Policy Development and Comparison

1. Policy Development and Comparison Collaboration/ working together

2. Aims of Session • Get an overview of the aims of Every Child Matters (2004) and Children and Young People: Rights to Action (2004) • Get an understanding of the core aims of the two agendas • Group work - read and discuss key articles on ECM • Watch ECM legislation programme • Examine the how aims of CYP are being implemented

3. Recap • After a number of high-profile inquiries, there was growing pressure to deal with the inadequacies among those who dealt with Children • Between 1998 and 2001 8 inspectorates of public services carried out individual and joint inspections of local arrangements to safeguard children. • The Laming Inquiry – the report into the death of Victoria Adjo Climbie highlighted among other things, the failure of different services in contact with her to communicate with each other and intervene.

4. Other issues about the lives of children in the UK • The United Kingdom ranked in the bottom third in a sample of rich nations on five out of six measures of child well being (UNICEF, 2007). • Despite high levels of expenditure on attempts to eradicate it, truancy rates in England continue to rise (Paton, 2008). • Boys from black and ethnic minority communities are three times more likely to be excluded from school than white boys (REACH, 2007). Schools are using unofficial and informal forms of exclusion (which remain absent in official statistics), and girls appear more vulnerable to such forms of exclusion than boys (Osler et al, 2001)

5. There are significant, persistent and increasing health inequalities between children who live in disadvantaged communities and those who live in advantaged neighbourhoods (Reading, 1997; and Acheson, 1998). • Suicide rates amongst teenagers and young adults in England and Wales have increased three-fold since 1980 (Samaritans/Oxford, 2002). • Childhood obesity rates in the UK are among the highest per capita in the world (Wilson and Reilly, 2006). • The proportion of young people in England in custody is the third highest in Western Europe (behind Turkey and the Ukraine) (Janes, 2006). • Conception rates among under 18s and the incidence of serious sexually transmitted infections among young people in England are the highest in Europe (Reiss, 2006).

6. Aim of Every Child Matters • Simple, bold, aspirational statement of policy for children and young people • Formulated in response to a report by Joint Chief Inspectors and the findings of a public inquiry chaired by Lord Laming • Published along side these, ECM, a Green Paper, set out proposals for addressing immediate concerns identified in both reports. • It was quickly transformed into the Children Act, 2004. • It was ‘one of the most significant changes in local children’s services in living memory’ (Lownsborough and O’Leary, 2005, p.11).

7. As a means of supporting the Children Act 2004, the Government used ECM as a title for the suite of documents fundamental in driving forward its vision for organising and ‘delivering’ public services in ways, at times, and in places intended to enable every child and young person to become a full and active member of society.

8. So Every Child Matters is… • When we discuss Every Child Matters we are doing two things: • Talking about the Green Paper published in 2003 and those that followed • Talking about an inescapable moral imperative intended to fuel a radical reform of public services in England.

9. The Evolution of ECM • ECM – Four key themes services needed to focus on if young people were to make progress in the 5 key outcomes defined by Section 10 of the Children Act 2004. • Five outcomes are: Be Health, Stay Safe, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution and Achieve Economic Well-being.

10. Four Themes • Families and carers are the most crucial influence on children's lives. Services should be provided that enable families and carers to effectively support their children. • Interventions with children and young people should take place before their circumstances and/or behaviours reach a crisis point necessitating statutory intervention. • The underlying problem of weak accountability and poor relationships between agencies and establishments identified by Lord Laming during the Climbié Inquiry needed urgent resolution. • All those working with children and young people should feel valued, and receive the training and support they need to carry out their work competently and confidently

11. The Challenge to Public Services • Need to develop and implement policy and practice arrangements to ensure 5 outcomes • This demands the effective sharing of information and analysis • Only work if there is a delivery of intergrated services, introducing work processes that are common across partner agencies within a framework of integrated strategy and governance

12. Needs • Integrated strategy – needs chief officers and senior managers of local public services to work with a range of partners: i.e carry out joint analyses and prioritisations of local needs and create a Children and Young People’s Plan • Integrated processes – needed to be a fundamental re-evaluatio of existing service delivery processes and procedures • Common Assessment Framework (CAF) – a structured process for collecting information • Integrating the delivery of services for children, young people and families – idea that you can only improve lives of children by transforming the ways in which managers and practitioners in different public services are organised.

13. Group/Pair Activity • Read the article you have been given • Highlight the strengths and weaknesses of ECM • Pick one person from your group to feed back.

14. Policy comparison Every Child Matters (2004) ‘we are all working together to improve the lives of children, young people and their families. We are determined to make a step -change in the quality, accessibility and coherence of the services so that every child and young person is able to fulfil their potential and those facing particular obstacles are supported to overcome them’ (Forward, ECM) Children and Young People: Rights to Action (2004) Aims for children and young people in Wales set out in the 2000 publication ‘Children and Young People: a Framework of Partnership’: ‘sets out the principles which should underpin our provision for children … particularly the Human Rights Act 1998. It proposes a way in which all of the local partners who provide services for children and young people can work together in an integrated framework, designed to meet the needs of children rather than those of service providers. And it places at the centre of this activity the requirement to listen and respond to the views of children and young people themselves.’

15. Children and Young People • Aim is that children and future generations enjoy better prospects in life and are not landed with a legacy of problems bequeathed by us. (WAG, 2004, p 1) • Assembly Government adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of Children as the basis of ALL its work for children and young people in Wales.

16. Children and Young People: Rights to Action – Core Aims Have a flying start in life Have a comprehensive range of education and learning opportunities Enjoy the best possible health and are free from abuse, victimisation and exploitation. Have access to play, leisure, sporting and cultural activities.

17. Cont: Are listened to, treated with respect and have their race and cultural identity recognised. Have a safe home and community which supports physical and emotional wellbeing Are not disadvantaged by poverty.

18. Participation of Children and Young People • Children need to be listened to, including those from minority and marginalised backgrounds. (Article 12, Un Convention) • Children’s voice very important • Set up Funky Dragon – the children and young people’s assembly • Every local authority has to set up a Children and Young People’s Forum • Schools councils are set up and are to be maintained in all schools

19. Points to consider What are the most significant differences between the 2? Which has the greatest potential to make a difference and why? Which stakeholders have the greatest responsibility to achieve these aims? Do all stakeholders have a role to play in all the aims? Are these aims suitable for all children?

20. Common Core of Skills and Knowledge The Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for the Children's Workforce was developed through partnership consultation by the (then) DfES with employers, workers and service users. The aim of the Common Core is to provide common values for all practitioners working with children and young people and for these values to form the basis of any professional induction, in-service and inter-agency training.

21. The knowledge and skills requirements cover six key areas: • effective communication and engagement • child and young person development • safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child • supporting transitions • multi-agency working • sharing information.

22. Conclusions • ECM and CYP:RTA are always going to be works in progress. • Safeguards will always need to be put in place to protect children • Important that all agencies work together which means sharing vision, ethos and core working practices.