by David Lane

This was probably the best conference line-up of speakers on any platform concerned with children and young people in the last twelve months. They were the top speakers, with the latest news, and they delivered their messages with drive and enthusiasm. There was a sense that children were becoming more important in the eyes of the nation, great things had been achieved, and more was yet to come.

The conference was sponsored by Sure Start, and was very timely. Not only had the Budget just included some important measures concerning children and families, but this was the first public platform available to Al Aynsley-Green since he had been appointed as Children’s Commissioner. Furthermore, as we publish this issue, it is expected that a General Election will be called in the next few days, and this too coloured some of the contributions.

The Minister

Margaret Hodge, Minister for Children, opened the first plenary session by announcing that as “another crucial jigsaw piece” the Chancellor had made a commitment to spend some billions of pounds over the next fifteen years to provide twenty-first century facilities and space for young children by rebuilding or renovating half of all primary schools. She saw schools as “the most important places, in the heart of their communities”, and said that the Government intended to base all its local services in schools, including IT, adult education, and childcare out of school hours. Schools, she pointed out, are non-stigmatising and acceptable to most parents, and they are at present a wasted resource. She is looking to entrepreneurial heads to make them work.

She said it was “a stunning time” to work with children. Child care policy used to be on the fringe of politics, but now it is “entirely central to political debate”, and she was delighted that the Conservatives were also interested in child welfare, though she put the priority attached to the subject down to pressure from the large number of women who are Labour Members of Parliament.

Margaret Hodge spoke of the Government’s achievements. Seven years ago the annual budget on early years amounted to £1.1 billion, there was no right to nursery places, no Sure Start and no Child Care Strategy. Now there is an entitlement for all three and four-year-olds, with almost 100% take-up by three-year-olds, and a hundred Sure Start schemes in action. The biggest neighbourhood nursery programme since the Second World War is in progress. All the Government’s targets have been exceeded, and by 2007 the annual expenditure will amount to £4.5 billion.

The Government’s aim is to improve children’s life chances. Sure Start is being evaluated as it develops, and its impact has already been seen, with less smoking during pregnancy, more breast-feeding, fewer attendances at accident and emergency units by children, better speech and language therapy, and better preparation of children for schooling. Those who have had two years of nursery education are six months ahead at the age of seven, and those who have had three years are ten to twelve months ahead. With a focus on the prevention of problems and on maximising potential, Margaret Hodge said, “children’s life chances are being enhanced”.

For the mothers too, things are better. With Sure Start, they are less isolated and are developing networks, with reduced post-natal depression. They are becoming self-confident and taking up learning again (sometimes after they themselves have had poor experiences of schooling).

The Minister noted that patterns of parenting are changing. There are more lone parents, and more women working. More men want to be active in bringing up their children. Maternity leave is being extended to nine months in 2007, and it is possible that flexible working for parents of older children will be introduced. A million parents have already applied for flexible working hours, and 80% have been successful.

By 2010 it is planned to have a Sure Start Centre in every community. At present only a third of the most deprived children have been touched. Margaret Hodge acknowledged that there was concern about changes to existing Sure Start schemes, but said that there were two key principles which would be maintained :
- that schemes would be parent-led and parent-owned, and
- that there would be a multi-professional approach for greater impact.
She promised generous funding.

The Minister ended with a number of comments on funding and a list of her priorities for action :
- better training for people working with children, to provide a graduate leadership, as higher education levels increase the esteem of the profession,
- a pedagogy for early years,
- an extended role for childminders, and
- a qualification framework.
We say Amen to all those priorities.

With these developments, said the Minister, child care will make “a historic contribution to a better Britain”.

In response to this upbeat message, Margaret Hodge faced some tough questions, in the main concerning the implementation of the Government’s plans. She made it plain that the Government’s role is to establish the framework, but that it is for people at local level to collaborate and make the policies and legislation work. “Command and control”, she said, “do not change culture”. It was for the professionals and agencies involved to set up partnerships, come out of their professional silos and put the child at the heart of the decision-making.

The 4Children Viewpoint

Anne Longfield, the Director of 4Children, covered much of the same ground, welcoming the “roller-coaster of announcements” from the Government over recent months. She felt that the time-scales for action were ambitious, and noted the volume of work to be undertaken – 3,500 Children’s Centres to be opened and 25,000 schools to develop extended day care. She was concerned about the massive ongoing investment required, and was worried about the sustainability of the plans, but she was pleased that all political parties were in support. She said that child care was “the new frontier of the Welfare State”, and could have an impact for years to come.

Anne Longfield was followed by Tony Hunter, the President of the Association of Directors of Social Services. He gave a witty but light-weight speech, focusing on the need for interprofessional co-operation and expecting that Directors of Education would in general take over children’s services. He nonetheless felt confident about the future, as long as there is joint commitment to make it work. He ended by likening partnerships in the future to salads, rather than soups – with a balanced blend of identifiably different ingredients, not just a mushy mix.

