionals during the Coronavirus outbreak

  • The impact of coronavirus on children's charities

    Children England briefing on members' early experiences of the virus outbreak and associated measures

  • Profit-making and risk in independent children’s social care placement providers

    Children England response to the report from the Local Government Association

  • General Election 2019: Children England briefing

    Briefing on the key children and charities policies from the main party manifestos

Most read

  • Children and Social Work Act 2017

    A summary of the Children and Social Work Act, which became law in 2017, and relevant briefings.

  • Don't take child protection for granted

    Don't take child protection for granted

    Our briefing on government plans to cut off council funding for child protection and other essential children's services

  • Kathy Evans, Chief Executive

    Kathy Evans, Chief Executive

    Chief Executive

  • Current vacancies

    Current vacancies

    We are not currently recruiting

  • Chloë Darlington, Policy and Communications Manager

    Chloë Darlington, Policy and Communications Manager

    Policy and Communications Manager

  • Public Service Markets Aren’t Working for the Public Good… or as markets

    Public Service Markets Aren’t Working for the Public Good… or as markets

    Chapter 2 of Kittens Are Evil: Little Heresies in Public Policy

  • Towards a ChildFair State

    Towards a ChildFair State

    Children England is fundraising to continue our youth-led campaign for a welfare state that puts children at heart

  • The Case for a Children Act Funding Formula

    Children England's briefing on a national mechanism for fair, sustainable funding of children's social care services

  • Value Beyond Money

    Value Beyond Money

    The voluntary sector over the next decade

  • One Welsh Woman and the Welfare State

    Kathy's obituary for her mother, Elizabeth Evans

Latest tweet

  • RT @MarcusRashford: Really happy to support #TheBigAsk. To find solutions to problems you need to speak directly to those they most aff… https://t.co/VIykIpZWFB

    20thApril, 2021 @childrenengland
  • RT @family_action: Pleased to be giving evidence at the @HLCOVID19Com House of Lords Committee today, looking at #LifeBeyondCOVID and… https://t.co/i302qSHxB3

    20thApril, 2021 @childrenengland
  • RT @children1st: We're opening Scotland's first #Barnahus with @EdinburghUni @VSScotland @Childrenengland thanks to support of playe… https://t.co/9JTl0Lhlpy

    20thApril, 2021 @childrenengland

Support us

We are a small independent charity with big ambitions. Every donation goes towards our ChildFair State Inquiry. Support us

Subscribe to our mailing list

You'll be emailed our free weekly news bulletin
* indicates required

Children England
Gregory House
Coram Campus
48 Mecklenburgh Square
London
WC1N 2NU

Contact Us
Tel: 020 7833 3319
[email protected]
Login - Logout - My details - Sitemap - Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions
Children England is a registered charity, no. 1044239, and a registered company, no. 3011053.