PART 1
(OPEN TO THE PUBLIC)
ITEM NO.
REPORT OF THE LEAD MEMBERS FOR
COMMUNITY & SOCIAL SERVICES AND EDUCATION
TO THE HEALTH & SOCIAL ISSUES SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
6th NOVEMBER 2003
TITLE:
Presentation of the content of the Green Paper “Every Child
Matters”
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That the report is noted. (Comments of
Scrutiny Committee will be available to
Cabinet when it considers its response to
the Green Paper on 11th November 2003).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Every child matters is a most significant
document. It sets out the Government’s
intentions following the Climbié report. It
brings together a wide range of initiatives
developed during the life of the
Government to set a clear direction for the
future of children’s services. This is based
on integrated accessible services designed
with input from children and delivered by a
well-trained workforce.
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:
Green Paper “Every Child Matters”
(Available for public inspection)
“Keeping Children Safe”
Report of Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié
ASSESSMENT OF RISK
Not applicable, this report simply sets out
the content of a Green Paper.
THE SOURCE OF FUNDING IS
Not applicable
LEGAL ADVICE OBTAINED
Not applicable
FINANCIAL ADVICE OBTAINED
Not applicable
CONTACT OFFICER
Paul Woltman 0161 793 2243
Paul Greenway 0161 778 0436
WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S) All
KEY COUNCIL POLICIES
The Green Paper will be translated into
legislation which will have significant
impact on council policy and organisation.
DETAILS:
The Green Paper “Every child matters” brings together a number of
elements of Government policy on children to present them as a
cohesive whole. It sets out problems the Government wishes to
overcome, progress made to date, and further proposed action. The
Green Paper has been influenced by the report of the Inquiry into the
death of Victoria Climbié, the Government’s Children Safeguards Review
and the imperatives of reducing criminal activity by young people and
improving educational attainment. The intended outcome is to maximise
the positive life chances of all children. It is a green paper which
considers all children but which has a focus on those who start and finish
disadvantaged and how to improve their inclusion.
The green paper has six chapters:
The Challenge
Sets out the challenges which the
Government believes must be
overcome
to
maximise
the
inclusion of children
Strong Foundations
Reviews progress to date
Supporting Parents and Carers
Good parenting is identified as
being of key importance and this
chapter sets out how the
Government intends to support
and develop it.
Early Intervention and Effective Deals with plans to ensure that
Protection
children at risk are identified early
to receive appropriate support to
enable them to reach their
potential
Accountability and Integration
Sets out plans for structural reform
locally and nationally.
Workforce Reform
Puts forward the Government’s
intentions
for
the
childcare
workforce.
Chapter One
The first chapter outlines issues still to be addressed and considers some
powerful evidence. It identifies the factors which it has been shown can
disadvantage children:









low income and parental unemployment
homelessness
poor parenting
poor schooling
post-natal depression among mothers
low birth weight
substance misuse
individual characteristics such as intelligence
community factors, such as living in a disadvantaged
neighbourhood.
but then goes on to list protective factors:
 strong relationships with parents, family members and other
significant adults
 parental interest and involvement in education with clear and
high expectations
 positive role models
 individual characteristics such as an outgoing nature, selfmotivation, intelligence
 active involvement in family, school and community life
 recognition, praise and feeling valued.
It explains that even before they are two children are being affected by
their social and environmental circumstances and these factors have an
increasing impact in primary school years.
The Government also spoke to children and young people about what
was important to them and gives the result of that work:
 being healthy: enjoying good physical and mental health and
living a healthy lifestyle
 staying safe: being protected from harm and neglect and
growing up able to look after themselves
 enjoying and achieving: getting the most out of life and
developing broad skills for adulthood
 making a positive contribution: to the community and to
society and not engaging in anti-social or offending behaviour
 economic well-being: overcoming socio-economic
disadvantages to achieve their full potential in life.
