Child protection news

23 May 2007

The Unicef report which placed Britain at the bottom of a child well-being league has been analysed by a statistician who said the figures are far more of a reflection on England.

Dr Kevin McConway told BBC Radio 4's More or Less programme that although the UK was at the bottom of the list of 21 industrialised nations, the figures were much more pertinent to England rather than Wales or Scotland.

The Unicef report was based on 40 different indicators including health, relationships, family and poverty.

Dr McConway, from the Open University, said: "In the Unicef report - which placed the UK at the bottom - in terms of the data they got from the WHO they only used the English data.

"For example they asked 11, 13 and 15-year-olds if they found other classmates kind and helpful - England did very badly on that with only 40 per cent but in Scotland and Wales it was much higher - it was two thirds in both of those areas.

"This would have put Scotland and Wales in the middle of the pack of other countries covered in the Unicef survey, whereas England is doing pretty badly."

On the numbers of children who said they liked school, Scotland and Wales registered 24 per cent while England obtained just 19 per cent.


© Adfero Ltd