A-Level Links

Welfare and Poverty

  
Welfare    
Social Policy   The Workhouse  
This site, from Robert Gordon University, offers an extensive range of well-written notes focused around the concept of welfare. This extends into a wide range of areas (from family life, through education and deviance, to social inequality and stratification) and provides a way of integrating social policy issues across the whole Specification. A nice historical site tracing the development, in words, pictures and sound, of the workhouse, from its 17th century origins to its "heyday" as a tool of welfare policy in Victorian Britain. It's a large site containing a wealth of information, not just in terms of general welfare policy but touching on areas like health and education in the 19th century (the Timeline is also worth exploring for a brief history of welfare in our society).
JRF Bookshop      
It's not often you get "Stuff4Free" but this, my friend, might just be your lucky day (presupposing the stuff you're after relates to things like "Women, Faith and Social Cohesion" or "Participation and community on Bradford’s traditionally white estates" - not, it has to be admitted, high on most people's required reading lists).  
Poverty    
Institute for Research on Poverty   The New Inequality  
Although this site is aimed at an American audience, the kinds of questions it ask ("How is poverty measured?", for example) are applicable to a much wider audience. As well as general empirical information about US poverty you'll find a range of useful links to poverty-related sites around the world. This is the text of an article called "9 characteristics of the New Inequality in Europe". It's probably best-used as a discussion piece...
Causes of Poverty   Townsend Centre  
As the name suggests, this is a site about poverty and its causes - but you'll also find a wealth (sic) of information relating to poverty around the world in general. Much of the information - although presented clearly and relatively concisely will require some sort of context from teachers to make it understandable for A-level students. However, if you're looking for resources for classroom discussion / reading this site will be a valuable first port of call. The Home Page for the latest "Poverty and Social Exclusion Survey of Britain" is not only useful for the empirical material it provides (in both summary and full-report formats) but also for the opportunity it gives students to examine a range of methodological issues - from definitions and measurements of poverty to questionnaire construction (you can, for example, download the questionnaire used in the survey).
New Internationalist   New Policy Institute  
Although somewhat dated now (it was originally published in 1988) this series of slides on the "Politics of Greed" is part of a wider examination of the New Right economic policies that dominated Western societies during the 1980's. The material's still useful, however, for historical and comparative and theoretical purposes. Poverty and Social Exclusion PublicationsThe Publications section of this "Think Tank" site offers a range of research materials (the majority of which are available for download in full / summary form) relating to Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK - not everyday reading, perhaps, but certainly useful for teachers wanting to access up-to-date information about these topics.