Social Dilemmas in the UK: Navigating Racial Discrimination and Poverty Through Policy Frameworks

Executive summary:

Social contemporary issues are associated with unhealthy practices that interfere with people’s political, legal and financial rights in the community. Through addressing the social issues, social and community people will be able to improve their professional skills and personal abilities in term of determining and meeting the social needs of the community people. In addition to this, the study also conclude that by improving overall strategies of tackling the contemporary social issues, it is possible to improve the financial, social and financial framework of the country. In current era, the UK faces large number of social issues such as marginalisation, poverty, racial discriminating, child labour, social bias, gender inequality, superstition and illiteracy. Contemporarily social issues have posed large impact on the macro environment as well as micro environmental condition of the UK. This report is going to highlight the historical context two current important contemporary social issues such as racial discrimination and poverty in the UK. The report will also describe how the policies and legislation in the UK will address the overall social contemporary spoil issues.

A. Report

Introduction:

Contemporary social issues are referred as any undesirable condition that is opposed either by a section of the society or by the entre society. In current era, the UK faces large number of social issues such as marginalisation, poverty, racial discriminating, child labour, social bias, gender inequality, superstition and illiteracy. Contemporarily social issues have posed large impact on the macro environment as well as micro environmental condition of the UK. This report is going to highlight the historical context two current important contemporary social issues such as racial discrimination and poverty in the UK. In addition to this, the report is also going to describe the impact of current contemporary social issues on the legislation as well as policies in the UK. The report will also describe how the policies and legislation in the UK will address the overall social contemporary issues.

Analysing influence of historical antecedents on the on current social and community work policies:

While it comes to describe the historical context of current contemporary social issues in the UK, it is important to describe the changes that the UK had experienced in its social, political and legal framework from the ancient era. Social history of the UK starts during 1945 with the result of Second World War (Dermott and Main, 2017). The war had adverse impact on the overall economic as well as political aspects of the UK which not only pose potential impact on the overall policies and legislation of the country but also impact on the living standard and income level of the people. Racial discrimination and poverty are the two potential contemporary social issues which had begin in the UK from early 50s. Although the legislative and political situation in the UK had been worsen during the 1950 after the Second World War, the racism became most wide spread in the UK during the last 1960s. During this time, the word ‘Race hatred’ was frequently used by the British. According to Assari and Moghani Lankarani (2018), in the ancient time, blackish British are widely discriminated by the whitish people in the UK. After the World War II, there are many groups and colonies which have large number of blackish individuals who had faced frequent case of marginalisation and the poverty which not only impact on their psychology but also on their physical health. In this aspect Allen et al. (2019) argued that, racial discrimination poses adverse impact mostly on the overall psychology and behaviour of victims rather than on their physical condition. By the mid 18th centuries, British society had the slave owners, who had violent and brutal attitude towards their slave. During early 1950, London has large number of Black British communities who not only suffered from severe poverty but also were devoid of their fundamental rights and freedom. Poverty and racial discrimination goes hand-on-hand in the UK, in which the main sufferer was the blackish community people, who belonged to face lower economic condition and lower social background. This discrimination only affected on their social values but also eliminate their chances of getting any type of government advantages in the UK. In order to address the racial discrimination, the British government has set the first legislation is, Race Relation Act, 1965. On the contrary Colwell (2016) argued that, although British government had set act reading elimination of the racial discrimination, it was not sufficient to deal with the huge number of the racial activities that were performed in this country, rather the government needed to focus on the implementation of the act in order to eliminate the chances of anyone facing racial discrimination. On the parallel way with racism discrimination, poverty was also one of the most common social contemporary issues that were faced by the overall economically backward community in the UK. After 1834, British government had set the Poor Law Amendment Act, in which the poor people in the rural areas are sent to the urban areas in terms of providing them better accommodation, housing facilities and jobs. Another important law that was also set by the UK government in early 18th century was, the Settlement Law, which was formed and implemented with the view on providing better accommodation to the poor people with minimum rate in the urban areas. During the late 18 the century, this law was effective for the poor people in London in term of reducing the rate of the accommodation for the poor ratepayers. During the late 19th century, the Poor Law was reformed by the UK government in order to set the Group or Union for poor groups of community each union worked on building workhouse for the poor people in the group. The union was assignment to transfer the overall relief that was set by the UK government to the poor people in the community. After the late 50s, the UK government began to consider the two contemporary social issues such as racial discrimination and poverty with great concern. For example, to deal with marginalisation as well as poverty in the UK community the British government had set Relief System, New Poor Law, Poor Law Board, Royal Commission and National Assistance Act during late 50s. All these reformers played important roles in changing the psychology and behaviour of the rich and whitish people towards poor and blackish community. On the contrary Dale et al. (2016) argued that, although these reforms were highly effective in terms of changing the psychology of UK based whitish people, sometimes the poor implementation of these political reforms in rural areas makes the people residing in the poor and deprived community still face discrimination, social exclusion and marginalisation.

