Children's Well-being in Birmingham

This assignment requires a comprehensive analysis of children's well-being in Birmingham, England. Students must examine various aspects impacting child welfare, including ethnic disparities, the prevalence of single-parent families, rising rates of childhood anxiety and mental health issues, and the availability of local support services like Soho Children's Centre. The analysis should draw upon provided research articles and statistics to provide a nuanced understanding of the challenges and strengths surrounding children's lives in Birmingham.

Running head: HELPING TROUBLED FAMILIES IN ENGLAND
Helping Troubled Children in Birmingham
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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HELPING TROUBLED FAMILIES IN ENGLAND
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Relevant information about local area-Birmingham:.................................................................2
Levels of deprivation of children in Birmingham:.....................................................................2
Population of ethnic minorities:.............................................................................................6
Health:....................................................................................................................................8
Information about Transport:...................................................................................................10
Information about Key employers:..........................................................................................11
Service to be focussed on:........................................................................................................12
Method of running the children’s centre (service):..................................................................13
Suggestion Extension of the services:......................................................................................13
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................14
References:...............................................................................................................................15

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Introduction:
Strong family support and acceptance among peers are two building blocks on which
healthy development of children stands. Trouble between parents, divorces and ill treatment
by step family members leave the formative years of children devastated. The government
and organisations like child care centres work towards counselling these children and their
families. The paper would profile a children’s centre called Soho Children’s Centre situated
in Birmingham (sohocc.bham.org.uk, 2017) and take into account the Big Society Theory.
The international laws for child protection laid down by international bodies like the
European Union which enforces child protection and child rights would be considered in the
study (ec.europa.eu, 2017). The profiling would help delving deeper into the factors which
lead to devastations of the lives of these children and recognise steps which can be adopted to
benefit the children who are affected by domestic problems and violence.
Relevant information about local area-Birmingham:
The following section would explore the various aspects of Birmingham who would
enable closer understanding of the community being studied namely, distressed children at
Soho Children Centre.
Levels of deprivation of children in Birmingham:
The map below shows that deprivation levels in the various places in the United
Kingdom. The map clearly shows that the city of Birmingham falls under the area marked in
blue which means that city suffers from high rate of deprivation.

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HELPING TROUBLED FAMILIES IN ENGLAND
Figure 1. Map showing deprivation in England
(Source: gov.uk, 2017)

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HELPING TROUBLED FAMILIES IN ENGLAND
Figure 2. Deprivation parameter of Birmingham in three years
(birmingham.gov.uk, 2017)
According to the Indices of Deprivation published by the Birmingham Council, the
city ranks in the sixth position as far as deprivation index of England is concerned. The graph
above published by the council shows measurement of deprivation based on ten parameters.
It shows that deprivation rate in significant parameters like income, employment and living
environment standard remains high the three years namely 2004, 2007 and 2010. Deprivation
due to crime has fallen which is a good sign. One analysing these facts, one can point out that
they have serious impacts on the lives of children and their well being. The graph below
shows that, in low income families, less number of children live with their birth parents
compared to high income families (telegraph.co.uk, 2017). The second graph shows the
increase in deprivation among the families in Birmingham as far as income and employment
are concerned. This means that the numbers of low income families are surging in
Birmingham. This means that more number of children would not be able to stay with both
birth parents and some would be forced to stay with hostile step families. Donohue et al.

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(2014), in this direction points out that violence and exploitation of children in the step
families harm their psychological development. Moreover, the low income creates stress
among the family members which lead to abusive environment. These hostile environmental
conditions lead to complex nature among these children like fear, withdrawal symptoms and
tendency towards addictions (telegraph.co.uk, 2017). An analysis of these figures and their
interpretations clearly shows that high rate of deprivation in Birmingham is responsible for
the exploitation and suffer which a large number of children face.
Figure 3. Graph showing percentage children living with parents
(Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk, 2017)

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Population of ethnic minorities:
Figure 4. Statistics showing ethnic population in England
(Source: ons.gov.uk, 2017)
The statistics above shows that the population of the United Kingdom has a large
number of ethnic groups. The dominant ethnic groups are from Ireland, followed by Asia and
Africa. The figure below shows that according to the latest census in 2011, Birmingham has
over a fifth of its population from Asia, close to a tenth of its population from Africa and

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close to five percentage of its population from the Middle East countries. The ethnic groups
have their own cultural, psychology and perceptions rooted to their counties of origin. This
disparity between British and the people of ethnic culture prevents children from interacting
with them freely (Laura, 2018). The children often face disparity on the grounds of ethnicity
which hampers their social developments. The children living with parents belonging from
different ethnic groups fall prey to domestic violence between them stemming from the
ethnic diversity factors like perceptions and beliefs (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2017). Thus, ethnicity
to some extent results in children suffering from disturbed and tumultuous childhood which
hamper their developments.
Figure 5. Table showing population of ethnic groups in Birmingham
(Source: birmingham.gov.uk, 2017)

