Tag Archives: social services

Forcing teen mothers to work could be Labour's worst social policy idea yet

By Julia Margo, Demos One of the themes to emerge from debates last week about the Karen Matthews/Baby P/shocking state of social services scandals was the ongoing saga of Britain’s teenage birth rate, or more precisely the so-called benefit claiming class of teenage single mothers who suck up state resources and services, do not work, [...]

Another wrong move in the war against teenage binge drinking

In political circles we talk about the Problem of our Binge Drinking Culture as if it is something that can be solved with the right intervention or piece of legislation. By Julia Margo, Demos Much recent research has explored the causes of youth binge drinking. Work at Sheffield University has suggested that “cheap alcohol is [...]

Political correctness stayed the hand of the nanny state

Baby P’s face is now so familiar to me I could sketch it blind. But his face now represents much more than a story about the tragic death of a baby, an abusive family or the failure of one local authority. It says something about our national approach to children, social care and families. By Julia [...]