During the early 20th Century, British government had made effective changes in the overall Race Relation Act 1965. These acts had assisted the UK government to think on improving the overall social condition of the poor and racially discriminated people with providing them better social, political and legal advantages. For example, during late 20s, many social campaigns had been conducted by the British government in terms of promoting the equal political, legal and social opportunities for the community people. In addition to this, UK government also focused on developing the overall financial condition of the community people, by increasing their chances of getting proper jobs in the urban areas. On the contrary Darden (2019) argued that, improving the economic standard or reforming the laws are not the sole resolution in terms of dealing with the racial discrimination and poverty, rather the UK government needs to focus on improving the overall psychology of the community people will make the positive transformation of their behaviour as well as activities towards the blackish as well as deprived people in the community.

From the above-mentioned analysis of historical context of racism and poverty in the UK community, it can be stated that the UK have large and intense history of these two social issues which have impact on the overall political, legal, social and demographic condition of the country. From the evidence it is clear that the UK had experienced several changes in the social policies and legislations since the World War II, which impacted on the overall viewpoint of the community people in the UK regarding the racial discrimination and poverty. From the overall analysis it is also clear that the UK government still needs to focus on reforming the social, economic and political framework to deal with two selected contemporary social issues. In this context, the UK government needs to make relevant reforms on the overall legal, social and financial condition which will assist the political and social leaders to deal with the two contemporary issues in effective manner.

Describing how legislation and inquiries have addressed the current social contemporary issues:

Racial discrimination and poverty are the two major contemporary social issues in the UK, regarding which the UK government has set relevant acts, policies and legislations to assist poor and racially discriminated community in to UK top get their political, social and legal rights (Drydakis et al. 2018.). By setting the Equality Act 2010, the British government has made it obligatory for all citizens, group and community in the country to must not discriminate people based in their nationality, race and body colour. This act also states that, people in the UK with any national and ethnic origin should have the equal facilities and freedom and right in this country regarding any aspect of their professional and personal life. On the contrary Desmond and Western (2018) argued that, several studies have shows that, in the UK people residing the poor and interior community are still discriminated based on the nationality, ethnic origin and body colour which not only pose adverse impact on the mental health but also pos impact on their physical health. In order to improve the impact of Equality Act in the community, the British government has made effective reformed in the Race Relation Act 1968. The intention of reforming this act was to make proper implementation of the principles of Equality act which will assist the community people in the UK to get equal right as well and social, political and economic facilities.

On the other hand, in term of dealing with increasing rates if poverty on this country, British government has reformed the principles of Child Poverty Act 2010. The reason of this reform was eradication of the child poverty in nth community by providing them better education, living standard and nutrition. According to Wong (2020), in terms of eradicating the poverty in the community the most important step is eradication of child poverty as the child are the future of a country. In this context, the UK government has made the Child Poverty commission, that assist the British government in determining socio-economic condition of children living the lower economic background society. Child Poverty Commission works on reformed principles of Child Poverty Act 2010, which assist the, to understand how the physical, nutritional, financial, educational and psychological needs to deprived children in the UK would be met in right manner. The UK government has also set the Welfare Reform and Work Act, 2016, which abolish the Child Poverty Act 2010, in terms of focusing on the finical condition of the entire community people rather than focusing on determining the socio-economic condition of the children. On the contrary Walsh and Yun (2018) argued that, although the UK government has made proper reformation of different policies rereading the racial discrimination and poverty, the government is unable to make proper implementation of these laws into society. In this context the UK government has taken some actions such as Social Justice Transforming Lives’ and Social Justice Outcomes Framework. These two policies are proved to be effective in addressing the racial discrimination and poverty. In addition to this, the UK government has taken First National Child Poverty Policy during 2011, which has worked on both the two selected such as racial discrimination and poverty. In addition to this, the UK government has also set Second National Strategy for reducing child poverty which focus on eradicating poverty, social marginalisation and social exclusion of the children in poor community of the UK.