The Children’s Commissioner in Waiting

Professor Al Aynsley-Green was the star of the day, with his direct manner (“Call me Al”), and a crackling array of facts, ideas and questions. He had been invited to speak in his role as National Clinical Director for Children in the Department of Health, a job which he has combined with his work at Great Ormond Street and his professorial Chair. However, two weeks earlier he was appointed to become England’s first Children’s Commissioner.

He had found the appointment process fairly gruelling, having been interviewed twice and tested by a panel of young people, among other things. He claimed to have the “diplomacy and passion” needed by the Commissioner, and he demonstrated both in his speech. He had already identified 200 issues which need to be addressed, and he intends to sort them into quick wins and longer term matters. He plans to be open and transparent, and to keep in touch.

Going back to basics, Al Aynsley-Green said that children are the nation’s most precious resource, they have to be seen as citizens now and they are vital for the nation’s economic survival\in the future. Healthy mothers, he said, produce healthy children, who become healthy adults. Conversely, a lot of problems for adults are rooted in their childhoods.

It is important, in getting a balanced picture, to acknowledge that the majority of children and young people lead rich and fulfilled lives, a fact to be celebrated, but it is also clear that there are widening inequalities and a denial of disadvantage, that disabilities are invisible and poverty is ignored.

Next, he turned to history, pointing out the massive problems for children in Victorian times and the transformation of their lives as a result of the work of philanthropists. Fifty per cent of the population were children, and many died young or were disabled as a result of exploitation. In a mine disaster in 1838, twenty-six children had died in a flash flood, and this was seized on by campaigners to make improvements. Al listed a string of major figures who had battled for compulsory education, restrictions on children’s work, and improved welfare services.

He then posed questions. Are children important in our culture now? Do we value parenting and childhood? Do children get a good deal? Is childhood disappearing? If it is, does it matter? And where are today’s children’s champions? He saw society now as egocentric, consumerist and multicultural, with changing family dynamics and widening inequalities.

The turbulence suffered by children is different from that in Victorian times, he said, but just as serious. There are factors such as rural poverty, teenage pregnancies, low birth weight, housing problems and disabilities. Children suffer injuries; Al refused to call them accidents, as they are preventable. Poor children are five times more likely to die in their homes than children from rich families. There is a fifteen-year discrepancy in life expectancy between children in inner city areas and nearby suburbs.

Al noted the sentimentalisation of young children, the demonisation of young people, with 70% of press cuttings being negative, and the commercialisation of childhood. Against this background, Al commended Every Child Matters and the National Service Framework, with its principles of placing the child at the centre, taking a holistic approach and focusing on needs.

Like speakers before him, Al Aynsley-Green recognised the cross-party commitment to children. His role in England is weaker than that of Children’s Commissioners in other European countries, and he has been likened to a neutered poodle. By contrast, Al is going to take Dennis the Menace’s dog, Gnasher, as his model, and he is planning to “start kicking a few doors down”. We look forward to seeing him in action.

Workforce Matters

Paul Ennals, the Chief Executive of the National Children’s Bureau, has been Acting Chair of the Children’s Workforce Development Council, but was speaking on Protecting Children at Risk. He noted that, though there had been a diminution in childhood poverty, many of the problems faced by children are the same as in the past, both in type and scale – disability and offending, for example. What has changed is the way problems have been addressed, in standard-setting and inspection. He expected further changes – in the assessment of children, the sharing of information, the use of lead professionals and the shape of the workforce.

Paul advised delegates not to be scared of mainstreaming, as he believed that schools would be able to serve nearly all children, but also not to trust it, as there is a danger of losing funds currently ring-fenced, and it is necessary to target the needs of individual children.

Poverty

Kate Green, as Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, looked back on CPAG’s forty years. Absolute poverty is not as bad as it was, she noted, but relative poverty is the same or worse.

Would it be good enough for your child not to go swimming? She asked, or not to eat meat? A total of 1.6 million children – nearly a quarter of all children – grow up in relative poverty, and in this respect life for children is worse in England than in most of Europe. Kate acknowledged that 600,000 children had been lifted out of poverty in the last five years, but she questioned the assumption that work is the best way out of poverty. If parents have to work long hours with low pay, what is the impact on their work/life balance?

She ended by saying that CPAG might need to take a different tack in future, identifying specific issues and tackling them through tailor-made policies and campaigns, rather than by attacking poverty as a single issue. It was also time to bridge the traditional gulf between poverty campaigners and service providers and take a united front.

Tail Piece

The conference heard another ten speakers and twenty-two workshop presenters. Between them, they covered most of the key issues of the day. We look forward to next year’s conference. By then, we will know the outcome of the General Election, the new Government will have had time to carry out their promises of priority for child care (whichever party is in power), and we will have another year of data to check the impact of Sure Start.