An estimate originally published by the Department of Health that 4 out
of every 11 children are vulnerable is included in this chapter. It is likely
that the proportion is higher in Salford. For example, Salford’s high level
of material deprivation (28th most deprived in the country according to
the Index of Multiple Deprivation in 2000) and relatively high number of
single parent families (8.6% according to ONS compared to a national
figure of 6.5%).
Chapter Two
In reviewing progress to date the Green Paper sets out a range of
Government initiatives several of which have been implemented in
Salford. In particular the Government identifies progress in:
 tackling child poverty
 ensuring children have a Sure Start
 raising primary and secondary school standards and
participation in post 16 learning
 increasing access to primary health care and specialist health
services
 reducing offending and anti-social behaviour
 building strong and vibrant communities
 ensuring children are safe.
For the youngest children the development of walk in primary care
centres and the establishment of children’s centres to be available for all
children in the 20% poorest wards by 2006 are cited. Other aims are
better support for children with disabilities and improving educational
attainment (with particular reference children from ethnic minorities) and
school attendance and behaviour, better responses to children with
special educational needs. The Government also sees the proposals in
the Green Paper contributing to strong and vibrant communities with
investment in youth services, comprehensive holiday activity
programmes.
This chapter contains many examples of proposals to improve the lot of
children and young people but there are some key themes:
Services should be integrated and accessible (delivered from extended
schools and children’s centres for example).
Young people should have a distinct voice in how services are developed
and delivered.
On top of good universal services there should be good specialist
services to meet the needs of vulnerable children.
Chapter Three
Supporting parents and carers is seen to be of key importance given
their role especially in relation to younger children. The Government’s
strategy identifies three levels of support:
 universal services such as schools, health services and childcare
providing information and advice and engaging parents in
supporting their child’s development, where such support is
needed or wanted
 targeted and specialist support to parents of children requiring
additional support
 compulsory action through Parenting Orders as a last resort
where parents are condoning a child’s anti-social behaviour such
as truancy or offending.
This chapter identifies many examples of supportive services but the key
message is that all parents should be able to access support through
initiatives such as help lines, good information, and support
programmes. Then there should be specialist services for parents with
greater or particular needs. Examples here are family group
conferencing, parent education, and home visiting services. Measures
such as parenting orders will be developed further to target parents who
do not respond to positive measures and condone offending or truancy.
The chapter also identifies the need to further develop foster care,
adoption and residential care for children looked after.
Chapter 4
Chapter 4 deals with early intervention and effective prevention. It is
essential to have strong arrangements and services to identify children
who are vulnerable and to help them and their families to reduce the risk
of their needing to be looked after, failing at school, or becoming
involved in crime. The green paper deals with:
 improving information sharing between agencies, ensuring all
local authorities have a list of children in their area, a list of the
services they have had contact with, and the contact details of
relevant professionals
 establishing a common assessment framework. The
Government will move towards a common assessment
framework across services for all children. The aim is for core
information to follow the child between services to reduce
duplication
 identifying lead professionals to take the lead on each case
where children are known to more than one specialist agency
 integrating professionals through multi-disciplinary teams
responsible for identifying children at risk, and working with the
child and family to ensure services are tailored to their needs
 co-locating services in and around schools, Sure Start Children’s
Centres, and primary care settings
 ensuring effective child protection procedures are in place
across all organisations.
The themes of co-location of accessible services and integration of
services through multi-disciplinary teams are again of core importance
here. The information sharing strategy on which councils and partners
are already working is outlined with the concept of the information hub
and a concern to ensure that vulnerable children do not get missed or
lost because of system and organisational limitations. The chapter also
outlines the common assessment framework which would mean all
services contributing to a single process of assessment of children. It
proposes the lead professional, to coordinate services when a child is
known to more than one service.
There are two models of co-location set out. The first proposes services
being organised around a cluster of schools, perhaps with an extended
school at the centre. The second has the cluster of schools taking
responsibility for a full range of services in their area. The second is
proposed as a possible development of the first.
