Policy report on welfare and Every Child Matters

Authors Avatar

Policy report on welfare and Every Child Matters

Within this assignment I am going to look at the Every Child Matters Green Paper and its relation to the Sure Start programme and whether it is meeting its aims and objectives in the services it provides. As the green paper addresses the notion of welfare I will look at in general for children and its relevance to the Sure Start programme and if it is adequate.

        Victoria Climbie died in February 2000 at the hands of her carers. She suffered physical and mental harm and it was not understood as to why a little girl could go unnoticed. An inquiry was set up to determine how Victoria died. In April 2001 Lord Lamming was appointed head of the inquiry, along with four other professionals. During the inquiry Lamming came into contact with those who were involved in the services that Victoria came into contact with. It was found that her death was preventable on twelve separate occasions, so why wasn’t it? Lamming found that services were not co-operating with each other and had difficulties due to staffing levels and resources. He looked at their statutory rights which they failed to deliver under certain acts. In a speech by Lord Lamming in January 2003 he says that “the staff involved in this work have to tread a careful line between respecting the rights of parents and acting to protect a child from harm”. () Lamming says that minor interventions could have had a major impact on Victoria. Certain services were using policies that dated the 1989 Children Act, this meant that guidelines had to be met and this posed a problem for those working with Victoria. The inquiry made 108 recommendations for change for local services, which need to be acted on promptly.

        

In 2003 the Every Child Matters green paper was published along side the Victoria Climbie inquiry, it was aimed a t prevention rather than picking up the pieces and was built on four key themes:

        . Increase the focus on supporting families and carers, the most critical influence on children’s lives

        . Ensuring the necessary intervention takes place before children reach crisis point and protecting children from falling through the net.

        . Addressing the underlying problems identified in the report into the death of Victoria Climbie- weak accountability and poor integration.

        . Ensuring that people working with children are valued, rewarded and trained.

It also identified five outcomes:

        . Be healthy

        . Stay safe

        . Enjoy and achieve        

        . Make a positive contribution

        . Achieve economic well being

With its key themes and five outcomes it aimed to make sure no-one fell through the net and every child had the chance to reach their full potential by reducing levels of educational failure, ill health, substance misuse, anti-social behaviour among young people and others, it was supported by research evidence which shows that early intervention is key in promoting well being for children. In its proposals it sets out for support for parents and carers, early intervention and effective protection and to put children at the forefront of policies. With this notion of inclusion it made sure that every child would have the same access to services and training would be provided for staff and services. It encompasses children from birth to nineteen, regardless of background circumstances and provides support for children. It would ensure that services reflects the needs of parents and children, and that participation of children, parents and workers were needed to design and deliver them. Childrens trusts were set up to improve services by multi-agency working through co-operation with a number of services. Certain aspects of the childrens funds would be set up at local level with the promotion of better services in the area and also centrally as to provide a common framework for all agencies involved. Multi-agency working would mean that there would be greater sharing of information between professionals. Childrens funds, fund local projects for five to thirteen year olds and are hoped to be in every local authority by 2008.

        Further papers have come from the green paper, Every Child Matters: Next Steps and Every Child Matters: Change For Children. As many reforms were proposed there needed to be a change in the statute. This came in the form of the Children Bill which was enacted in November 2004 into the Children Act 2004. Through the new changes a childrens commissioner would be appointed, this person would oversee the role of childrens services and their outcomes in relation to performance and quality among other things.

Join now!

        Services are overseen by Ofsted and follow a strict framework in determining whether the programme is proving to be successful. Many new initiatives have been introduced as a result of the Every Child Matters paper, such as Connexions, Extended schools and Sure Start.

        The Sure Start programme is a government initiative to promote the best start in life “by bringing together early education, childcare, health and family support” (http://www.surestart.gov.uk/aboutsurestart/about/thesurestartprogramme2/).

Sure Start works in partnership with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). It is targeted on local disadvantaged areas supporting families and children under the age of ...

This is a preview of the whole essay