Describing how the contemporary social issues have influence on the social and community work on the micro level:

The selected contemporary social issues such as racial discrimination and poverty have potential impact on the community and social work at micro level. Due to huge number of poor and racially discriminated people in the community many NGOs and social working groups focus on conducting the anti-discriminatory and equality training program for the community people, in order to make positive changes in the behaviour, activities and psychology of the community people. As mentioned by Varcoe et al. (2019), through making proper positive transformation of the behaviour and psychologies of the community people. It is possible to eradicate the racial discrimination. In addition to this, social practitioners are now more active in using new technologies such as installing new application program and software to make easy connection with people from deprived community and background in term of understating their socio-economic condition as well as determining their needs. on the contrary Thorat (2017) argued that, in order to deal with the contemporary social issues, it is not sufficient to only communicate with victims and determine their needs, rather the government needs to assists the social workers and NGOs to conduct the professional training and self-assessment program for the community people process that will improve the overall economic condition of the deprived people in the UK community. With rising number of racism and poverty in the urban, rural and inferior community in the UK, social and community welfare commission focus on improving the principles of the health and social care policies in term of providing the proper rights and freedom to community people regarding their attaining of the social, political and legal benefits.

Outlining the ways in which the contemporary social l issues influence the social policies and reform on macro level:

According to Stepnisky (2019) the policies that are set to deal with the contemporary social issues pose important impact on the social and community work on the macro level. Fr example, the Race relation Act, 1965 and its reforms have important impact on the overall political,, social and legal system of the UK. In order to eradicate the racism, many campaigns, training programs and NGOs activities are launched that pose positive impact in the political, social and economic framework of this country. The current reforms of policies and act assists the UK government to implement the overall social policies in better manner in the society which will leads to proper improvisation of the political, economic and social framework in the UK. On the other hand, Welfare Reform and Work Act, 2016 has important impact on the overall economic condition of the UK. Under this policy, several NGOs, social workers and local welfare committee focus on conducting profession training and development program for the deprived community people in order to assist the to get a good job that can improve their overall economic condition. On the other this policy assist the social workers to determining the socio-economic needs to the community people, which assisted the UK government to reform, the overall social framework by setting relevant policies and acts that can eradicate poverty.

B. Refection:

Introduction:

Reflection in the health and social care is the process of evaluating own understanding, experience and performance in the health and social care context. This reflective part of the assignment is going to depict experience of the contemporary social issues in own areas of practice. This reflective study is going to discuss impact on contemporary social issues community and social policies. In addition to this reflective study also aims to identify the strategies that need to be taken in the own practice areas in order to deal with impact of the contemporary social issues on the community and social policies. Finally this reflective study will also focus on the connection between the own professional development and contemporary social issues.

Summarising the contemporary social issues in own practice area using the relevant theme:

In my workplace, one of the most common contemporary social issues that I have experienced is racial discrimination. According to Mikati et al. (2018), racial discrimination is associated with discrimination of people regarding their nationality and ethnic origin in terms of getting the political, social, financial and governmental benefits in the community. Being a social,, worker I worked with social workers and services users belonging to different community and ethnic background. By using the theme of valuing and promoting the difference and diversity in the in own work area, I try to use the racism in positive way. In my work place there are many whitish British people who behave brutally and violently with the blackish staffs belonging to economically lower community and lower social background. Even, as I belong to the South Indian blackish community, in most of the cases I have faced the racial discrimination in terms of getting proper support, equal rights and official benefits. In this aspect Logie et al. (2018) mentioned that, valuing the diversity in workplace, it is possible to use the innovative ideas and thought that will assist workplace as well as workforce to improve its productivity. In my workplace, when I work in different teams with people belonging to different culture, nationality and ethnic background, I use to value the diversity in their opinions and work process which assisted me to take effective strategies in dealing with the contemporary social issues such as discrimination and bias. For example, during the early tears of my working, I had experienced partiality in getting financial and legal benefits in the workplace, in which whitish staffs get more advantages than the blackish staffs. In this context, I think that, my team leaders and the higher officials needs to use the theme of valuing the diversity and difference in the people, which will assist the, to use the strength of individual staffs in order to build the strong workforce which will, assist the company to grab high level of competitive in the society and enhance their chances of meeting the goals.

Theme: promoting and valuing difference, diversity and inclusion:

According to Colwell (2016), if social and community workers want to deal with the racial discrimination they need to focus on using the diversity of culture, ethnicity and religion of people into right way which will be productive and highly fruitful for the entire community. In my workplace, I use to respect the diversity in thoughts, behaviour and preference of different staffs that belong to different nationality and ethnic groups. Through using the diversity in positive way, I use to take effective strategies that will assist me and my team to cope with any kind of difficulties. For example, being a senior healthcare staffs I use to involve all the staffs in my team regardless of their ethnicity and nationality in terms of giving their valuable decision regarding health and social care activities such as ways of determining the needs of service users, implementing effective strategies to cope with changing needs of service users and promoting the physical and mental wellbeing of the community people. On the other through valuating the diversity of working process and work strategies of different staffs in my team, which assisted me to introduce creativity as well as innovation in the overall work culture of the workplace. On the contrary Moghani Lankarani (2018) argues that, involving diverse thoughts and opinions in a team can create conflict among the team members which can interfere with maintaining positive work culture in the workplace. In this context, in try to maintain strong communication with all the team members of different ethnic and nationality background, which assist the me and my team members to maintain proper understanding among us. On the other hand, I also show respect to the values and opinions of different staffs belonging to different background in my team which assisted them to feel valued in the workplace. Therefore, I can state that valuing the difference in decision, opinion ad thoughts will assisted me and my workplace to build a competitive and productive team that is able to deal with changing social and community issues in the society.

