Tens of thousands of UK teenagers neglected at home, report says

Posted on December 1, 2016December 4, 2016 By Chris

Survey of year 10 pupils suggests one in seven experience some form of neglect, risking their physical and emotional health.

teenage-boys

A survey commissioned by the Children’s Society found that one in seven 14- and 15-year-olds had experienced at least one form of neglectful parenting, the equivalent of three to four students in every year 10 classroom.

Emotional and supervisory neglect were the joint most common forms reported by year 10 pupils and the former was associated with teenagers being more likely to engage in risky behaviour.

Those who said they had experienced emotional neglect were more than twice as likely than their peers to have got drunk recently, nearly three times as likely to have smoked and more than twice as likely to have skipped lessons.

Neglected teenagers were also significantly more likely to be dissatisfied with their lives, pessimistic about their futures and lacking confidence in their abilities. Children who reported frequent support from parents were more likely to have higher levels of wellbeing. Young people who were materially deprived were more likely to be neglected than their peers.

The Children’s Society said that the problems stem partly from an incorrect perception that teenagers needed less care and support than younger children. It wanted to see better support and advice for parents bringing up adolescents.

The Children’s Society chief executive, Matthew Reed, said:

“No child should be left feeling that no one cares about them. Teenagers are often seen as more resilient than younger children. But of course they still need care from their parents to meet their needs, support their education and keep them safe.

“Our research makes clear the central role of parental care and emotional support to the wellbeing of young people. With little dedicated advice readily available for parents of teenagers, we need to provide more support to parents bringing up teenagers, not to blame them. The government has a massive role to play in making sure the needs of teenagers, and their parents, are never forgotten. Society must not give up on teens.”

Recommendations in the report, published on Tuesday, include parenting classes for families with adolescent children, training on understanding adolescent neglect for frontline education, health and youth justice workers and more work to enable young people to recognise neglectful situations and know what help is available.

The University of York polled a representative sample of about 2,000 young people aged 12 to 15 in 72 schools for the report, asking them about their experiences of being cared for by their parents.

Halloween spending stays steady in the UK

Posted on October 31, 2016 By Chris

You may feel as though Halloween has a much higher profile these days than in the past, and there is evidence from Mintel and Conlumino (retail analysts) that sales of Halloween products have increased substantially.

But data from the ONS retail sales bulletin shows that the percentage of annual retail spending taking place in October has stayed steady since 1986 (at around 8.4%).

Download the data.

Man United break another record… their squad is worth 100% more than Liverpool’s

Posted on October 4, 2016 By Chris

CIES Football Observatory revealing that they have the most valuable squad of players in world football.

As their research into Europe’s top five leagues shows, Man United’s first-team squad cost €718m (£628m) to assemble, putting them ahead of Real Madrid and Manchester City.

Interestingly, Liverpool’s €356m (£311m) is less than half of Man United’s outlay, while title-winning Leicester have a squad worth just 18% of the Manchester rivals’ ranks.

Young Britons living in ‘suspended adulthood’

Posted on September 23, 2016October 29, 2016 By Chris

Despair, worries about the future and financial pressures are taking a toll on millions of young Britons, according to a poll which found young women in particular were suffering.

Low pay and lack of work in today’s Britain are resulting in “suspended adulthood”, with many living or moving back in with their parents and putting off having children, according to the poll of thousands of 18 to 30-year-olds.

Large numbers describe themselves as worn down (42%), lacking self-confidence (47%) and feeling worried about the future (51%).

The Young Women’s Trust, the charity that commissioned the research and polling, warned that Britain was facing a “generation of young people in crisis” as it called on the government to take steps including creating a minister with responsibility for overall youth policy.

Young women are being particularly affected. The percentage of women reporting that they lacked self-confidence was 54%, compared with 39% of young men.

While four in 10 young people said they felt worn down, the percentage for young women was 46% compared with 38% of men. One in three said they were worried about their mental health, including 38% of young women and 29% of young men.

How has the UK student population changed?

Posted on September 21, 2016 By Chris

September is the time in youth work where we say “hello” to new young people and goodbye to older young people who are making their way into employment or off to university.

The ONS has produced some very interesting data about student population in the UK.

Student numbers have almost doubled since 1992

Download the data

In the period March to May 1992, there were 984,000 people aged 18 to 24 in full-time education. In May to July 2016, there were 1.87 million, approximately 1 in every 3 people, aged 18 to 24 in full-time education.

