Since Autumn 2010, the disappearance of Every Child Matters (ECM) has sprung out in various forms (CYP Now, 22 March-4 April). Children and young people's plans are no longer statutory and children's trust boards will not be either. Schools will be removed from the duty to co-operate. However, this only takes us back if local areas want it to.
The basis for the approach will still exist with the duty to co-operate under section 10 of the Children Act 2004. Despite the disappearance of the ECM brand, co-operation in improving children's wellbeing is still defined by the five outcomes.
As long as local areas want to carry that torch for the wellbeing of children and families it's important not to get caught up in the brand. It is more important for all partners to keep their eyes on that prize. Local areas have the tools to champion the principles of the five outcomes. Let's reconfigure the conversation to how these can be used now and in the future.
Tania Townsend, chair of the Social Services Research Group's standing committee for children's services
Call off Connexions cuts
At the same time as many local authorities are decimating the careers and Connexions service, unemployment among 16- to 25-year-olds has reached record levels. Just when they need it most, hundreds of thousands of young people across England will have very limited access to face-to-face careers guidance.
We call on the government to make those local authorities who are flouting their duties, to stop the Connexions cuts and give young people a chance.
Ministers plan an all-age careers service from 2012, but its foundations are rapidly becoming quicksand.
An open letter from the National Connexions Network, Institute of Careers Guidance, Careers England, Unison
Time for childcare to step up
Having spent three decades laboriously climbing ladders to secure professional recognition for care practitioners through registration, it feels we have rapidly slid down some long snakes.
Labour invested more in services for children than any other government in memory. A chunk rightly went to professional initiatives.
We are now in a very different political and funding environment. But some of us feel the government may not be thinking through its actions thoroughly to remedy this situation through jettisoning such initiatives.
It is time for the childcare profession to get involved, provide support and leadership to its own, monitor the impact of cuts and point to alternatives. Otherwise there are serious fears that children and their families will be the victims of a profession that is slipping inexorably downwards.
Vic Citarella, former director of social services and interim chair of The Institute of Childcare and Social Education
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