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Health:
Figure 6. Graph showing infant mortality rate in Birmingham compared to England
(Source: gov.uk, 2017)
The graph above shows child mortality rates in Birmingham against the rates in
Britain. The figure clearly shows that in England, the rate of infant mortality fell below 5
percent by 2013-15. The rate in Birmingham remained around 7.5 percent and in comparison
to the infant mortality rate in Britain, shows a rising trend. This rising trend in Birmingham
can be attributed to the next chart showing increasing number of low income families sin
Birmingham (Butum, Stan & Zodieru, 2015). The graph too shows where in England the rate

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stands around twenty percent compared to a rate of over thirty five percent in Birmingham.
Analysis of these two charts clearly shows that low income families are not able to provide
their children with proper medical care. The Office of National Statistics, Government of the
United Kingdom reports in its press release that there were nearly 2 million lone parents in
2014 compared to 1.9 million in 2004. Seven areas including Birmingham in England have
large numbers of single parents (dailymail.co.uk, 2017). This can be related to the high
number of low income families in Britain. This means that low income and lack of support
from both parents often result in ill health among the children. The family members living in
low income families often abuse each other which have damaging impact on the psychology
of children. These factors leave children requiring care of counselling from children centres
like Soho Children Centre (sohocc.bham.org.uk , 2017).

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Figure 7. Statistics showing children in low income (under 16) families
(Source: gov.uk, 2017)
Figure 8. Statistics showing lone families in Britain
(Source: statista.com, 2017)
Information about Transport:
The transport system is advanced and is one of the widest in the world. The
Department of Transport oversees the transport network in England. The figure below shows
that the 59 percent of the journeys in England took place by public bus and 21 percent
journeys took place by train in 2016-2017. As far as Birmingham is concerned, the numbers
of people travelling by buses and coaches combined show a drop to 16825 20 in 2016 from
17514 in 2015 (dft.gov.uk, 2017).

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Figure 9. Graph showing travel by local bus and train in England
(Source: gov.uk, 2017)
Information about Key employers:
England is a mixed economy having presence of both public and private sector. The
currency of the country is Pound, which is one of the most sought after currencies
internationally. The main employer industries in the country are chemical, pharmaceuticals,
arms, software and service providing companies. Some of the notable companies having their
headquarters in England are London Stock Exchange, Land Rover, Vodafone, HSBC Bank
and Unilever. The GDP per capita of England is GBP 22907 which is one of the highest
GDP in the world. Birmingham is the third largest employer city in England with gross value
added GBP 24790 million (Butum, Stan & Zodieru, 2015). The city has employers like
Jaguar Land Rover and Cadbury.
An analysis of these facts shows that Birmingham has several big employers. The
seventh figure shows that the numbers of children from low income families are showing an

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increasing trend. This means that the parents of these children would be able to provide them
with proper education. As a result these children would not be able to join these multinational
companies located in Birmingham due to their lack of education (Varis, 2017). This analysis
shows that the factors like low income and violence at home results in low degree of
education among children. This factor inhibits them from acquiring employment in the top
employers of Birmingham (Butum, Stan & Zodieru, 2015). Thus, lack of harmony and
economic stability among the parents does not only prove fatal to the physical and
mental growth of children but also their professional growth.
Service to be focussed on:
The focussed service to be provided to help the children suffering from disturbed
childhood would be children’s centre. The children centre should take into account the laws
laid down international organisations like the EU (ec.europa.eu, 2017). The statistical figures
above shed light on several crucial factors which one has to focus on in order to provide an
efficient child care services to distressed children. The second figure shows that factors like
employment and income of parents play a very crucial role in the development of the children
(Hood, 2014). Factors like low income and poor relationships among the family members
can have dangerous impact on the mental growth of the children. The children not living
with their birth parents or living with exploitative step families suffer from mental
complicacies which makes them unacceptable at school. The children centre would
provide counselling to the parents to help them to cope with family and professional
pressures (Dykens et al., 2014). The centre would also provide skill development
programmes to parents to help them increase their family income to be able to provide
better education to children. This way the children centre would help its users namely the
troubled children and their parents to lead healthier lives.

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The children centre service may face barriers due to shortage of capital and trained
staffs in the initial phase (Butum & Zodieru, 2015). This is because in the initial phase it
would not have goodwill strong enough to attract financers which in turn would make it
difficult to acquire funds to attract qualified counsellors to council the users namely, the
children in distress and their parents.
Method of running the children’s centre (service):
The management of the children centre would involve the local residents of
Birmingham to run the business in its initial stage. The local counsellors would be employed
to provide counselling services to troubled children and their parents at low rates. This would
serve several purposes. First, the children’s centre would be able to provide services to the
customers at lower prices (Varis, 2017). Secondly, the local psychiatrists are aware about the
local situations in Birmingham like low income stability among parents which lead to
disturbed family lives and consequently disturbed childhood among the children. The
company called Soho could provide better and more lasting solution to the parents and the
children. Hiring of local counsellors would provide employment opportunities and economic
develop of the local community. Thus, the children’s centre would employ local counsellors
to run the business which would prove profitable to the customers, the local counsellors and
the area of Birmingham as a whole. The sources of funds would be grants received from
the big companies in Birmingham and the financial aids from the government (Taplin &
Mattick, 2015).
Suggestion Extension of the services:
The children centre in its initial would limit its operations within Birmingham and
extend its services into other cities like London to help the community of distressed children.
The centre can also extend its services to provide counselling services to the adolescent

