Seminar on Social Exclusion, Risk and Families
Manchester, Wednesday 2nd July 2008, 10.00-4.00
Hanson Room, Humanities Bridgeford Street
Recent government policies on social exclusion have focused increasingly on early intervention and prevention. A whole range of policies, which have in common a concern to prevent long-term social exclusion, have sought to target interventions on those children and families who are identified as being most 'at risk' of social exclusion. Initiatives such as Sure Start, the Children's Fund, On Track and more specialist interventions such as the Family–Nurse partnership have been set up to direct services at parents and children to try to reduce factors which are associated with social exclusion and to provide support for factors which are seen to promote resilience in the face of adverse circumstances. These policies reflect the wish to target resources effectively using an approach to policy making that draws on research evidence on the distribution of risk, risk factors and pathways to social exclusion. However, such risk-based approaches often draw on stigmatising discourses about particular social groups, with slippage between notions of parents and children 'at risk' to notions of parents and children 'as a risk'. Further, parents' and children's own definitions of risk may differ considerably from policy definitions.
This seminar, sponsored by the Governance Representation and Policy (GRP) research group in Politics, will bring together researchers at the University of Manchester whose work is concerned with the effectiveness of early intervention policies with families with adolescent children, notions of risk and resilience that underpin current policy approaches, and the challenges of developing evidenced-based universal and targeted social inclusion policies.
Attendance is free but places are limited so please book by emailing richard.carrick@manchester.ac.uk
Programme
10.00 Arrivals & Coffee
10.15 Welcome: aims of the day
10.30 Harriet Churchill and Karen Clarke (Politics, School of Social Sciences, Manchester) 'Parenting education for the parents of adolescents: a critical look at the experience and outcomes for course participants'
11.15 Rebecca Askew (IPEG, School of Social Sciences, Manchester) 'Preventing anti-social behaviour: outcomes of a design experiment'
12.00 Jon Shute (School of Law, Manchester) 'Supporting families of gang-involved youth: Conceptual, evidential and ethical issues'
12.45 Lunch
1.45 Judith Aldridge and Juanjo Medina (School of Law, Manchester) 'Parents of gang members: views on parenting interventions'
2.30 Juanjo Medina (School of Law, Manchester) 'Assessment of a mentoring scheme for young people at risk of gang membership'
3.15 Karen Clarke and Harriet Churchill 'Thinking about families, adolescents and risk: Who is a risk and who is at risk?'
3.30 Closing discussion
4.00 Seminar ends