At the end of 2008, the Government set in motion a Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England chaired by Sir Michael Marmot. It is to report in December 2009. As part of its work, it set up various Task Groups to collect evidence and suggest policy options. The Task Group on Social...

Recent government pronouncements in the UK and above all the recent Conservative Party (2008) policy document on welfare reform suggest that US welfare reform is increasingly being taken as a model for the UK. What lessons should the UK draw from US experience? The long established means tested...

Regular annual studies made by the Office of National Statistics in the UK areintended to show how far taxing household incomes and giving benefits in cash andkind to households redistributes income from rich to poor. The first attempt to do thisin the UK was made by Tibor Barna for the year...

We provide evidence on the extent of ethnic segregation experienced bychildren across secondary schools and neighbourhoods (wards). Using 2001Schools Census and Population Census data we employ the indices ofdissimilarity and isolation and compare patterns of segregation across nineethnic...

Both educational attainment and school quality are typically lower indisadvantaged areas than others and much recent policy attention has beenfocused on each. This paper looks at the quality problem, exploring therelationships between disadvantaged contexts, what schools do, and the qualityof...

Renewed interest in disadvantaged neighbourhoods is generating increasingresearch activity. Current work includes qualitative community studies andquantitative investigations of area effects on individual outcomes. This papercriticises the contribution of area effects research to date....

Area-based programmes have long been a feature of urban policy in the UK.One rationale is that they are an effective means to target poor people. Areadeprivation indices are used to identify areas for targeting. This paper reviewsthe different results produced by these indices. It then examines...