Impact of Children's Centres on Troubled Families in Birmingham, UK

This report examines the challenges faced by troubled families and children in Birmingham, focusing on the services provided by the Soho Children's Centre. It delves into the local context, analyzing levels of deprivation, ethnic diversity, and health indicators to understand the factors impacting child development and family well-being. The report explores the impact of these factors on children's lives, including issues like low income, family instability, and health disparities. It also considers the role of international laws and organizations in child protection. Furthermore, the report details the services offered by the children's centre, including counseling and skill development programs, and proposes methods for efficient management, including community involvement. The report suggests extending services and expanding the scope of support to address the needs of a wider range of individuals and families. The report uses data and statistics to support its arguments and recommendations, providing a comprehensive overview of the challenges and potential solutions for supporting troubled families 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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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