Children and work in the UK : reassessing the issues

This is a comprehensive review of the role and extent of children's work in the UK in the late 1990s.

It traces the historical roots of child labour from the industrial revolution through to today's part-time jobs, and examines how these fit alongside compulsory education.

With contributions from a range of practitioners, academics and social scientists, this text looks at: what children themselves think of the work they do; which children work and why; whether work is healthy or harmful; what can be learned from the experiences of children working in developing countries; and why attitudes towards part-time paid work and school-based work experience schemes are so different.

With the regulations governing child employment in the UK currently under review, and Britain about to sign uup to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Minimum Age Convention on child labour, this book makes a number of policy recommendations which should inform any future debate on the issue.