Children's ministers need to be excellent listeners

This month’s government reshuffle swept through the Department for Education and ejected ministers Tim Loughton and Sarah Teather in its ruthless wake. Our downloadable chart maps out the new allocation of responsibilities for children and young people across government. It is probably the Prime Minister’s intention to keep these unchanged now until the May 2015 general election, barring any major scandals or cock-ups. Though in politics, you never know when those might occur – just ask the newly resurrected David Laws.

Edward Timpson has assumed Loughton’s portfolio of children’s minister responsibilities, as well as taking charge of special educational needs from Teather. His brief spans all those children with the greatest need, as well as young people’s services and the political hot potato that is school sport. It is surely as demanding a brief as any in government for a so-called junior ministerial role.

Timpson’s experience stands him in good stead on the issues for children in care. He has two adopted younger brothers and his parents have fostered nearly 90 children. He has played a leading role in the all-party parliamentary groups on adoption and fostering; runaway and missing children; and looked-after children and care leavers. The latter has just proposed a “pupil premium plus” of £1,000 in additional funding for every child in care that a school teaches.

For the new early years minister Elizabeth Truss, Denise Burke provides a striking set of feasible measures to consider.

When the new ministers were announced, the briefs for looked-after children and early years were confirmed relatively swiftly. But uncertainty lingered for days about who would take on youth policy and young people’s services, reflecting its low priority at the DfE, before Timpson was confirmed as the minister accountable. In discharging his responsibilities, it is crucial that he looks beyond the National Citizen Service (NCS). Sixteen-year-old Danny’s NCS diary is a vindication of the programme’s potential to transform young lives, but youth provision must be regarded as something available to all young people all year round. If the department continues to marginalise the needs of the country’s adolescents and view them in such limited terms, more and more will become disenfranchised, and, as tomorrow’s parents, will only perpetuate that cycle.

But if there is one characteristic that the new ministers would be wise to emulate of a predecessor, it was Loughton’s resolve to listen to children and young people. Among many things, he has held regular meetings with a group of young care leavers, and a national youth scrutiny group to assess the impact of all government policy on young people, a result of the Positive for Youth policy.

Too often in our society, young voices are sidelined and denigrated. Sometimes listening to them reveals uncomfortable truths and intractable problems. Ministers may be hamstrung by financial constraints to some degree, but hearing the views of young service users is the only way to gain a real understanding of the issues they face.

ravi.chandiramani@markallengroup.com