Following the Machinery of Government changes in June 2007 three new departments were set up in place of the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Trade and Industry. This 2007 Autumn Performance Report identifies the targets applicable to the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCFS) and charts its progress against the Spending Review 2004 (SR04), Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets and introduces a new suite of Comprehensive Spending Review Public Service Agreements (CSR07). There is also a chapter on targets from the Spending Review 2002 PSA targets that are still outstanding.
The Children's Plan, conceived after consultation with both parents and professionals, sets out the Government's ambitions for improving children and young people's lives over the next decade. The six strategic objectives are to: secure the health and wellbeing of children and young people; safeguard the young and vulnerable; achieve world class standards; close the gap in educational achievement for children from disadvantaged backgrounds; ensuring young people are participating in achieving their potential to 18 and beyond; and keeping children and young people on the path to success. The ambition depends on all children's services working together at the local level and the final chapter looks at the systems which are needed for this to happen
The demographic and social changes of the last 30 or 40 years have been profound and have led to much greater diversity in family patterns. But the evidence is clear that it is strong, stable relationships between adults in the home - parents, grandparents and other caring adults - and among all these adults and the children in a family, that have the biggest impact on children's happiness and healthy development. This Green Paper sets out a wide range of measures to support all families as they bring up their children and to help families cope with times of stress and difficulty. The Paper's proposals aim to influence factors that can strengthen or weaken family life, such as the choices available about balancing employment with bringing up children; and how welcoming and accessible public services are to families of all kinds. It focuses mostly on supporting family relationships by enabling families to help themselves. It also considers the position of children and other family members when family relationships have broken down. Chapters include: Introduction; families today; what government is already doing to support families and family relationships; bringing up children; building strong family relationships and dealing with relationship pressures and breakdown; family relationships and employment; the role of public services; consultation questions and conclusions.
In July 2007 following the findings of the coroner in the inquests in the tragic deaths of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Children, Schools and Families commissioned an independent review into the use of restraint in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs); Secure Training Centres (STCs) and Secure Children's Homes (SCHs). The chairs of the review, Peter Smallridge and Andrew Williamson reported their recommendations on 20 June 2008. They made 58 recommendations including the identification of the following key issues: the need for greater clarity and consistency in the use of restraint; the need for two systems of constraint, one for YOIs and one for STCs and accreditation of the methods in use; the need for a review of legislation and guidance on the use of restraint against six principles that focus on preventing the risk of harm; that there should be a new mandatory Acceditation Scheme; that a Restraint Management Board should be established. The Government is accepting almost all of the recommendations and this report presents the Government's response to the independent review.
On 12 March 2009, Lord Laming published the findings of his inquiry into progress in improving child protection practice in England: 'The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report'. This action plan sets out the British Government's response to Lord Laming's recommendations, describing how and when each recommendation will be addressed.
This white paper outlines proposals to improve the quality of alternative This white paper outlines proposals to improve the quality of alternative provision for young people who are permanently excluded from school or who are otherwise without a school place. Around 135,000 pupils a year, mostly of secondary age, spend some time in alternative provision. About one third are placed in pupil referral units, the rest in a range of places including in further education and the private and voluntary sectors. About half the children are excluded for bad or disruptive behaviour; the rest are in alternative provision for a variety of reasons. 75 per cent of pupils in pupil referral units have special educational needs, 91 per cent are aged 11-15, and 69 per cent are boys. Performance outcomes in GCSEs from alternative provision are very poor, though the data is limited. The strategy is based on core principles: starting with what works best for each person, taking account of needs and in consultation with parents and carers; securing a core educational entitlement for young people; better planning and commissioning of alternative provision; local authorities should be held accountable for outcomes; better professional support, accommodation and facilities; partnership working between alternative provision, other parts of the education sector and other agencies; learning from best practice and supporting innovation. A central aim is for schools to be able to get pupils back on track, and make more use of high quality alternative provisions as an early intervention for their pupils who are at risk of permanent exclusion. The term "Pupil Referral Unit" is considered outdated and unhelpful, and will be changed in the legislation.
The Government's response is to back the majority of the Panel's conclusions and work on their recommendations has already begun. The report stated that elitism in the professions and a lack of focus on careers in schools mean that bright young people from middle class as well as lower income backgrounds are being shut out from professional jobs. The Panel chaired by Alan Milburn MP, concluded that without action to address Britain's closed shop mentality, tomorrow's generation of talented young people will miss out on a new wave of social mobility. There were over 80 recommendations in the final report with social mobility to be the top social policy priority. This response includes plans to raise aspirations by focusing on four factors that impact on people's life chances: the care and development of children in their early years, the quality of our schools, continued and high quality education and training post 16 and the skills our workforce.
