Sub Dip and Extended Dip. Task 4

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:

Guardian newspaper story.

bbc.co.uk/news/education

BBC

Irish Times

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. 

Government document reviewing statutory and non-statutory services.

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. 

Citizenship and Diversity Task 2 Merit work

Here are some additional pointers for those of you wanting to do the merit work for Task 2 of the Citizenship and Diversity Unit. See earlier post for details on the pass criteria.
The assessment criteria for the Merit grade states:

 "Analyse the effectiveness of legal and humanitarian measures to protect citizens in the UK" (Merit).

 

The two key words in the criteria are "analyse" and "effectiveness".  So, analyse means to go into detail and identify how things, concepts, ideas and events are linked.  In other words, why do things happen they way they do?   "Effectiveness" referrs to how well something works or doesn't work as the case may be. In this case the criteria is asking you to look at how well the various measures aimed at protecting citizens work in reality.  The various measures are those aimed at protecting citizens from problems associated with issues of equality, diversity, freedom, civil rights etc.  

Here are some ideas for area to research further.  You don't have to use these but they might point you in the direction of some good stuff:

1. In the UK we have a right to free speech, but recently the founder of Wiki-leaks has had to fight against extradition to Sweden.  The Swedish government want to extradite him because he has been charged with sexual assault.  However, he has also exposed certain American state secrets and the Americans also want to extradite him and it would be easier for America to extradite him from Sweden than from the UK. What are the facts surrounding this case?  Who is in danger of being extradited and what are the real reasons?  What does this say about the effectiveness of those measures aimed at protecting UK citizens?
2. A few years ago a UK citizen hacked into the Pentagon computer system.  The Americans want to prosecute him for acts of terrorism.  The hacker claims he was doing the Americans a favour by exposing the weaknesses in their computer security.  Has he been extradited to the USA or is he still fighting?  What are the facts? What does this say about those measures again?
3. Recently the NHS has suggested that they be allowed to sell patient information to drugs companies.  The NHS claims this will help people get the right medication more quickly.  Other people claim that this is just a way for the NHS to make money.  Other people are worried about sensitive medical information being lost or being used to target vulnerable people with aggressive advertising material.  What are the facts?  What measure are being used or misused here?  Which measures should protect people's privacy?  What do you think?
4. More general issues relate to the amount of CCTV we have in the UK.  Is this an abuse of your right to privacy? Or does it protect you from crime? What are the facts? What are the issues?  The police can use number plate and face recognition software in their CCTV.  Do they have the right to know where I am at any one time?  Should you be put under surveillance if you haven't done anything wrong?  
5. You may have seen on the new the stories about the anti-capitalism camps in London outside St Paul's cathedral and in other cities in the Uk and around the world.  The people involved are allegedly protesting against the banking crisis and agains the capitalist system in general.  Whilst their protests have largely been peaceful, the Metrapolitan police have listed them as a 'Terrorist Group'.  Is this justified?  Does this infringe on their right to peacful protest and free speech?  Are the police right to be cautious?  What does this say about society in general in the UK?  How can you make your voice heard if you are not allowed to protest?  What do you think?  
6. Some years ago, any female member of the armed forces who became pregnat was immediately given six months notice of being made redundant.  The armed forces claimed that they could not justify keeping women on active service once they had chosen to have a family.  A number of women challenged this.  What was the outcome?  Why did the women challenge this situation? Which laws and human rights were used to argues the various points of view? What do you think?
7. Women have just been allowed to join the Royal Navy's submarine service.  Is this a good thing or a bad thing?  Why were women not allowed in submarines?  Why has the Navy changed it's policy? What laws and human rights were used? How effective were the laws and human rights at protecting the rights of female members of the Royal Navy? 

That should be enough for you to be getting on with.  Research two or three current issues and look at how they are addressed by the press, the authorities and by society.  What, if any, civil liberties are threatened and why?  Whay do you think they are being threatened?  How effective are the laws and social norms and values at protecting citizens?  

Deadline for Task 2 is the end of the first week back: Friday 6th January. 2012.

Extended Diploma and Subsidiary Diploma.

Hi Level 3 students.
The following should help you to do a better job of Task 1 of the citizenship and diversity unit.
There is some very useful information for all of you, if you read on. 

Task 1. 
P1, P2 and P3
A few of you have asked me about the P2 criteria for Task 1. This requires you to Discuss the key concepts associated with Diversity.  This mean you need to define the concepts (ideas) and talk about what you think it means to society and to you personally.  You need to choose at least 4 or 5 terms that are specifically relevent to diversity and go into a more detailed discussion about them.   For P1 you should explain the meanings associated with at least 18 of the following:

1. Harassment
2. Victimisation
3. Disability
4. Direct and indirect discrimination
5. Racism
6. Multiculturalism
7. Sexism
8. Homophobia
9. Integration
10. Tolerance
11. Rights and responsibilities
12. Apartheid
13. Segregation
14. Positive action (in relation to recruitment)
15. Religion
16. Social Class
17. Corporate social responsibility
18. Equality
19. Prejudice
20. Equal opportunities
21. Ethnocentricity
22. Institutional Racism

This can form a seperate leaflet if you want and you should use illustrations to support your ideas. If you have already handed in your task 1 but you don't think you have addressed all these concepts then you should produce an additional illustrated leaflet covering this criteria.  For P1 you need to explain what is meant by the above terms.  For P2 you should discuss them including what you think about them.  What do they mean to you as a citizen?


For P3, all you need to do is assess the benefits of good citizens to the public services and society in respecting equality.  In this bit you need to talk about our responsibilities as citizens. e.g. volunteering (what opportunities are there for volunteering localy), serving the community (e.g. PCSOs, Life Boat, DofE), protecting the environment etc.  Think about how you can become involved these sort of things locally.