Age and inequality

1. Age and inequality Carla Garnelas Senior policy and change officer Children’s Rights Alliance for England

2. Focus on: • Age inequality as it affects children and young people • Where other dimensions of inequality intersect with childhood Key sources: • CRAE (2008) What do they know? Investigating the human rights concerns of children and young people living in England • CRAE (2008) State of Children’s Rights: Review of UK Government’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child • CRAE (2007) “We are all equal and that’s the truth! children and young people talk about age discrimination and equality • CRAE/Save the Children (2001) Bread is free: children and young people talk about poverty

3. Unequal because I’m young The Department for Children, Schools and Families asked under 18 year-olds about their experiences of discrimination… Over 3,900 children and young people participated in the online survey: 43% reported that they had been treated unfairly because of their age. While fewer than three in 10 (29%) of the under 11s felt that they had experienced age discrimination, nearly two-thirds of older teenagers (64%) reported this. Unfair treatment on the grounds of age was by far the single biggest example of discrimination. (Willow, Franklin & Shaw, 2007)

4. Daily encounters - shops, buses and public spaces Also, like, when you go you go shopping and stuff, they really treat you like, a person’s always behind you, a security guard or something. They always think that you’re going to nick something, or something like that… (16 – 18 year old, CRAE, 2008) The device is highly discriminatory because it affects only young people… What if we had invented a device that could be detected only by elderly people, or that affected only people with hearing aids or who used Zimmer frames? That would be terribly discriminatory and we would not stand for it, yet completely unregulated and unlicensed devices are available that can be targeted at young people, who in many cases are simply trying to get together to socialise… (Tim Loughton MP, January 2009)

5. Not being taken seriously Because if you told the police something that happened to you they will either laugh at you or they won’t really care (Metropolitan Police Authority 2008) I think if you’re a boy and you’re black, they [the police] think you did the crime more than anybody else… (BME child, CRAE, 2008)

6. Health and social care services …when I was in hospital, …I was on the children’s ward, which meant that I was on a bay with all four and two-year olds, which was absolute hell…you just feel really isolated. And I think that needs to be addressed (17 year-old, CRAE, 2007) My mum is a professional who works with young care leavers and the social services, generally speaking, only intervene in violent situations where it’s a young child, whereas if it’s a teenager they’re not so bothered about getting the teenager out of that situation even though it’s probably equally as harmful… (17 year-old, CRAE, 2007)

7. Age and economic inequalities - children living in poverty • Nearly a third (3.8 million) of children live in poverty in the UK • There is a difference of nearly 14 years in the average life expectancy of children born into the best and worst circumstances • We have the second worst infant mortality rate of the 24 wealthiest countries in the world • 70 children were brought into care in the year ending 31 March 2008 primarily because of low income, bringing the total to 450 since 2002 • Research shows that more than four in 10 young people from the richest 20% of households obtained a degree in 2002, compared with just one in 10 of young people from the poorest 20% of households.

8. Housing conditions, living costs and impact on health Well you find yourself like trapped, because [you] get £35 per week and we can’t spend much money for your food. No clothes at all... And if your travelling is £30, going to college and you spend every week £12 from £35, how we going to buy the food, its not enough, you know what I mean?...(young refugee or asylum seeker, CRAE 2008) You need money to go on the bus cos you have to pay them. You pay them to call a taxi and that needs loads of money (7 year-old, CRAE/Save the Children, 2001)

9. Education, leisure and play I remember I went to high school with one girl and it was really bad because you could never ask her to do anything…because she couldn’t afford it. [She couldn’t go on trips and things like educational field trips and stuff like that, well she couldn’t go to them because she couldn’t afford it (15 year-old, CRAE/Save the Children, 2001) I get thrown out of school because I’ve got problems when what I really need is help, and that sort of sums up what we’re trying to say to you there (child living in poverty, CRAE, 2008)

10. Where we go from here:a few thoughts • A human rights approach to poverty, inequality and disadvantage • Understanding age as an equality issue in relation to children • A more joined up approach to improving health and reducing inequalities • Limit the impact of socio-economic status on educational achievement • Take all necessary measures to address discrimination faced by specific groups of children

11. Carla Garnelas Senior policy and change officer Children’s Rights Alliance for England 020 7278 8222 ext. 25 cgarnelas@crae.org.uk www.crae.org.uk