Category Archives: Social exclusion

New UK civil service internship scheme open only to working-class students

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Minister says programme will help ensure Whitehall has ‘broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country’

A new civil service internship scheme will be open only to working-class students as part of a drive to make Whitehall better reflect the country, the government has said.

The programme will give students from lower-income backgrounds the chance to apply for paid government placements. The definition of working class will be based on what jobs were held by their parents when the applicant was 14 and replaces an existing programme open to all.

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Windrush commissioner pledges to fight for justice for marginalised groups

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Clive Foster aims to ‘confront uncomfortable realities’ and expand his remit to help those faced with discrimination

The newly appointed Windrush commissioner has promised to expand his remit to fight for marginalised communities who have experienced discrimination in housing, education, employment and policing.

At a launch event on Wednesday, Clive Foster will tell the immigration minister, Seema Malhotra, that he does not intend to perform a public relations role for the government.

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Minority ethnic and deprived children more likely to die after UK intensive care admission

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Study shows such young people have higher risk of arriving at paediatric ICU severely ill and have worse outcomes

Minority ethnic children and children from deprived backgrounds across the UK are more likely to die following admission to intensive care than their white and more affluent counterparts, a study has found.

These children consistently had worse outcomes following their stay in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the research by academics at Imperial College London discovered.

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Thursday briefing: Why young people fear ‘there’s nothing here for us’ in England’s coastal towns

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In today’s newsletter: As a new Guardian project begins, we hear from the teenagers navigating deprivation, isolation and a sense of being forgotten

Good morning. A few weeks ago, 18-year-old Tamsin Jarman-Smith, born and raised in a small town just outside Blackpool, sat on a battered sofa at House of Wingz, a community youth organisation tucked down an alleyway a few streets from the beach, and explained what it felt like to be a young person growing up in a coastal town.

“I’m lucky because I found this passion for dancing and I come to this place, which has saved me I think, especially my creativity and hope for opportunities for myself, but lots of people my age feel like there is nothing here for them,” she said.

Europe | Talks over a British and French migration deal remained deadlocked on Wednesday night, as negotiators haggled over how much Britain will pay towards the cost of policing small boat crossings.

UK news | Campaigners have decried as “dangerously naive” the UK government’s sweeping deal with Google to provide free technology to the public sector.

Europe | Police have raided the headquarters of France’s far-right National Rally and seized documents as part of an investigation into alleged illegal campaign financing.

UK news | Thames Water has refused to claw back almost £2.5m paid to senior managers from an emergency loan that was meant to keep the failing utilities company afloat.

Housing | The Bank of England has rolled out looser mortgage rules that policymakers hope will help 36,000 more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder each year.

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Carer’s allowance: woman who won case against DWP calls for end to ‘sickening harassment’

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Nicola Green, 42, speaks out after significant legal victory against department that accused her of fraud

The mother of a teenager with cerebral palsy has demanded an end to the “sickening harassment” of unpaid carers after a significant legal victory against the government.

Nicola Green, 42, was pursued by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for more than a year after she was accused of fraudulently claiming nearly £3,000 in carer’s allowance.

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Future of world-renowned children’s centre in hands of Reform UK

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Pen Green, a model for Labour’s Sure Start, could face closure if Reform-led North Northamptonshire council fails to act

A world-renowned children’s centre that provided the model for Sure Start is on the brink of collapse, with its future in the hands of the newly elected Reform UK leadership of its local council.

The Pen Green Centre, which pioneered wrap-around care and learning for preschool children in one of the most deprived areas of the UK, was the blueprint for Labour’s totemic early years Sure Start programme in the late 1990s.

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No 10 delays child poverty strategy with tens of thousands more facing hardship

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Exclusive: Flagship policy put back until at least autumn amid fears cost of removing two-child benefit cap will outweigh political benefit

Labour’s flagship child poverty strategy has been delayed until at least the autumn, the Guardian has learned, even though tens of thousands more children will fall into poverty as a result.

The decision to push back the strategy comes amid Treasury concerns about the cost implications of ending the two-child limit on universal credit and questions inside No 10 over the political benefits of scrapping it.

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Charities step up pressure on Keir Starmer to scrap two-child benefit cap

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Exclusive: Survey commissioned by children’s charities shows UK voters want to see families prioritised

Charities and a Labour-aligned pressure group are ramping up calls on Keir Starmer to scrap the two-child limit on benefits, as polling shows support for action on youth poverty remains high, and is equally solid among Labour voters tempted by Reform.

As discussions continue in government ahead of the forthcoming child poverty strategy, a survey commissioned by a coalition of charities suggests voters want to see families prioritised.

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Wales and north of England face disability cuts ‘double whammy’

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Policy in Practice analysis shows twice as many people affected in north-east, north-west and Wales than in London and south-east

A £5bn programme of disability benefits cuts planned by the UK government will disproportionately hit people living in Wales and northern England “entrenching deprivation”, according to new analysis.

The consultancy Policy in Practice has looked at how the proposed changes would affect individual regions and local authorities, and found the impact across the UK starkly uneven.

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Gen Z and young millennials battling ‘negative wealth’ as debt burden grows

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Young people whose debts outweigh their assets are at risk of experiencing blighted earnings, and even poorer health

Gen Z and young millennials are battling a “negative wealth” problem due to growing debt burdens that limit their life chances, according to a new analysis from the Fairness Foundation.

