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Chapter One Background: A Brief Review of Policy
Systematic research into child employment is a relatively recent phenomenon in Britain. While there were periods throughout the twentieth century when the topic received the attention of researchers it was only in the 1990s that a sustained period of research started, which has continued to the present day.
The emergence of this topic in the 1990s can be attributed in part to the publication of two reports at the start of the decade. The reports, The Hidden Army (Pond & Searle, 1991) and The Forgotten Workforce (Lavalette, McKechnie & Hobbs, 1991), drew attention to child employment in contemporary Britain. It has been argued that the significance of these early reports were that they challenged existing beliefs about child employment in Britain. For example, Lavalette, Hobbs, Lindsay & McKechnie (1995) suggested that three myths dominated any discussion of this area within Britain. These were:
- child employment in Britain was a minority experience
- if children did work they were employed in 'children's jobs'
- legislation was in place to monitor and protect child employees.
The research findings that emerged over the subsequent years challenged each of the myths identified by Lavalette and his colleagues. They argued that the research evidence pointed to the fact that child employment was a majority experience, that children worked in a wide range of jobs many of them comparable to adult forms of employment and finally that legislation was ineffective in monitoring or protecting child employees (See Hobbs and McKechnie, 1997 for a fuller discussion).
In the context of the current report, the conclusion that is of specific interest relates to the efficacy of legislation in this area. In Britain the existing legislation on child employment applies to those children under 16 years of age, that is children within compulsory education. The legislation (see below for a fuller explanation) sets minimum ages for employment, prohibits employment in certain sectors, sets maximum hours that can be worked, specifies when these hours can be worked and requires that employment is monitored. Research has shown that, irrespective of which of these criteria are used, the legislation is largely ineffective (Leonard, 1999).
While research in the 1990s was highlighting the issue of child employment, the topic's profile was increased because of a European Union initiative. In 1994 The EU passed the Directive on the Protection of Young People at Work, which was to come into force on the 22 nd June 1996. The intention of the directive is clear in that it sets out to ensure that the full-time employment of children under the age of compulsory schooling is prohibited and that part-time employment of children who are still in compulsory schooling is regulated (Cornwell, Graham & Hobbs, 1999; Hamilton, 2002).
The then Conservative Government's reaction was to seek an opt out from parts of the Directive. They were successful in this but had to bring policy into line with the directive by 2000. In 1997 when the Labour Party won the General Election, Chris Pond, a new Labour MP and an active campaigner on child employment issues (Pond & Searle, 1991), was successful in the ballot for a Private Members Bill. He indicated that it was his intention to introduce an Employment of Children Bill. The effect of this was to focus the new government's attention on their policy on children at work and the need to implement the EU directive.
The government announced its intention to carry out a full review of child employment legislation in Britain and agreed to the adoption of the EU Directive. Chris Pond in the light of the Government response withdrew his Bill. Early action from the Government identified the need for greater standardisation of the regulation of child employment. They introduced a set of model byelaws for local authorities. In doing so they continued with the practice of allocating the day-to-day implementation of policy to local government (Cornwell et al., 1999).
The review of child employment instigated at this time had a target date of June 2000 for reporting its findings. The outcome of this review has never been made public (Stack & McKechnie, 2002) and some have queried whether there was ever a final report produced (Hamilton, 2002). However, there was some change in policy with the introduction of the Children (Protection at Work) Regulations in 2000.
In recent months [2004] the Better Regulation Task Force ( BRTF), an organisation established by the government to comment on the relationship between policy and practice, have undertaken a review of legislation in this area ( BRTF, 2004). They have concluded that the legislation needs to be clarified and have made a series of recommendations (See Appendix 1). At the time of writing the government minister involved, Margaret Hodge, Minister for Children, Young People and Families, has responded indicating her acceptance, in principle, of the recommendations subject to some provisos. A period of consultation is to be undertaken. The net effect of this is that the Westminster government will be re-visiting the issue of child employment legislation.
Since child employment legislation is a devolved issue, the BRTF proposals do not apply to Scotland. However, national legislation may be amended to accommodate the BRTF proposals and this will, directly or indirectly, impact on all aspects of the UK.
The Present Study
From the brief overview outlined above it is apparent that concerns have been raised about the efficacy and consistency of practice in applying the legislation on child employment in Britain.
To date there has been no nationwide study in Scotland of policy and practice in this area. The present study aims to fill a specific gap in knowledge.
There are two distinct strands to the present review:
i) Legislation - the report outlines the current legislation within the context of Scotland and reviews existing local authority byelaws.
ii) Practice - since the implementation of policy in this area resides at the local level a review of the current practices of all Scottish local authorities is required to identify the extent of variability or consistency in practice.
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