Tony Blair has launched a fact-finding mission to gauge the impact ofthe Every Child Matters reforms. Top officials from the Prime Minister'sOffice are scouring the country for evidence that the reforms arereducing youth crime, driving up exam results and improving communitycohesion (Children Now, 28 June-4 July).
The news is a glimpse into what's happening in the run-up to the 2007Comprehensive Spending Review, which will set out Government spendingplans for 2008 to 2011.
When Chancellor Gordon Brown makes his pre-budget statement later thisyear, more details of spending priorities will emerge. But it is nowthat evidence is being gathered, ideas tested and opinions formed.
Parliamentary hearings
The children's sector is influencing the debate in various ways. Themost high profile is a series of parliamentary hearings on services fordisabled children, which start today (Wednesday 5 July). They aresignificant because the Treasury and the Department for Education andSkills requested them. Brian Lamb, chair of the Special EducationalConsortium, says: "They are totally innovative. It will result insomething more like a select committee report and will make surepeople's views get to the heart of Government."
The context was set in this year's Budget, when Gordon Brown announced achildren's and young people's review (Children Now, 29 March-5 April).The review will look at how public services can adopt a morepreventative approach to working with children. Within this, threesub-reviews are looking at youth, disabled children and high-cost,high-harm families. The terms of reference for these reviews are due tobe launched this week.
Francine Bates, chief executive of the charity Contact a Family, says:"The Chancellor was clear that these reviews would feed into theComprehensive Spending Review and show whether more funding should bemade available or whether existing funding was being usedeffectively."
The disabled children's hearings are a chance for professionals to havetheir say, either by attending or by completing a form that can bedownloaded from Contact A Family's web site. But as Bates stresses:"What we want are solution-focused recommendations."
A Treasury spokesman says officials are taking soundings from as manypeople as possible. He adds: "Some time next year we will engage in abroader debate on the Comprehensive Spending Review, which will beanother opportunity to get involved."
But a source close to Government says officials are nearing the end ofstage one, where they test ideas. During the summer they will startworking on more concrete recommendations in time for the Chancellor'spre-budget statement in November or December. This is the context forthe visits some local authorities have had from officials gatheringevidence that Every Child Matters impacts on vulnerable children andhelps raise educational outcomes.
Seminars organised by the Treasury and the DfES are also taking place.Last week the first meeting of the group looking at prevention tookplace. But these meetings are not open to everybody. A source close toGovernment says: "They are not canvassing ideas from everybody as theydon't want to be inundated. They are talking to agencies that they knoware well connected."
One potential tension is that both the Treasury and Number 10 aregathering evidence. Caroline Abrahams, director of public policy at NCH'says: "It is possible they'll come to different conclusions. We don'twant differences between Blair and Brown to get in the way of potentialnew initiatives."
Waiting for funding details
A Welsh Assembly Government spokeswoman says details for its nextspending review will be worked out in the autumn. And a spokesman forthe Scottish Executive says it will start work once it knows know howmuch money it has from the Treasury.
Meanwhile, the Local Government Association and the Association ofDirectors of Social Services are finalising the questions for theirannual budget survey of all local authorities in England. A focus thisyear will be spending on children's social care, the results of whichwill feed into the Comprehensive Spending Review process.
Although it is too early to tell exactly what will be in theComprehensive Spending Review, the next few months are crucial. Abrahamssays: "We can't go home over the summer, we've got to keeplobbying."
KEY POINTS
- Parliamentary hearings on services for disabled children take place on5, 13 and 20 July
- To submit solution-focused recommendations fill in the form atwww.cafamily.org.uk/hearings.html.