The thinktank says negative wealth, where debts outweigh assets, is linked to lower wages and worse health in later life, and that ministers should reintroduce the Child Trust Fund to give young people a greater stake in society.

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Labour-run Enfield council left 100 families homeless after they refused to relocate

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London council’s policy of offering people homes far from the area led to England’s highest number of refusals

A Labour-run London council left more than 100 families homeless without support last year after they refused to be relocated outside the borough, the Observer can reveal.

Freedom of information data from about 80% of English councils shows that they ended their legal duties to 615 households who refused offers of housing outside the local authority area in 2024 – but this national total is heavily skewed.

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Labour must target deprived areas or lose out to Reform, says former minister

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Peer argues that national ‘trickledown’ approach will fail to benefit those in most need

Keir Starmer’s government must strictly target the delivery of its core “missions” at areas of maximum deprivation or lose huge numbers of votes to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, an independent commission led by a former Labour cabinet minister will suggest this week.

The Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods (ICON), chaired by Labour peer Hilary Armstrong, a former party chief whip and housing minister, will say the government risks “wasting billions of pounds in higher public spending while failing to transform the places that need it most” unless it adopts the targeted approach.

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‘A source of national shame’: shelters in England turn young people away as number of rough sleepers soar

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Charities across the country highlight the rising demand for emergency accommodation as costs spiral to care for those most in need

Holly Udobang is packing the last bag: a sleeping mat, gloves, woolly hat, waterproof poncho, hand warmers. It’s the sort of kit that teenagers might need for a Duke of Edinburgh trip.

But this bag is for young homeless people, to give them a fighting chance of getting some sleep on the streets of London. Holly and her colleagues at the New Horizon Youth Centre are packing them to give to the young people they now have to turn away every day, as an increasing number of emergency shelters shut their doors.

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Poorest UK households pay rising share of income on council tax, study finds

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Resolution Foundation report says failure to reform has ‘slowly recreated the issues that undid the poll tax’

Britain’s poorest households are paying an increasing share of their income on council tax, according to new analysis that likened it to the poll tax that contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.

The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax in England, Wales and Scotland and on domestic rates in Northern Ireland in the 2020-21 financial year, up from 2.9% in 2002-3, according to research by the Resolution Foundation.

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‘Reform is a challenge’: Eluned Morgan hits south Wales valleys in constant campaign mode

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The Labour first minister talks to people in Blackwood, as Reform and Plaid snap at her heels

The next Welsh parliament elections are more than a year away but the first minister, Eluned Morgan, appeared to be on the campaign trail already as she swept through the town of Blackwood in the south Wales valleys.

Within half an hour, she had spoken to dozens of people, asking what they wanted of her government, acknowledging where things needed to be improved, challenging voters who she felt were not being fair on her party.

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Give working parents help with childcare and commuting costs, UK thinktank says

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Child poverty plan must address the 70% of families with at least one parent in work, Resolution Foundation says

Labour must offer extra support to working parents, including with childcare and commuting, if it is to fulfil its promise of cutting child poverty, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has argued.

The government’s manifesto promised an “ambitious strategy” on child poverty, and ministers have said they will publish a 10-year plan in the spring.

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‘We live on Pot Noodles’: rickets hits homeless families with no kitchen

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Families placed in hotels in England are being forced to live on snack foods, putting young people’s health at risk

Homeless children placed in hotels are developing rickets and other diet-related health problems because their parents lack anywhere to cook.

The Magpie Project, which works with homeless mothers in the east London borough of Newham, where more households are living in temporary accommodation than anywhere in the country, said families living in hotels were eating an unhealthy diet of takeaways and snack foods because they had no cooking facilities or anywhere to store fresh produce.

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UK charity declares ‘refugee homelessness emergency’ as numbers hit record high

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Naccom report says gaps in state support have led to more than 1,940 refugees having no accommodation

Homelessness among refugees has doubled in the last year to reach record levels as charities hand out tents and sleeping bags to those forced to live on the streets for the first time, according to research.

The No Accommodation Network (Naccom), an umbrella organisation for 140 frontline organisations working with asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants across the UK, has collated the data and shared it with the Guardian.

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Housing, social care and universities: who lost out in the UK budget?

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Rachel Reeves made funding the NHS a priority but people working in other areas said they were disappointed

Rachel Reeves’s first budget emphasised raising taxes to help the NHS, as the health service tries to cope with huge waiting lists and an ageing population. Funding the NHS was a top priority but people in other sectors – from universities to social care – feel the budget was a missed opportunity to tackle impending crises or introduce desperately needed reforms in their areas.

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Canadians with nonterminal conditions sought assisted dying for social reasons

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Some people have asked to be killed due to non-medical reasons – including isolation and homelessness

An expert committee reviewing euthanasia deaths in Canada’s most populous province has identified several cases in which patients asked to be killed in part for social reasons such as isolation and fears of homelessness, raising concerns over approvals for vulnerable people in the country’s assisted dying system.

Ontario’s chief coroner issued several reports on Wednesday – after an Associated Press investigation based in part on data provided in one of the documents – reviewing the euthanasia deaths of people who were not terminally ill. The expert committee’s reports are based on an analysis of anonymized cases, chosen for their implications for future euthanasia requests.

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