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community suffering from tumultuous lifestyle due to domestic discords as its financial
strength and experience of child counselling would increase. This extension of counselling
services to adolescents is relevant because the organisation named Soho would be able to
help both children and teenagers cope with domestic violence (Hood, 2014). Thus, it
would be able to provide children suffering from tumultuous childhood due to domestic
reasons with care and counselling right from their childhood and into their adolescent
stage. Thus, this extension of counselling services to incorporate both children and
teenage community would allow the children’s centre help children recover from
trauma due to domestic discords (Rivera, 2016). This benefit which the extension of
services of the children’s centre would usher in for the troubled children and their
parents makes this suggestion relevant for the management to consider in the future.
This would help in improving the dire conditions like low income as shown by the graph
above and bettering the childhood conditions of children in Britain.
Conclusion:
The in-depth discussion shows that a large number of children in Birmingham lead
distressful lives owing to factors like abusive relationship between parents, low family
income and violent treatment which they receive in hands of step family members. These
painful experiences devastate their mental development and ruin their education. The children
centres works towards helping these children cope with these pressing situations. However,
these centres also need the cooperation of the parents in order to help the children lead
healthy lives. Thus, it can be concluded that children centres should counsel both the parents
and their children to cope with distressful lives.

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References:
Butum, L. C., Stan, S. O., & Zodieru, A. (2015). The role of romanian universities in
increasing graduates' employability. curriculum management and development of
competences required by the labor market. Management Dynamics in the Knowledge
Economy, 3(3), 431.
Council, B. (2018). Index of Multiple Deprivation | Birmingham City
Council. Birmingham.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2018, from
https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/downloads/file/1466/index_of_multiple_deprivation
Donohue, B., Azrin, N. H., Bradshaw, K., Van Hasselt, V. B., Cross, C. L., Urgelles, J., ... &
Allen, D. N. (2014). A controlled evaluation of family behavior therapy in concurrent
child neglect and drug abuse. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 82(4),
706.
Dykens, E. M., Fisher, M. H., Taylor, J. L., Lambert, W., & Miodrag, N. (2014). Reducing
distress in mothers of children with autism and other disabilities: a randomized
trial. Pediatrics, 134(2), e454-e463.
Ec.europa.eu. (2018). Rights of the child - European Commission. [online] Available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/rights-child/index_en.htm [Accessed 10
Jan. 2018].
English indices of deprivation 2015. (2018). Gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2018, from
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/
465791/English_Indices_of_Deprivation_2015_-_Statistical_Release.pdf

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HELPING TROUBLED FAMILIES IN ENGLAND
Ethnicity - Office for National Statistics. (2018). Ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2018, from
http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity
Hood, R. (2014). Complexity and integrated working in children's services. The British
Journal of Social Work, 44(1), 27-43.
Laura Donnelly. (2018). Soaring numbers of children seeing psychiatrists amid anxiety
epidemic. The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 January 2018, from
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/01/soaring-numbers-children-seeing-
psychiatrists-amid-anxiety-epidemic/
Lone parent families in the United Kingdom (UK) 2017, 000)*. 2018. "UK Single Parent
Families 2017 | Statistic". Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/281640/lone-
parent-families-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-gender/.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. (2018). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pediatric Mental Health. [online]
Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3011932/ [Accessed 10
Jan. 2018].
pen Government Licence. (2018). Nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2018, from
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/2/
Rivera, E. A., Sullivan, C. M., Zeoli, A. M., & Bybee, D. (2016). A Longitudinal
Examination of Mothers’ Depression and PTSD Symptoms as Impacted by Partner-
Abusive Men’s Harm to Their Children. Journal of interpersonal violence,
0886260516629391.
Single-parent families so common in today's Britain that couples are now a minority.
(2018). Mail Online. Retrieved 5 January 2018, from

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183462/Single-parent-families-common-
todays-Britain-couples-minority.html
Soho Children's Centre - About us. (2018). Sohocc.bham.org.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2018,
from http://www.sohocc.bham.org.uk/index.php/about-us
Taplin, S., & Mattick, R. P. (2015). The nature and extent of child protection involvement
among heroin‐using mothers in treatment: High rates of reports, removals at birth and
children in care. Drug and alcohol review, 34(1), 31-37.
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Transport. Dft.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2018, from https://www.dft.gov.uk/traffic-
counts/area.php?region=West+Midlands&la=Birmingham
Varis, M. (2017). Standards of Hiring Processes in Multinational Companies: Do automated
processes pose an increasing threat to the global problem of qualification mismatch