Looking at the employment rate amongst this group you can clearly see students gaining employment during the holidays. Surprisingly for me, students in 2016 are less likely to be in employment than 20 years ago, with on average 35.4% having a job in June to August 2015 to May to July 2016 compared with 40.3% in the same period 20 years previously. However, those that do have a job are more likely to keep it throughout the entire academic year, this is reflected by the fact that the peaks and troughs in the data are less pronounced in 2016 than they were 2 decades ago.

Download the data

International student numbers have fallen and are at their lowest since 2007

Over a quarter of immigrants come to the UK for formal study. In 1977, there were 29,000 international students, rising to a peak of over 8 times this amount in 2010. However, recent years have seen a decline in long-term immigrants arriving to study, with numbers falling to 164,000 in the year ending March 2016.

Download the data

Suicide in England and Wales

Posted on September 9, 2016September 14, 2016 By Chris

10 September 2016 is World Suicide Prevention Day. It serves as a call to action to individuals and organisations to prevent suicide.

[slideshare id=65883263&doc=suicidepreventionwk-160910082529]

The World Health Organisation estimates that over 800,000 people die by suicide in the world each year, that’s 1 person every 40 seconds.

There were 5,199 suicides registered in England and Wales in 2015. Read the full overview of the latest suicide registration statistics.

YLG2016: State of the World

Posted on August 4, 2016August 9, 2016 By Chris

The third Lausanne Young Leaders Gathering is happening in Jakarta. YLG2016 is a gathering of 1,000 younger leaders from over 160 countries who will connect, pray, and discern together God’s leading of their generation for his global mission. It’s a privilege to be here and to share my notes of Jason Mandryk and Molly Wall from Operation World as they give their State of the World address.

Largest religion by country & population

Most religions still tend to be concentrated in particular regions, especially Hinduism, Buddhism and to some degree Islam. Christianity is the most global religion, 2.3 billion Christians in 38,000 denominations in every single country, with more cultures, ethnic groups, languages represented. It is easy to see the prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples to have unity is still as challenging as before.

For about 100 years Christianity represents one third of the world population. In 1960 29% of Evangelical Christians were living in Africa, Asia and Latin America, now in 2016 it is 78%, by 2020 it will be more than 80%. This is true not just for evangelicals but every stream of Christianity. We see that Evangelical Christianity is growing in 1960 there were 91 million (3%) now in 2016 there are 600 million + (8%).

Partnership

There is a greater degree of partnership and collaboration. This is partly due to the size and complexity of the church and mission but also an increased willingness and even desire to partner together.

Prayer

The global church is seeing a deliberate focus on prayer, for every one initiative you know there are ten you probably don’t know such as the Holy Ghost service in Nigeria seeing 1 million praying together, and others much smaller. Prayer is changing the church and the world.

Mission

In the last 25 years more people have entered the kingdom than in any other point of history. A lot of this has happened in the context of persecution and suffering. In 1960 50% of the world had never heard the gospel, now in 2016 it is about 29%. There are 600-650 ethno-languages that have not yet received any part of the gospel. Definitely mission has shifted from the West to the rest onto everywhere to everywhere – polycentric mission. There is also a lot more reverse mission, former receiving fields are sending missionaries to the sending countries, a lot of people trying to reach places such as London. The world’s mission force is more diverse in nationality, location, organisations and the range of activities we engage in.

Global Context

The story of humanity is a story of urbanisation from the garden of Eden to the City of revelation. From 2008 the world population shifted over 50% urban population. Cities contain not just the most people, but influence, energy, and more.

Human lifespan

Human lifespan is increasing, and the birth-rate is decreasing. By 2050 there will be as many people aged 60 and over as those aged 15 and under. In 1980 there were 100,000 who reached the age of 100. By 2050 there will be 4 million who reach the age of 100. This will impact employment, retirement and pensions, medical care, but also our Christian service opportunities.

Population Growth

As populations of global north decline (Japan, Germany etc.), half of all population growth will be in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia and Uganda. Or in other terms half of all population growth will be in Africa.

Poverty

Only 10% of the world lives in ‘extreme poverty’ according to the UN. That still means over 700 million are living in injustice, exploitation, environmental degradation. The 62 richest people in the world own as much wealth as 3.6 billion people (50% of the population).

Migration

Migration factors are the tip of the iceberg of the next 40 years. They will be the context for much of the most fruitful ministry.

Data

Which movie gets 7 sequels in the cinema and which one goes straight to DVD, which advertisement and posts you see in social media is decided by data. As the volume of data increases we are relying on others to prioritise and sort this. We are influenced by those most closely aligned to our own values which narrows our learning and prevents us from relating to those who are different to us, and so we then abuse them.

What does it mean to be human?

