The Children's Plan aims to make England 'the best place in the world for our children and young people to grow up', according to Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls, by building on the past ten years of reforms and responding to concerns about issues such as work-life balance and poverty.
Principles
- Parents, not Government, bring up children, so Government needs to do more to back families.
- All children have the potential to succeed and should go as far as their talents can take them.
- Children and young people need to enjoy their childhood as well as grow up prepared for adult life.
- Services need to be shaped by and responsive to children, young people and families, not designed around professional boundaries.
- It is always better to prevent failure than tackle a crisis later.
GOAL 1: Secure the well-being and health of children and young people
Government will:
- spend £34m to provide two parenting advisers per local authority
- expand school-based Parent Support Advisers
- develop for parents a personal progress record on their child's development from early years to primary
- create a new Parents Panel to advise on policies affecting parents.
- improve outreach services at Sure Start Children's Centres
- help families in which children are caring for others
- invest £90m to improve facilities for disabled children to take short breaks
- extend the Family Fund, which supports the families of disabled children, by offering support up to age 18
- publish a Child Health Strategy in spring 2008 and a play strategy by summer 2008
- spend £225m to renew up to 3,500 playgrounds and make them accessible to children with disabilities, and create 30 adventure playgrounds in disadvantaged areas, supervised by trained staff
- review Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
- publish a housing action plan in 2008
- prioritise children's needs in housing decisions.
GOAL 2: Safeguard the young and vulnerable
Government will:
- publish a review of potential risks posed by video games and internet
- commission an independent assessment of the impact of the commercial world on children's well-being
- fund a home safety equipment scheme
- create more 20mph zones
- strengthen complaints procedure for parents whose children are bullied
- publish Staying Safe action plan in early 2008
- ensure schools and local authorities take a proportionate approach to health and safety to allow children to take risks while staying safe.
GOAL 3: Individual progress to achieve world-class standards and close gap in educational achievement for disadvantaged children
- £100m will be invested in extending the offer of up to 15 hours of free early education to 20,000 two-year-olds in the most disadvantaged communities
- Government will set out and consult on a new relationship between parents and schools and legislate if necessary to ensure, for example, each child has a personal tutor and parents receive regular attendance, behaviour and progress reports about their child.
- £30m will be spent on family learning to help parents develop skills and learn with their children in schools.
- To support primary children at risk of falling behind, £25m will be spent on intensive one-to-one coaching in the areas of writing children find hardest.
- 'Age not stage' tests will be introduced and taken when children are ready. If trials prove successful, these will replace Key Stage tests at ages 11 and 14.
- New performance indicators will be published for pupils achieving Level 7 and above to ensure proper attention is given to gifted and talented learners.
- A 'root and branch' review of the primary curriculum, led by Sir Jim Rose, will be carried out in response to experts' calls for seamless transitions, basic skills for all, flexibility in learning new skills and an emphasis on social and emotional skills.
- The review will ensure: there is more time for the basics so children achieve a good grounding in reading, writing and mathematics; greater flexibility for other subjects; time for primary school children to learn a modern foreign language; and a smoother transition from play-based learning in the early years into primary school.
- To meet the 2020 goals for educational achievement, £18m will be spent on improving the quality of teaching for children with special educational needs, including better initial teacher training, better data for schools on how SEN children are progressing and pilot giving one-to-one tuition from specialist dyslexia teachers.
GOAL 4: System reform to achieve world-class standards and close the gap in educational achievement for disadvantaged children
- £117m will be invested in the early years workforce, including measures to fund supply cover so early years workers can take part in continuing professional development, and boost the Graduate Leader Fund so that every full daycare setting will be led by a graduate by 2015, with two graduates per setting in disadvantaged areas.
- £44m will be invested in creating world-class teachers and headteachers. l Every secondary school will be expected to have specialist, trust or academy status and a business or university partner by 2010.
- Accountability and governance will be strengthened, and local authorities will be expected to take decisive action to prevent or deal with failing schools.
- To tackle exclusion, £26.5m will be used to pilot new forms of alternative provision such as small 'studio' schools, and local authorities will be expected to publish performance data for pupils not on a school roll.
GOAL 5: Ensure that young people are participating and achieving their potential to 18 and beyond
To meet the workforce demands of a changing economy, Government will:
- legislate in this Parliamentary session to raise the participation age to 17 from 2013 and 18 from 2015
- develop three new diplomas in science, humanities and languages
- create a new independent regulator of qualifications
- transfer funding for 16-19 learning from the Learning and Skills Council to local authorities
- allocate £31.5m on a new programme to re-engage 16-year-olds not engaged in learning.
GOAL 6: Keep children and young people on the path to success
Government will:
- invest £160m over two years to improve quality and range of places for young people to go
- develop an entitlement for young people to take part in positive activities that develop their talents, including piloting a new offer to take part in cultural activities in and out of school
- spend £20m to use Acceptable Behaviour Contracts as a measure to tackle anti-social behaviour
- publish a youth alcohol action plan
- review best practice in sex and relationships education in schools
- allocate £66m to target those most at risk of committing or becoming victims of youth crime
- pilot a restorative approach to youth offenders
- consult on how to improve education of young offenders in custody.
GOALS FOR 2020
Aspirational goals for 2020 include:
- every child ready for success in school, with at least 90 per cent developing well across all areas of the EYFS Profile by age five
- at least 90 per cent achieving equivalent of five higher level GCSEs by age 19
- all young people participating in positive activities to develop personal and social skills, promote well-being and reduce risk-taking behaviour
- employers satisfied with young people's readiness for work
- proportion of obese and overweight children reduced to 2000 levels
- child poverty halved by 2010 and eradicated by 2020.
Funding allocations are over three years unless stated otherwise.
FURTHER INFORMATION
- The Children's Plan - Building brighter futures can be downloaded from www.dfes.gov.uk/publications. A summary of the report is also available.
