POLI07005 2022 Social Policy of Early Childhood

Children and Social Policy has been designed to introduce students to the particular relevance of social policy as it impacts on the lives of children in Irish society and beyond. It provides an opportunity to gain an understanding of how social policy is developed and the historical and contemporary influences on its formation, particularly in the area of child and family welfare. The module will examine how children's situation and experience is structured by inequalities across a range of policy arenas e.g. housing policy, disability policy, poverty alleviation policy and early years provision itself. The manner in which various agencies and welfare providers attempt to protect, recognise and deliver the social policy needs of children will be a core focus of the module.

This fascinating book provides a detailed account of the history of maternity and child welfare in Dublin between 1922 and 1960. In so doing it places maternity and child welfare in the context of twentieth-century Irish history, offering one of the only accounts of how women and children were viewed, treated and used by key lobby groups in Irish society and by the Irish state.

This book takes social policy back to its basics. Each chapter systematically breaks down the subject to equip students not only with knowledge of the theoretical themes and perspectives which underpin social policy, but also of the relevance of social policy in everyday life.

How do human societies provide for the wellbeing of their members? How far can we organize the ways in which we care for and about each other? And who should take responsibility for providing the support we need? These are some of the fundamental questions addressed by social policy today. In this introduction, Hartley Dean explains the extraordinary scope and importance of social policy. He explores its foundations and contemporary significance; the principal issues it addresses and their diverse economic, political and sociological dimensions, and concludes by looking anew at fundamental challenges facing social policy in a dramatically changing world. Introducing social policy as a broadly conceived study of human wellbeing, this revised and extensively updated third edition examines ways in which governments and peoples throughout the world attend to, promote, neglect or even undermine the things that make life worth living. These include essential services like healthcare and education; the means of livelihood jobs and money and sometimes intangible things such as physical and emotional security. Trying to understand these elements, which together constitute human wellbeing, is the stuff of social policy.

This book offers an analysis of social security in Ireland from 1981 to 2016 - a period of immense economic and social change during which social provisions such as pensions and family benefits were downsized or diluted in many countries. It considers whether this important area of welfare state provision in Ireland changed, and the extent and pattern of change. In the first in-depth account of this aspect of social policy In Ireland, the book sets the welfare state in a historical and comparative context and reviews the impact of globalisation, politics and the financial crash on the scope and generosity of social security. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of welfare state politics and comparative social policy as well as to students of Irish social policy.

Historically the care of children and family members has been perceived as a private issue, a personal choice provided informally within the family, and accordingly has been ignored by legislators who has focused instead on the leave and time provisions in employment law. However, demographic transition, changes in the workplace and the new fluid model of families, together with the massive presence of women in paid employment mean that traditional informal arrangements are no longer feasible. The process of, have resulted in an increase in the number of people who need care whilst there are fewer people in a position to provide informal care. This is largely the situation across Europe where, although with substantial differences, care work is fast leaving the private sphere to acquire a public dimension. This book looks at how EU law and policy have, over the years, addressed the theoretical and practical issues of care. It shows that, potentially, the EU care legal and policy framework is dynamic and evolving but remains piecemeal and lacking a comprehensive care strategy across Europe. The book analyses caring responsibilities both for children, and for people with chronic illnesses or disabilities as well as the growing number of older people requiring care, and suggests organising caring responsibilities into the two broad categories: traditional and unspoken care. The book argues that a clear framework needs to be established for all types of care which can develop following the same principles and at the same speed. Alongside this it calls for an increased recognition of the rights of the carers. Considering it unlikely to be achieved through EU traditional legislation the authors look towards the Open Method of Coordination as an alternative process. Ultimately the book underlines the crucial importance of starting to explore this area and to trigger a much needed debate with a view to redeploying the traditional understanding of care to meet the needs of a fast-changing society and, accordingly, in order to set the platform for policy and legislative development.

This second edition of a highly successful textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to social policy in Ireland addressing a range of social policy topics of growing importance in contemporary Irish society including issues related to children, service users and groups, migration, ethnicity, sexuality and climate change.

The eighth edition of Policy-Making in the European Union provides students and scholars with a strong understanding of the processes and institutions involved in EU policy-making. In particular, it assesses policy-making in a more politicized context and in light of Brexit.

Children's Rights Alliance Report Card -  www.cra.ie

Ombudsman for Children -  www.oco.ie

Barnardos  - www.barnardos.ie

Social Justice Ireland  -  www.socialjustice.ie/ Policy Issues concerning children 

Economic & Social Research Institute, Growing up in Ireland - www.esri.ie/growing-up-in-ireland

Early Childhood Ireland - www.earlychildhoodireland.ie