Reflect on the fact that how tackling the contemporary social issues will improve the social and community service provision and reduce the social inequality:

According to Lee et al. (2016), through tacking the contemporary social issues in the society, it is possible to improve the overall community and social policies. During my work setting, I have experienced the incidence of racism, discrimination and bias which interfere with the ethical and moral values of the organisational policies and regulation. In order to deal with these social, issues , our higher officials such as managers, senior supervisors and the team members focus in determining the route of social contemporary issues that is going on in the workplace and pose severe negative impacts on the overall work process. Some important strategies that are used by the managers and higher officials in my workplace to deal with racial discrimination are, communicating with the staffs who face the discrimination and racism, regular supervising of the overall activities and behaviour of suspected staffs and communication with the whistleblowers. Through using these strategies in order to deal with racial discrimination, it is possible for me and the other social and healthcare staffs to improve the chances of getting all the social, healthcare and economic support in the community. In addition to this, through tackling of the racial discrimination as well as other social issues in workplace, I and my higher officials can improve the physical and psychological condition of the community people who have experienced the discrimination and bias. According to Kwarteng et al. ( 2016), tackling social issues in the workplace not only assist the staffs to be protected from any kind of social issues such as bias, discrimination and marginalisation, but also assist the people residing in deprived society to get the social, financial and political freedom and rights. In this context, I and the other social and community care staffs in my workplace have assisted the overall society in terms of getting proper financial, social and demographic support which will improve financial condition and living standard of people. In addition to this, my team also encountered the socio-economic and healthcare needs of community people while talking the social contemporary issues in the workplace. This assisted the team members in my team to understand what strategies will be highly relevant to meet healthcare, financial and educational needs of the service users in community. Therefore from the overall, discussion it can be stated that through tackling the overall social contemporary issues in the workplace, the social and community workers can promote the physical and psychological wellbeing of entire community people. In addition to this through dealing with the racial discrimination and bias in the workplace, my team was able to implement the effective strategies as well as social and community policies in the society to protect people who are victims of contemporary social issues from the recurrent incident of discrimination, bias, marginalisation social exclusion and several other social issues.

Reflect on how tackling the social contemporary issues in practice area will improve the community and social service provision:

According to Dale et al. (2016), through talking the overall social contemporary issues in the service areas, it is possible for social workers to improve community and social service provision. In my workplace, I use to focus on following and implementing the strategies that are developed by the higher officials to tackle the contemporary social issues to ensure that all staffs and service users in the workplace will be protected from any kind of violation, abuse, discrimination and bias. Through tackling these social issues, the higher officials and team leaders in workplace have made reforms in the overall community and social care policies. For example, my team leader and supervisors have focused on following the health And Social Care Act 2012, which assisted them to assure that all the community people will get the equal care and support. In addition to this, through reforming the policies of Equality Act 2010, the higher officials of my workplace have developed some effective organisational regulation which assisted me and the other social workers to assure that community people to get the equal rights freedom and facilities in political, social and legal aspects in the community. On the other hand, thorough using the principles of Poor Law and Race Relation Act 1968, the health and social care staffs in my workplace determine the economic and cultural condition of the community people in terms of determining their economic needs.

Define the relationship between the own professional development and the contemporary social issues:

According to Darden (2019), eradication of the contemporary social issues is associated with the professional development of the social and community are staffs. While determining contemporary social issues and developing strategies for dealing with these issues, I and my team mates use to focus on shaping our professional skill to enhance the accuracy in tackling the contemporary social issue. In this context, I use to improve my communication skill, which assai me to communicate with the community people regarding their issues such as discrimination bias, marginalisation and abuse. In addition to this, I also focus on improvingly written and verbal communication skill, which assisted me to use simple English in documenting the several contemporary social issues that is faced by the community people. While tackling to the contemporary socio issues, I also shape my time management and analysing skill which assisted me to take proper strategies in right time by analysing and determining the overall social, economic and financial condition of the community people.

Conclusion:

From the overall discussion it can be concluded that, social contemporary issues are associated with unhealthy practices that interfere with people’s political, legal and financial rights in the community. Through addressing the social issues, social and community people will be able to improve their professional skills and personal abilities in term of determining and meeting the social needs of the community people. In addition to this, the study also conclude that by improving overall strategies of tackling the contemporary social issues, it is possible to improve the financial, social and financial framework of the country.

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