The Skills for Life project was a one-year project focused on supporting predominantly Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) women in Cardiff to “build long-term, lasting outcomes [beyond] moving into entry-level work and beyond ‘first jobs’ (whilst recognising their value as stepping stones)”. Skills for Life is a sister project of Future Skills, and run as part of Oxfam’s UK Programme Women United. It was delivered by Oxfam Cymru in partnership with South Riverside Community Development Centre (SRCDC).
Topic:
Poverty, Labor Issues, Sustainability, Skilled Labor, and Empowerment
Emily Ball, Ceri Hughes, Donna-Louise Hurrell, and Tom Skinner
Publication Date:
04-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
A more inclusive labour market would offer more people the chance to take part in rewarding, well-paid work, bringing both economic and social benefits. In the context of declining union membership, limited employment regulation and a growing disconnect between pay and living costs, employment charters are one means for cities to engage employers and start a conversation about how their employment practices can enable local people to live and work well.
This paper and the accompanying case studies grew out of a conversation about ways to facilitate more inclusive growth in cities. It focuses on Greater Manchester and reviews the rationale, design and impact of several local employment charter initiatives in the UK to assess the role that they can play in creating and sustaining quality jobs.
In 2015 Oxfam Scotland called for the creation of an Inequality Commission, building on Scotland’s politicians from across all parties stating their support to tackle economic inequality. The Scottish government has committed to establishing a Poverty and Inequality Commission in 2017–18, but its design will be critical.
This report, produced in collaboration with the Fraser of Allander Institute, explores the scale of inequality in Scotland and the drivers behind it. The report examines some, but not all, of the intersecting and overlapping dimensions of economic inequality and poverty – as well as potential policy responses and the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
The report then explores lessons from the work of previous commissions and makes a series of recommendations for the Scottish government as it establishes the new Poverty and Inequality Commission.
Topic:
Poverty, Governance, Inequality, and Economic Inequality
This discussion paper was commissioned by Oxfam’s UK Programme to understand why certain occupations in the UK labour market, traditionally dominated by women, are low-paid. The paper argues that jobs associated with traditional and outdated notions of ‘women’s role in the home’ extends into the jobs market. This affects attitudes towards remuneration in professions such as cleaning and caring.
The paper sets out a framework for understanding the risks of low pay and to explore the issue of the undervaluing of low-paid jobs with respect primarily to women. The author calls these the five ‘V’s: visibility, valuation, vocation, value-added and variance, and sets out a possible series of policy responses.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Poverty, Labor Issues, Inequality, Income Inequality, and Labor Rights
The world faces twin challenges: delivering a decent standard of living for everyone, while living within our environmental limits. These two concerns are brought together in Oxfam's Doughnut model, which visualizes a space between planetary boundaries and a social floor where it is environmentally safe and socially just for humanity to exist. Here, The UK Doughnut: A framework for environmental sustainability and social justice suggests areas of life that might constitute a social floor below which no-one in the UK should fall, and begins the process of identifying which environmental boundaries might be useful for incorporation into a national UK analysis. The report provides a snapshot of the UK's status by assessing its current position against the suggested set of domains and indicators.
We live on a fragile planet which is under increased human stress, to the extent that we are transgressing several of the planetary boundaries as mapped out by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC). We share this planet with over seven billion fellow human beings, too many of whom face extraordinary challenges in building a life free of poverty, indignity, powerlessness and fear. While a small number of people are using the most resources, simultaneously too many are unable to lead lives in which they can flourish and live with dignity.
The combination in the UK of economic stagnation and public spending cuts is causing substantial hardship to people living in poverty. This amounts to a 'Perfect Storm' of falling incomes, rising prices, public service cuts, benefit cuts, a housing crisis, and weak labour rights. By making different political choices, the government can both protect people in poverty and help to stimulate economic recovery in the short term, and set the UK on the way towards economic, social and environmental sustainability in the long term.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Poverty, Labor Issues, and Financial Crisis
The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) is an analytical model that seeks to build on the existing assets and strategies that people living in poverty use to support themselves, and then to identify what needs to change in order for their livelihoods to become more secure and sustainable.
Topic:
Humanitarian Aid, Political Economy, Poverty, and Political Theory
This report has grown out of Oxfam's commitment to tackling the poverty of black and minority ethnic (BME) women in the UK. It aims to improve our understanding of BME mothers' experiences of poverty, to address the way in which the poverty of BME mothers is hidden from conventional data collection, to raise awareness amongst policy-makers and practitioners of the material circumstances of low-income BME mothers, and to improve the ways in which poor BME women are supported to secure greater assets and resources.
UK asylum policy has increasingly restricted asylum seekers' access to welfare support, both while their application is being processed and if they are refused. Over recent years, there have been growing concerns about the scale and impact of destitution among refused asylum seekers. It is estimated that 283,500 refused asylum seekers we re living in the UK in 2005, and this number seems likely to have increased (NAO 2005). Existing evidence suggests that many asylum seekers have been destitute for more than six months and a significant proportion for more than two years. This strongly indicates that refused asylum seekers are prepared to face long periods of destitution in the UK rather than returning to their country of origin.