Finally in this chapter, reference is made to safeguarding children,
picking up the messages from the Victoria Climbié Inquiry and the
Government Safeguards Review to ensure children are effectively
protected.
Chapter five
Chapter five deals with the structural changes proposed by the
Government:
 legislate to create the post of Director of Children’s Services,
accountable for local authority education and children’s social
services
 legislate to create a lead council member for children
 in the long term, integrate key services for children and young
people under the Director of Children’s Services as part of
Children’s Trusts. These bring together local authority education
and children’s social services, some children’s health services,
Connexions, and can include other services such as Youth
Offending Teams. Children’s Trusts will normally be part of the
local authority and will report to local elected members
 require local authorities to work closely with public, private and
voluntary organisations to improve outcomes for children. Local
authorities will be given flexibility over how this partnership
working is undertaken
 in relation to child protection, require the creation of Local
Safeguarding Children Boards as the statutory successors to
Area Child Protection Committees.
The Government has already created a Minister for Children in the
Department of Education and Skills and further intends:
 ensuring children are a priority across services. Local bodies
such as the police and health organisations will, subject to
consultation, have a new duty to safeguard children, promote
their well-being and work together through these partnership
arrangements. We also intend to give local authorities a duty to
promote the educational achievement of children in care
 setting out clear practice standards expected of each agency in
relation to children
 rationalising performance targets, plans, funding streams,
financial accountability and indicators
 creating an integrated inspection framework for children’s
services. Ofsted will take the lead in bringing together joint
inspection teams. This will ensure services are judged on how
well they work together
 creating an improvement and intervention function to drive up
performance by sharing effective practice, and intervening
where services are failing.
Through these measures the Government intends to avoid fragmentation
of services at local level through integration and establish clear lines of
local accountability. It also intends to appoint a National Children’s
Commissioner, establish a single system of inspection coordinated by
OFSTED, and set out powers to intervene in what are deemed to be
failing authorities.
In this chapter the Government sets out its intentions to integrate local
authority children’s and children’s health services in Children’s Trusts by
2006. The Trusts will be the responsibility of the Director of Children’s
Services and will be expected to include:
 local education authority – potentially all education functions,
including the education welfare service, youth service, special
educational needs and educational psychology, childcare and
early years education, and school improvement
 children’s social services – including assessment and services for
children in need such as family support, foster and residential
care, adoption services, childcare, advocacy services and child
protection, and services for care leavers
 Community and acute health services – such as community
paediatrics, services commissioned by Drug Action Teams,
teenage pregnancy co-ordinators, and locally commissioned and
provided Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. They
could also include speech and language therapy, health visiting
and occupational therapy services concerned with children and
families. Primary Care Trusts will be able to delegate functions
into the Children’s Trust, and will be able to pool funds with the
local authority.
In addition it is indicated that Trusts might include:
 Youth Offending Teams – multidisciplinary teams working with
young people and their families to prevent offending
 Connexions Service – multi-agency information, advice and
guidance for 13-19’s.
The Government also proposes to replace Area Child protection
Committees with statutory Local Safeguarding Children Boards.
Chapter Six
The final chapter considers workforce issues:
 a workforce reform strategy to improve the skills and
effectiveness of the children’s workforce and make working with
children a more attractive career option. This will review
rewards, incentives and relativities across children’s practice
 a high profile recruitment campaign
 a comprehensive workload survey
 more flexible and attractive training routes into social work,
including expanding work based training routes for graduates
 common occupational standards across children’s practice linked
to modular qualifications which allow workers to move between
jobs more easily
 a common core of training for those who work solely with
children and families and those who have wider roles (such as
GPs and the police)
 a review undertaken by the Chief Nursing Officer of the
contribution that health visitors and other nurses and midwives
can make for children at risk
 a leadership development programme to foster high calibre
leadership.
