Change for Children: Progress is too slow in some key areas, warns DfES official

Tom Jeffery, director general of the children, young people and families unit at the Department for Education and Skills, highlighted teenage pregnancy and the education of Black children and children in care as areas of concern.

He also suggested that children's services would get less funding in the next Government spending review.

Jeffery was addressing delegates at a conference organised by Telford & Wrekin Council, which was recently awarded Beacon Council status for integrated children's services. He commended the council for leading the way in developing such services but stressed that there still was a long way to go nationally.

He said: "We are not making the dramatic progress that we need to make on a lot of key indicators. The decline in teenage pregnancies is not enough and leaves us far behind our European neighbours. Adolescents are the one group in the population for whom health indicators, including mental health, are static or getting worse.