A new report says traditional views of a North-South divide and a similar
urban-rural split often mask the real picture of where deprivation actually
exists in Britain. The annual ‘Opportunity For All’ report for the first time
includes a particular focus on area-based disadvantage.

Read more on REPORTS POINT TO IMPROVEMENTS IN TACKLING POVERTY AND EXCLUSION…

The TUC is publishing plans today for a Union Academy, which will commission courses from colleges, universities and other providers to give working people learning where and how they want it. The Education Secretary, Charles Clark, is expected to back the Academy, which will also play an important role in promoting social mobility and social justice and helping individuals to play a fuller part in public and civil life.In a consultation document the TUC has set out its vision to help employers meet skills needs, assist working people to get on at work and in their personal life and to spearhead a drive to overcome problems, such as the five million people with basic skills difficulties.

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By David Byrne’Social exclusion’ is the buzz phrase for the complex range of social problems
which derive from the substantial increase in social inequality in Western
societies. This timely and engaging volume examines these problems in societies
where manufacturing industry is no longer the main basis for employment and the
universal welfare states established after the Second World War are under
attack. It reviews theories of social exclusion, including the Christian
democratic and social democratic assertions of solidarity with which the term
originated.

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