From transmitted deprivation to social exclusion

This chapter focuses on the way that New Labour has chosen to tackle social exclusion and child poverty from its election in May 1997, relating this to CASE research and to work on poverty dynamics, and looking in particular at the Sure Start initiative. It argues that these, along with the focus on transmission mechanisms and intergenerational continuities, point to marked continuities with the 1970s debate over transmitted deprivation. It also looks at other pressures, most notably those around antisocial behaviour and at Blair's JRF speech on social exclusion on 5 September 2006. It argues that New Labour started out with a focus on social exclusion. Blair's Beveridge Lecture on child poverty came out of the blue and the government was increasingly drawn into debates about antisocial behaviour. New initiatives on social exclusion mean that the continuities with transmitted deprivation are now much stronger than ever before.