Meeting the needs of the deprived rural child: some recent findings from education and social services.

N THIS paper, I wish to discuss the problems of delivering personal social services to vulnerable children and young people in rural areas and to suggest ways in which current social work concepts can be adapted to a non-urban context. In tackling this question, I am initially faced with two formidable tasks, the first of which is defining deprivation. Clearly, in a short paper such as this, I cannot give full consideration to the extensive and distinguished literature on this topic. Also, although my focus is the child and adolescent in the village or hamlet rather than the small country town, it is not easy to decide what can be considered ’rural’ or with what other areas the quality of life in country districts should be compared. In considering writings about deprivation, it is clear that the term includes a plethora of deficiencies and denials of facilities that can and should be enjoyed. Some features and services of urban communities are simply not present in rural areas, such as take-away food shops and warm, indoor meeting places for adolescents. Other provision, such as play spaces and shops, will differ in their quality and style according to their particular location. Rural deprivation is, therefore, neither totally distinct from the national picture nor is it uni-dimensional in its effects. Rural areas will obviously vary enormously in the age and social class of their resident population and their prevailing standards of living, depending on such factors as their economic role and contribution to the wider geographical region in which they are located. Yet, it is clear that within any particular rural district the levels of deprivation are likely to be just as high as in nearby towns and cities. This is confirmed by the research surveys of Townsend and others which use a range of indicators of personal factors, such as income, housing, car ownership and community measures, such as housing waiting lists and proportions of elderly or unemployed. As the Association of District Councils have said about rural areas, &dquo;The same basic conditions of industrial decline, unemployment, poverty, housing and social stress that are found in urban communities also exist in various degrees of extent and severity. However, because these conditions are to be found in small