The impact of one national policy Every Child Matters and one piece of legislation Children Act 2004 on care practice and provision

“We've strived for joined-up working for the whole of my career, so it's not new. But I think Every Child Matters has made it easier to put into practice. We've seen preventive services start-up and other agencies are looking quite creatively at what they can do for families before social services get involved. It has been a significant shift and there is a real willingness for everyone to own things together. It makes it easier for people to hold risk when they feel it is being properly shared.”

1. Lucy Titheridge.

In the guardian's survey it says that social workers in society help support Every Child Matters and they think that it gives them and the job that they do direction. However they also say that they feel their jobs haven't got better at all as a result. No one seems to be publicly critisising the legislation as you never hear of any criticism. This is because this legislation has come from genuinly trying to learn from what has happened before and better it. ECM is based on values which a lot of people in children's services stick to, especially social workers. The values show the importance of listening and responding to children's views, focusing more on prevention, judging the success by the childrens outcomes and bringing services together to get what children need. The lesgislation is very optimistic, they belive that is can help make better lives for children and families through these services, it also focuses on the importance of every child reaching their full potential in life.  Implementing ECM they say has been hard work and that it has taken a long time and a lot of energy to make the important changes to support it.

They say that 2008 created a lot of anxiety for social workers in children's services and that 2009 didnt start well either, they reviewed what went wrong with the Baby P case and have set about trying to restructure the policys. They belive that strong support and a heavy hand pushing them on will better the policy and overall service a lot. Although social workers said that the ECM frame work didnt make their job easier 72% said it improved quality of care for children and 74% said it improved working with other professionals.

As mentioned above Lucy Titheridge is one of the professionals who manages the referals and assesment team for the Sutton council in south London. This team is seen as the front door for children's services. They investigate all new referrals of concerns and deals with the majority of child protection cases in borough. She says that she sees a huge improvement in many aspects of the service. Lucy says about one case she has been dealing with where now there are so many other professionals that she is able to work with in the cases as before professionals like the police would not have been released to attend mettings before ECM, it would have been just deemed 'High Priority'.

Janet Foulds is a service manager in children's services in Derby and a former chair of the British Association of Social Workers. She has stated that many good things have come out of Every Child Matters and that it has been very good for children, the main focus is on the outcomes for children. She says that everyone expects children to go to university and to achieve and make a positive contribution however social workers have wanted that all along. But since Every Child Matters Janet has noticed a higher priority and that more attention is being given to how well children are achieving in school and to ensuring that they get help if they need it or want it. Rather than accepting that children have had difficult expreiences or have been in care they are being asked to make sure that a child does not suffer any more disadvantage.

Although social workers have said that Every Child Matters has been good, for the frontline staff they have said that it can be difficult at some times. They say that Every Child Matters consists of a larger number of interrelated policies, its said that its hard for frontline staff to judge what part is responsible for what improvement. The person that has pointed out this problem also has many good points to say about it to, "I would agree there has been progress on working together," he says. "Relationships between police and social workers are generally good locally. And we now have a specialist nurse for looked-after children, which has definitely brought improvements. She can devote time to sorting out children's medical assessments, and dealing with problems when children are placed in other authorities. She's also available to offer advice, which helps."