Recruitment problems are analysed to show difficulties for several key
groups. The problem is shown as being least for teachers, more severe
for police and nurses, and most severe for social workers and staff to
work in children’s homes. Although Salford fares better than many
authorities, recruitment for social workers and social care workers for
children is a problem. The Green paper also estimates that nationally
there is an 8,000 shortfall of foster carers and Salford certainly has a
shortage of foster carers.
New training initiatives with greater flexibility around career entry and a
review of pay and conditions are indicated. To contribute to the
integration agenda the Government is keen to establish common core
training and to review roles.
The Green Paper identifies several new funding initiatives:





£513 millions to improve Youth Services
Positive Action for Young People (holiday activities) £25 millions
Young Peoples’ Fund £200 millions
PE and Sport in schools £1,145 millions
Choice Protects to improve foster care (£19.75 in 2003-04)
 Social Care Workforce Grant (£72 millions in 2002-03 to £226
millions in 2005-06).
Several other funding arrangements are continuing to help improve
mental health services for children and young people, early years
services and Surestart and Teenage Pregnancy for example.
The City Council’s response
The Government has asked for comments on the Green Paper by 1st
December 2003. Scrutiny Committee may wish to offer comments to
Cabinet to form part of a response. It is possible to respond to anything
in the green paper but the Government has identified the following
issues on which it is particularly seeking views.
Chapter 2
• How can we improve support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking
children, building on the work of the Children's Panel?
• How can we ensure that serious welfare concerns are appropriately
dealt with alongside criminal proceedings?
• How can we encourage clusters of schools to work together
around extended schools?
Chapter 3
• How can good quality decision-making by social services in relation to
achieving permanence for the children for whom they are responsible
best be achieved?
• Building on Choice Protects, what more can we do to recruit and
retain more foster carers who are able to meet the needs of looked
after children?
• How can local authorities, working with the voluntary, community
and private sectors, develop a range of specialist parenting support
services?
• Working with local authorities and other existing providers what steps
should the Government take to make home visiting services more
widely available?
• What further action could be taken to extend the use of direct
payments by families with disabled children?
• What more could be done to improve services for children and
families of offenders?
Chapter 4
• What currently gets in the way of information sharing, and how can
we remove the barriers?
• What should be the thresholds and triggers for sharing information
about a child?
• What are the circumstances (in addition to child protection and youth
offending) under which information about a child
could or must be shared without the consent of the child or their
carers?
• Should information on parents and carers, such as domestic violence,
imprisonment, mental health or drug problems, be shared?
• How can we ensure that no children slip through the system?
• What issues might stand in the way of effective information transfer
across local authority boundaries?
• Should a unique identifying number be used?
• Views are also invited in the proposals relating to multi-disciplinary
teams:
• What are the barriers to de\eloping them further in a range of
settings?
• How can we ensure multi-disciplinary teams have greater leverage
over mainstream and specialist services?
Chapter 5
• how can we encourage better integration of funding for support
services for children and young people?
• Should all authorities and other relevant local agencies ha\e a duty to
promote the wellbeing of children?
• How best can young people be involved in local decision making and
should the Government, for example, establish minimum standards
for this?
• Should Children and Young People's Strategic Partnerships and Local
Safeguarding Boards be statutory, and what should their powers and
duties be?
• How can we develop, enhance and encourage the Children's Trust
model?
• What services should be required to form part of Children's Trusts,
and what are the risks invoked in involving more services- for
instance, aligning Connexions geographical structures with Children's
Trusts?
• How can inspections be integrated better?
Chapter 6
• What are the priorities that the workforce reform strategy should
tackle to improve recruitment, retention and incentives for those
working with children?
• Should all those working with children share a common core of skills
and knowledge?
• Should there be a common qualifications structure for all those in key
roles working with children? If so, which roles should it cover?
It is proposed that following initial debate at Cabinet on 28th October a
further report is prepared to reflect comments and responses Cabinet
would wish to present to Government as part of the consultation
exercise.