A good start, but the DCSF must keep its nerve
Ravi Chandiramani
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
How time flies. On 28 June, it will be one year since the creation of The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). From the outside, the department has gone about its business at a lightning pace, the focal point being its publication of The Children's Plan and many subsequent action plans. But according to our expert panel, the DCSF just about scrapes a "good" rating for its performance over the past 12 months, with numerous concerns unresolved (see p12).
Our panel's verdicts relate to the national framework of policy. They will not necessarily reflect the experiences of practitioners who have to translate that policy into practice. So, while play receives an "outstanding" mark, thanks to the national play strategy and investment in playworkers' training, it will be a while before we know how these initiatives work out on the ground.
But any assessment of the department must examine the effectiveness of its relations with the rest of central government. The DCSF is the epitome of New Labour's pursuit of joined-up government, sharing responsibility for children's issues with a host of other departments. It is a sprawling beast, spreading its young tentacles enthusiastically across the Whitehall machine to get other more established departments to play.
It works with: the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills on 14-19 reforms; the Department of Health on child obesity, teenage pregnancy, substance misuse and children's mental health; Communities and Local Government on youth homelessness and supported housing; the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office on youth justice; and the Department for Work and Pensions and the Treasury on child poverty.
As Children's Secretary Ed Balls noted, joint working is about "influence and leverage, rather than simply the allocation of departmental budgets". If July's youth crime action plan shifts some responsibility from the Youth Justice Board to local authority children's trusts, its influence in this respect - towards a more welfare-oriented, early intervention approach - will have won through.
So the DCSF has made a decent start. But to maintain the momentum of joint working, both at a national and local level, the prestige of its office must remain. All Children's Secretaries and ministers, present and future, should continue to be a thorn in the side of other departments to get the best policies for children and young people.
Ravi Chandiramani, editor, Children & Young People Now.
