Every Child Matters faces biggest test
Ravi Chandiramani
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) pledged, in its annual report last week, to assess and build on the progress of Every Child Matters (ECM) for the next five years, as a policy priority for the coming 12 months. It is a good priority to hold, particularly given the uncertainty ahead.
Labour has not been terribly forthcoming in setting out its vision for taking the ECM agenda forward in this election campaign. Indeed, much of the debate and manifesto commitments of all political parties are framed along traditional silos of education, health and crime and safety - although families and parenting are firmly on their agendas.
So what about the Conservatives, who Ed Balls claims will "drive a coach and horses" through the reforms? While they are committed to ECM as the best framework to improve young lives, shadow children's secretary Michael Gove's determination to abolish obligations for local children's trusts will do nothing to advance effective practice. Gove's fervent desire to lift pupils' attainment is sound, but his resolve to do so by allowing schools "freedoms" from local authorities is not, since it divorces schools from other services essential to boosting children's outcomes. And the Tories' repeated assertion to "take Sure Start back to its original purpose" of serving the neediest families does not guarantee it will be available for every child.
ADCS president Marion Davis notes in the report that the organisation believes there is an "economic case for the continuation of the ECM approach, with an emphasis on radically reducing regulation, guidance and processes that are felt variously to be suppressing innovation and making children's services leaders risk-averse". Here, the Tories' crusade against bureaucracy and idea of the "big society" could help rather than hinder, and result in a less taut ECM framework, with fewer strings attached.
And what of the government department that is meant to orchestrate ECM? David Cameron took a pop at the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) as the "Department for Curtains and Soft Furnishings" during last week's first leaders' TV election debate, citing its much-derided expenditure on a massage room and contemplation suite. It is a further clear signal that the Tories are preparing to do away with the DCSF in its present form should they come to power. Let's just hope that children and young people's issues, and the national agenda to drive them forward, would not be plunged into darkness as a result.
Ravi Chandiramani, editor, Children & Young People Now