Lisa Buckner

Promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people: definition of, rationale and prospects for anti-disablist education

This article outlines the findings of an Economic and Social Research Council-funded study exploring the role of English state primary schools in promoting positive attitudes towards disabled people. Data emerging from a survey of schools and interviews with teachers are presented. The article considers progress made by schools against particular aspects of the Disability Equality Duty 2006. The project was underpinned by a working model of anti-disablist education resulting from a ‘conversation’ between various models of anti-oppressive education and disability politics. It explores the rationale for a ‘courageous’ form of anti-disablist education, definition of this, schools’ engagement in this type of practice and challenges to promoting such an ideal.

Older workers and care-giving in England: the policy context for older workers’ employment patterns

This article considers recent changes in the incidence of caring among people aged 50-64 in England and the policy context in which these have occurred. After introducing the topic, research questions addressed and methods used, it outlines findings from other research on how older workers experience and manage caring roles. It then sets out relevant public policy developments since carers were first accorded rights to recognition and services in 1995, focusing on workplace support, local services and financial help for people who reduce or quit their paid work to care. The article presents new analyses of the population censuses conducted in England in 2001 and 2011, focusing on people aged 50-64 and especially on those aged 60-64, the group in which the largest changes were seen. Theses show growth in caring at higher levels of intensity for older workers, and increases in the incidence of caring alongside paid work. To deepen understanding of these changes, the analysis also draws on data from a government survey of carers conducted in 2009-10. The concluding discussion argues that although the modest policy changes implemented since 1995 have provided some support to older workers managing work and care, more policy attention needs to be given following the sharp increase in the incidence of caring seen among people aged 50-64 in England between 2001 and 2011.

Improving employment and women's well‐being in regeneration programmes

Purpose – How does womens labour market disconnection impact on health and well‐being? The paper seeks to explain how economic isolation can cause low self esteem for women. Neighbourhood analysis provides the opportunity to explore some of the operational contradictions in public policy and how they are experienced in regeneration areas.Design/methodology/approach – Local dynamics of employment and health are examined in neighbourhoods in two UK cities. The research draws on focus group data involving local women as well as interviews with representatives of statutory and voluntary organisations. Examination of relevant statistical data supports the evidence base on womens well‐being in these regeneration areas.Findings – By analysing labour market characteristics and local womens experiences, depression and low esteem in relation to low incomes, barriers to employment and discrimination emerge as particularly important aspects of well‐being. The paper suggests that policy makers often fail to make th...

Women Outside Paid Employment: Getting to Grips with Local Labour Markets:

This ‘In Perspective’ presents some preliminary findings from research based in specific wards with high levels of economic inactivity. The study examines the feasibility of developing Intermediate Labour Market (ILM)type employment projects in these localities, focused on women who are outside paid employment, and is being conducted in selected wards in five local authorities: Birmingham, Camden, Sandwell, Thurrock, and Wakefield. In this contribution we argue that the labour markets in these local economies are not working efficiently in relation to economically inactive women. Our research suggests that this problem arises, in part, from policy weaknesses which could be corrected relatively easily. These weaknesses relate to a limited understanding of the specificity of women’s relationships with local labour markets, and a lack of recognition of, and responsiveness to, either the full diversity of the female populations living in these neighbourhoods or the variety of local conditions. Within the neighbourhoods studied, some local employment and labour market activation projects have operated with an understanding of variability in women’s engagement with their local labour markets, especially in relation to age, ethnicity, patterns of migration and locality. Others, however, have taken