The Childrens Plan

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The Childrens Plan
Building Brighter Futures
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What is the Childrens Plan?

• the government wants to make England the best
  place in the world to grow up
• the Childrens Plan sets out how it wants to
  achieve that over the next ten years

What are the challenges the Childrens Plan
addresses?

• Children have more opportunities than ever
  before, but they also face new risks from e.g.
  new media and from anxiety about safety playing
  outside
• Some, particularly disadvantaged, children do not
  have as many opportunities as their peers and are
  at risk of falling further behind
• While many of those who work in services for
  children and many of those services are
  excellent, there is still too much variation in
  quality between and within places

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How was the Childrens Plan put together?
Time to talk
National consultation Focus groups with
children Day of deliberative events in four
locations
Parents who are less well-informed and lack
confidence should be offered support themselves
delivered in a way which does not patronise them,
or make them feel inadequate as parents
Parents responding to Online Survey
We need parks with park-keepers, leisure and
adventure sports facilities, places where young,
old, teenagers and families can all mingle and
have fun Parents responding to Online Survey
We need workers involved with children and
families who are both linked into communities but
who are also well trained and skilled
Respondent to Online Survey
Secondary schools should teach all children
life skills which will help them to obtain
worthwhile jobs when they leave. - Female from
Reading
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Expert groups looked at cross-cutting issues
0-7 Expert Group
Three groups covering different ages, considering
issues crossing institutional boundaries
Made up of professionals such as teachers,
doctors, police, people from local authorities,
the voluntary sector, commentators
8-13 Expert Group
14-19 Expert Group
Expert Group reports are available online at
www.dcsf.gov.uk/timetotalk
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The Childrens Plan is built on five key
principles
Parents Government does not bring up children
parents do
Enjoyment Children and young people need to enjoy
their childhood
Potential All children have the potential to
succeed
Prevention It is always better to prevent failure
than tackle a crisis later
Responsive services Services need to be shaped by
and responsive to children, young people and
their families
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Supporting parents
The Childrens Plan sets out an ambitious new
programme to support parents in doing the best
for their children

• Better support and advice for parents everywhere
  through 2 parenting expert advisers in every
  local authority
• Exploring a parent-held progress record for every
  child with information about child development
  beyond 5 based on the red book
• More involvement for parents in secondary schools
  through Parent Councils, information sessions on
  transition to secondary school and more regular
  information on childrens progress

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Children enjoying childhood
Children deserve happy childhoods as well as one
which prepare them for the future

• 225m investment in better playgrounds in
  communities providing safe places for children
  aged 0-13 to play
• Faster growth in youth facilities to ensure young
  people have places to go and things to do in
  their spare time
• 5 hours of cultural activities a week to be on
  offer
• Review of impact of commercial activity on
  children and the Byron review on new media to
  ensure children experience the benefits and not
  the risks

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All children have the potential to succeed
A more consistently high quality system which
supports all children to make progress in their
learning from early years onwards

• More free places in early education for two year
  olds
• Enabling more training for early years workers
  and faster progress towards graduate leadership
• Better links between early years and primary
  schools through 0-7 partnerships
• A primary curriculum review to ensure enough time
  to focus on literacy and numeracy and more
  flexibility in the way for younger children to
  learn
• Support for children falling behind in writing to
  go alongside existing help in reading and maths
• A package for children with disabilities and
  special needs including better facilities for
  short breaks and better training for teachers
• New tests to be taken when children are ready to
  replace end of Key Stage tests at 11 as long as
  trials are successful
• Extra training for teachers to become a Masters
  level profession
• Raising leaving age to 18

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Always better to prevent failure
It can be difficult to step in early but it is
essential if problems are to be avoided later on

• Better outreach from Sure Start and other
  services to make sure that the people who need
  them get them
• A review of child mental health services to
  ensure that they can step in earlier
• Help with home safety equipment for disadvantaged
  families, to prevent accidents in the home
• Swift action on schools which are not improving
• Better alternative provision to ensure those not
  in mainstream schools do not fall behind
• New programme to re-engage 16-19 year olds not in
  learning to ensure they do not leave for good
• Intervention earlier to prevent antisocial
  behaviour through acceptable Behaviour Contracts
• Focus on education and resettlement for young
  offenders to prevent reoffending

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Services for children and families built around
their needs
Childrens Trusts and Every Child Matters have
begun the process of joint working which the
Childrens Plan takes a step further

• Childrens Trusts expected to have consistent,
  effective arrangements to deliver improvements
  and to identify problems early
• Schools contribution to all ECM outcomes to be
  recognised through new school-level indicators of
  wider outcomes
• Building Schools for the Future actively to
  encourage co-location of services, e.g. schools
  with child health

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The Childrens Plan sets out some ambitious goals
for 2020

• all young people participating in positive
  activities to develop personal and social skills,
  promote wellbeing and reduce behaviour that puts
  them at risk
• employers satisfied with young peoples readiness
  for work
• child health improved, with the proportion of
  obese and overweight children reduced to 2000
  levels
• child poverty halved by 2010 and eradicated by
  2020 and
• significantly reduce by 2020 the number of young
  offenders receiving a conviction, reprimand, or
  final warning for a recordable offence for the
  first time, with a goal to be set in the Youth
  Crime Action Plan.

• enhance children and young peoples wellbeing,
  particularly at key transition points in their
  lives
• every child ready for success in school, with at
  least 90 per cent developing well across all
  areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile
  by age 5
• every child ready for secondary school, with at
  least 90 per cent achieving at or above the
  expected level in both English and mathematics by
  age 11
• every young person with the skills for adult life
  and further study, with at least 90 per cent
  achieving the equivalent of five higher level
  GCSEs by age 19 and at least 70 per cent
  achieving the equivalent of two A levels by age
  19
• parents satisfied with the information and
  support they receive

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More on implementing the Plan

• An implementation pack will be published at the
  beginning of April containing
• Revised PSA delivery agreements showing how we
  will deliver targets for improvement
• New ECM outcomes framework showing how new PSAs
  and Departmental objectives plus Childrens Plan
  commitments and 2020 goals all fit together
• Notes setting out what the Childrens Plan means
  in practice for those working with children and
  their families
• A timeline showing what will happen when over the
  next 12-18 months

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Further consultation to inform implementation
The Childrens Plan marked the beginning of a new
relationships with children, parents and experts
of more active communication and involvement in
policy

• This will include the new Parents Panel to
  comment on policy affecting parents
• A continuing role for the Expert Groups in
  assessing our progress on the Childrens Plan
• Further deliberative events looking at how
  policies on Play, Youth, Parents and Health
  should develop
• Expectation of local consultation on new play and
  youth facilities
• A report on progress on the Childrens Plan this
  December