This is increasingly important to us as morals, ethics, science and technology pushing up against boundaries. Forming a sound biblical world view and ethic is essential.

As we look ahead we are facing critical unprecedented change.

The first Human Geno was sequenced in 2004 and cost hundreds of millions and took years. Machines can do 18,000 genos in 1 year. Long term strategic planning is nearly impossible

Complexity

The world is getting increasingly complex. It is impossible for one group to understand everything. Increasing uncertainty as the push of a button can end the world or the release of a virus. Our lives have never been more secure and comfortable and yet insecure. Terrorism happens everywhere.

The capacity to do the most good: all these technological changes mean we can communicate the good news to more people.

Secularism

We hear the narrative that religion is dying out but the global statistics doesn’t show that, in 2025 around 90% of the world will be religious. Secularism declined since the 1980s due to China and Russia.

Future Growth

Most future growth of the church will happen in Africa, Asia and Latin America, partly due to higher birth rates as well as large numbers of conversions. The global south will become an ever larger majority of the church. They will increasingly provide leadership and set the agenda for the global church. This is delayed somewhat from being proportionally represented as Western Christianity is very comfortable being in charge. But many current key leaders are from all over the global South: Pope – Argentina; World EA – Filipino, IFES – Chad, OMF – Hong Kong, SIM – Nigeria, Interserve – India, OM – Singapore

The % of unevangelised is smaller (50% down to 29%) but due to population increase it is actually 600,000 more people (1.5 billion to 2.1 billion). 80% of those working in cities live in a slum context and yet only 1 in 6 Christian missionaries work in a slum. Rural ministry can’t be ignored yet either.

There are 230 million migrants (5^th largest population by country size) with an average stay in a refugee camp of 17 years. They are not camps but cities.

81% of the world’s non-Christians don’t personally know a Christian. For hundreds of millions of people they are the only gospel they may encounter. There maybe Christians in every country but the spread is very uneven 90% to 0.001% of population.

Our Response

It is about the tough slug of discipleship and making disciples throughout the body of Christ and the world. We have to radically demonstrate the power and the love of the gospel. We must do it because the King of Kings has commanded us to do it, we must obey; but we can do it as the one with all power has commissioned us to do it and therefore we can.

An Infographic on Anonymous Apps and Teenagers

Posted on July 20, 2016July 24, 2016 By Chris

One of the most frequent questions I receive from parents is about apps that teenagers are using and what a caring parents perspective should be on them.

The team from Rawhide.org have released a helpful infographic which gives a quick and concise overview of these anonymous apps – something you can share with parents.

The future of Christianity and the Church of England in Britain

Posted on January 12, 2016 By Chris

The Economist recently did a feature on the future of Christianity and Anglicanism in Britain, which cites King’s Cross Church (KXC) in central London as an example of growth.

Church Growth Diocese

Here’s a few snippets:

Overall the drift down in church attendance continues, as new figures later this month will show. The proportion of people calling themselves Christian fell from 72% in 2001 to 59% in 2011. Those saying they have no religion rose from 15% to 25% in that period (including 177,000 claiming to be Jedi). The number of churchgoing Anglicans fell by 12%, and in 2013 stood at 1m. Some 19m baptised Anglicans do not attend church.

Hints of revival in parts of the Church of England point to broader changes. Traditionally, the established church has had an obligation to serve everyone who lives in a parish. Its churches have been the centrepiece for local and national events. But many Anglican churches that are growing, as in King’s Cross, are “network” churches. They meet in pubs and offices outside the parish system. Most are evangelical, emphasising a personal faith based on conversion rather than a cultural affiliation to a denomination. They believe in tithing—giving a tenth of their income to the church—which increases their influence as other congregations shrink and expectations of financial giving fall.

Evangelicals say the church is right not to be swayed by changing social mores. They emphasise being counter-cultural and point out that many churches which are growing run against the liberal flow. “What is dying in England is not Christianity but nominal Anglicanism,” says David Goodhew of Durham University, author of “Church Growth in Britain”. The share of evangelicals in the Church of England rose from 26% to 34% between 1989 and 2005, says Peter Brierley, a church demographer, and could now be nearly 50%.

Not all growth is evangelical. Attendance at cathedrals rose by 35% between 2002 and 2012. But four of the five most senior bishops in the Church of England, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, are from the evangelical tradition. They differ from their American counterparts, says Mr Spencer. “They are less focused on creationism and abortion and less right-wing politically.” Archbishop Welby and Nicky Gumbel, vicar of Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB), London’s most influential evangelical church, both have Cambridge law degrees. HTB has planted many churches in London and is doing so in the rest of England. They are conservative on issues like gay marriage, prompting accusations by liberals of bigotry.

