psa conference

Fairness and Families:Tackling Inequality.

Laura (Mole) Chapman and Jackie Dearden

Welcome

Culture Change

• Tackling inequality is best understood as a practitioner’s ethical commitment to realise every child’s rights in full.

• Cultural change takes both time and innovation: it is neither immediately available nor instantly achievable.

Culture Change

WelcomeToleranceSingle /otherDeficitBarriers Rigid rulesComplianceImprovement

InvitationAcceptanceDiverse Assets BoundariesFlexible ValuesCommitmentTransformation

A Different Perspective on Equality, pg. 26

The Home Front• Parenting has become more important in determining life chances.

Social mobility has stagnated over the last decade.

• The most sought after skills today – soft skills like self-regulation, empathy and application – begin to develop in the very earliest years and parents play the primary role in developing them in children.

• As the wealth gap has grown and opportunities have diminished, parenting has become a greater determinant of children’s life chances. Parents’ role as the architects of a fairer society adds mounting pressure to an already very difficult job.

DEMOS, pg12

Insights 2Social inequality: can schools narrow the gap?

Those most likely to truant or be excluded from school include young people of Caribbean heritage, ‘looked-after’ children and those with special educational needs.

Although statistics identify broad patterns, different factors often interact to compound the links between social disadvantage and education.

Kerr & West 2010 BERA pg.12

Insights 2Social inequality: can schools narrow the gap?

Inequality raises key questions about whether policy should be aiming for the same for everyone or fairness for everyone.

Should policy-makers be trying to secure more equal outcomes across a narrow set of measures, or do we need a broader set of measures to reflect different ambitions and notions of success?

Kerr & West 2010 BERA pg .121

Principles

• Equality • Equity • Diversity• Balance• Fluidity• Ethical practice

A Different Perspective on Equality pg 20

Compliance & The Equalities Act 2011

“The vision is to work towards a fairer society andhave set out duties to reduce discrimination based onoutcomes and evidence.”

The main purpose of the Act is to bring about a culture change so that equality becomes part of core business.

This will mean considering the impact of all daily activity and therefore make it part of leadership and strategic planning.

Practice

Gather evidence

Undertake analysis

The change from ‘impact assessment’ to ‘analysis of the effects’ to focus attention on the quality of the analysis and how it is used in decision-making, and less on the production of a document.

Practice

Enable engagement

Demonstrate participation

This can assist with development of evidence base.

Practice

Set objectives

Challenging and achievable

Issues regarding inequality are deep-seated and difficult, and it may take time to fully address these.

Practice

Innovate:

Design delivery and service

Practice

Evaluate the difference made

Vision and Ethical commitment

• To address inequality the approach will need to value everyone’s experience.

• Rather than one-off and costly changes, it requires a shift in organisational culture so that people are universally entitled to contribution.

A Different Perspective on Equality, pg. 31

Positive and Possible

• Everyone can do something to contribute towards greater fairness, while not everyone will do the same thing in the same way.

• The challenge then is to accept that the change is possible if people are able to appreciate a whole diversity of positive actions.

• Rather than a step-by-step approach or a scale of difficulty, an acceptance of diverse routes to a more human experience.

A Different Perspective on Equality, pg. 35