Every Child does Matter!

Notwithstanding the down-playing - indeed the writing-out of history - of the 'Every Child Matters' agenda by the Secretary of State and his officials ('meddlesome' - Michael Gove, 2010) I am pleased to say that wherever I go I find it live and kicking - in schools as much as anywhere else.

That's partly because it is so obviously right that everyone should bear responsibility for the support of the most vulnerable, and no-one can say that they were leaving a problem for someone else to pick up. I hesitate to use the word moral, but will do so - there remains a genuine moral commitment to the five outcomes among the professionals I meet on a day-to-day basis. And I don't believe that changes in governance of schools, or indeed the health service, or the police, will change this moral and professional commitment. (Things may be made more difficult, or more challenging - but that does not mean that people will retreat into their professional silos.)

That's why it's so disturbing when there is evidence of complete failure by a community and by professionals to join up the welfare issues for a child or young person. The most recent case is that of the morbidly obese teenager who had to be winched out of her home to get her to hospital.