Right from the beginning of this unit I have told you to regularly buy newspapers and to look through them for stories relating to equality, diversity and the public services. When we did the classroom activity with the newspapers making notes on the Stephen Lawrence case, I told you all that it would be a good idea to make some notes. This task will show whether you took that advice on board or not.
To pass task 4, you might find it useful to break the pass criteria into two distinct sections.
Section 1.
The media its reporting of current affairs that affect PS and citizens and the way the media report on issues involving the PS (P7 and P8).
For P7 you need to identify three real examples of current affairs which have had an impact on the public services. You need to summarise the actual news story and write about how that story affected the public services. Why did the story have an impact? What was the impact? What are the long-term consequences?
For P8 you need to look at how the media reports on issues that involve the public services. You did this for the Newspaper activity we did in class regarding the Steven Lawrence case. So, for this part of the task you need to describe the specific issue and how it involves the public services. You then need to present information on how the various media report on those current affairs. What is the intention of the newspaper? What do they want you to think? How would you describe their reporting style? Are they pro or anti public service? Support your argument with examples and referenced quotes.
You really do need to think about this task.
You cannot just simply paraphrase something you read from a textbook for this task. It needs to be up to date. So you need to find recent news stories and think about them. Think about the impact they have on public services and think about how stories about the public services are presented.
You might find some useful information or links if you follow the following links:
Don't forget, don't just repeat the news story in your own words. You must say why it has an impact on public services and citizens for P7 and for P8 you must talk about the style of reporting.
The Merit and Distinction grades:
If you intend to have a go at the merit and distinction grades (M4 and D3) you will need to go into some more detail.
M4 will require you to analyse the effects of three current affairs stories on the public services and on citizens. So you will need to identify the story, the effects on PS and citizens and say why the stories had the impact they had. You should be able to find stories relating to the War on Terror and it's impact on PS and citizens. Also think about recent stories relating to Public Sector Pensions.
D3 will require you to evaluate the impact that media reporting has citizens and on the public services in terms of the level of support they offer. This requires you to really look at how the media portrays the public services and the perception this creates of the level of support they offer. What is good and what is bad about the way the media reports on issues involving the public services?
Section 2.
The support available for citizens (P9).
P9 and M5 can form a separate piece of work if you like as the subject matter is different from P7 and P8. For P9 you need to do some research into the sort of support available for citizens from statutory and non-statutory public services. Statutory means there is a legal obligation for that service to be provided. Non-statutory means there is no legal obligation to provide a service. You will need to demonstrate that you know the difference between statutory and non-statutory organisations. Non-statutory support usually comes from voluntary or charitable organisations. For the merit grade (M5) you need to justify the involvement of non-statutory and statutory organisations in supporting citizens. In justifying this you should answer the question, ‘why is it important or useful for such services to be available?’.
To demonstrate that you know the difference between statutory and non-statutory, you could provide a list of examples in your introduction. Don't forget you don't just describe the organisations, in order to pass you MUST explain HOW they deliver the support they offer.
Here are some examples of statutory and non-statutory organisations to help you.
Statutory:
Police, Fire Service, Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, The NHS, Probation Service, Local Councils.
Non-Statutory:
Victim support, Help the Aged, Trade Unions, The Samaritans, The NSPCC, The Salvation Army, Child Line.
There are others and in order to pass P9 you will need to do some independent research.
Deadline for task 4 is Friday 3rd February.