To be fair, there is not much sign of bigotry at King’s Cross Church’s weekly drop-in for prostitutes, nor its programme to keep kids on rough housing estates away from gangs. Many evangelicals want to restore the tradition of conservative social engagement set by William Wilberforce. They sigh at their characterisation as hateful homophobes. “Everyone thinks they know what the church is against,” says Pete Hughes, the church’s youthful pastor. “We want to be known for the things we are for: proclaiming the love of God and showing it in our actions.”

The declining importance of denominational affiliation continues to put pressure on the parish system. With 9,000 of its 16,000 churches in rural villages, “it is not fit for purpose”, declares David Voas of Essex University. Network churches are “like a virtual community”, he says, better suited to the modern era.

As to the possibility of disestablishment, most think it is unlikely to happen. Politicians are barely involved any longer in choosing bishops. A majority of people say they want a Christian coronation for the next monarch, and no government would tie up parliamentary time unpicking the links between canon and civil law. So the Church of England will probably struggle on. Yet if it is to survive, this most traditional of English institutions must do more to adapt to a post-Christian world.

Christmas dinner was £5 cheaper in 2015

Posted on January 1, 2016 By Chris

The average cost of Christmas dinner has fallen by nearly £5 since 2014 meat, vegetable and drinks prices lower the cost of the festive set-piece, official figures have shown.

Based on the Office for National Statistics’ inflation data for 20 individual “Christmas” items, the cost of the meal – albeit substituting turkey steaks for a full turkey – has fallen from £105.78 to £100.84 in the past 12 months, a fall of just under 5 per cent.

Food prices – down 2.7 per cent year on year in November – have eased the pressure on household budgets. The figures showed double-digit falls in the cost of broccoli, carrots, cream crackers and back bacon in the past year. The price of turkey steaks has also fallen by more than 8 per cent, while the price of the single biggest outlay – champagne – has sunk 6 per cent from £30.74 to £28.85, the ONS said. The average cost of a bottle of red wine and port are also down almost 4 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.

Out of 20 items included by the ONS in the “Christmas dinner” inflation basket, only four – sponge cake, ice-cream, ground coffee and a box of chocolates – are more expensive than a year ago. The average cost of sponge cake rose by far the most sharply, up from 95p to £1.43, or more than 50 per cent.

Although this 2015’s Christmas dinner is cheaper compared to 2014, shoppers are still paying more compared to previous years. In 2008 the same basket of goods cost £88.41, while in 2010 the festive meal cost £92.43 – more than £8 cheaper than 2015.

Why are young people drinking less alcohol?

Posted on December 23, 2015 By Chris

There was a fascinating article published in New Statesman about how young people are drinking less and that individual alcohol consumption in Britain has declined sharply.

Whenever horrific tales of the drunken escapades of the youth are reported, one photo reliably gets wheeled out: “bench girl”, a young woman lying passed out on a public bench above bottles of booze in Bristol. The image is in urgent need of updating: it is now a decade old. Britain has spent that time moving away from booze.

Here’s some useful facts pulled from the article:

In 2013, the average person over 15 consumed 9.4 litres of alcohol, 19 per cent less than 2004.
As with drugs, the decline in use among the young is particularly notable: the proportion of young adults who are teetotal increased by 40% between 2005 and 2013.
80% of adults are making some effort to drink less
There are 13% fewer pubs in the UK than in 2002.

What children want for Christmas: a Dad

Posted on December 3, 2015December 2, 2015 By Chris

When it comes to Christmas, it might be safe to assume children will ask Santa for an extensive list of toys, games and treats. But a survey highlighted in The Telegraph of their typical lists for Father Christmas has shown many have more serious concerns, requesting “a dad” instead.

A study of 2,000 British parents found most children will put a new baby brother or sister at the top of their Christmas list, closely followed by a request for a real-life reindeer.

A “pet horse” was the third most popular choice, with a “car” making a bizarre entry at number four. But despite their material requests, the tenth most popular Christmas wish on the list was a “Dad”.

The survey, of consumers at Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City, found children aged three to 12 years also wanted a dog, chocolate and a stick of rock. Traditional hopes for a white Christmas were represented by a wish for “snow” in ninth place, with sensible youngsters also requesting a “house”.

Of the top 50 festive requests, 17 related to pets and animals, with some imaginative children hoping for a donkey, chicken and elephant.

iPhones and iPads also appeared on the list, with some quirky children asking for the moon, a time machine, a pond cover and beetroot. One child asked for Eva Longoria and another wanted Harry Styles from One Direction.

A request for a “mum” reached number 23 on the list.