Section 58 of the Children Act 2004 limited the use of the defence of reasonable punishment so that it could no longer be used when people are charged with offences against a child, such as causing actual bodily harm or cruelty to a child. This report sets out the findings of a review into the practical consequences of this rule and parental views on smacking. Findings based on this evidence include that section 58 has improved legal protection for children by restricting the use of the reasonable punishment defence in court proceedings, with no reported significant practical problems with its operation. Parental attitudes and behaviour is changing, with younger parents less likely to use smacking as a method of discipline than older parents.
In this document the Government sets out a programme of action designed to position the UK as a long-term leader in communications, creating an industrial framework that will fully harness digital technology. The UK's digital dividend will transform the way business operates, enhance the delivery of public services, stimulate communications infrastructure ready for next-generation distribution and preserve Britain's status as a global hub for media and entertainment. This approach seeks to maximise the digital opportunities for all citizens. The report contains: (1) an analysis of the levels of digital participation, skills and access needed for the digital future, with a plan for increasing participation, and more coherent public structures to deal with it; (2) an analysis of communications infrastructure capabilities; (3) plans for the future growth of creative industries, proposals for a legal and regulatory framework for intellectual property and proposals on skills and investment support and innovation; (4) a restatement of the need for specific market intervention in the UK content market, with implications and challenges for the BBC and C4 Corporation and other forms of independent and suitably funded news; (5) an analysis of the skills, research and training markets, and what supply side issues need addressing for a fully functioning digital economy; (6) a framework for digital security and digital safety at international and national levels and recognition that a world of high speed connectivity needs a digital framework not an analogue one; (7) a review of what all of this means for the Government and how digital governance in the information age demands new structures, new safeguards, and new data management, access and transparency rules.
The Coalition Government is committed to ending child poverty. This consultation document asks how the government can best reflect the reality of child poverty using a multidimensional measure. The most recent child poverty statistics revealed a large reduction in the number of children living below the relative poverty threshold. However, this was largely due to a fall in the median income nationally that pushed the poverty line down. Absolute poverty remained unchanged and the children who were "moved out" of poverty were in fact no better off than before. This document considers a number of potential dimensions: income and material deprivation, worklessness, unmanageable debt, poor housing, parental skill level, access to quality education, family stability and parental health. This consultation seeks views on the specifics of each dimension as well as whether the government should include other dimensions in a multidimensional measure of child poverty along with technical questions about how to build a measure
This White Paper sets out proposals to tackle the effects of the recession and to get back to full employment. Its aims are to give young people a chance to a better start to their working lives and to help more people back to work and make sure they are better off in work, to keep them in work and to build a fair and family-friendly labour market
This paper sets out the Government's strategy for moving people from being passive recipients of benefits to becoming active in seeking and preparing for work. It builds on the reform principles set out in the green paper "In work, better off: the next steps to full employment" (Cm. 7130, ISBN 9780101713023) and relates to the policies set out in the skills document "Opportunity, employment and progression: making skills work" (Cm. 7288, ISBN 9780101728829) and to the proposals to implement the Leitch Review set out in "World class skills ..." (Cm. 7181, ISBN 9780101718127). It deals in particular with creating a stronger framework of rights and responsibilities, and supporting people to find work through a personalised and responsive approach. Policies include: making work pay, to ensure long-term claimants see a significant rise in their incomes when they take a job; lone parents with older children will have to seek work, and availability of affordable childcare will be a key part of the assessment by Jobcentre Plus staff; modernisation of the New Deal arrangements; Jobcentre Plus will lead the job search for the first 12 months; support for disabled people and people with health conditions will be revised, with Employment and Support Allowance replacing Incapacity Benefit, and Pathways to Work and a Work Capability Assessment being available; Jobcentre Plus will be at the heart of the system, and will work in partnership with public, private and third sector specialist providers, employers and local communities; integrated employment and skills provision, with basic skills screening and more support for training.
This publication sets out a detailed analysis of the responses to the Government's consultation paper (Cm. 6886, ISBN 9780101674423), issued in July 2006, as well as responses made at stakeholder events and discussion forums held in relation to it. The consultation paper contained proposals to increase the openness and transparency of proceedings in the family courts system, whilst seeking to protect the anonymity of individuals involved, and these included: allowing the media, on behalf of and for the benefit of the public, to attend proceedings as of right, though allowing the court to exclude them where appropriate to do so and, where appropriate, to place restrictions on reporting of evidence; to allow attendance of others on application to the court, or on the courts own motion; to introduce a new criminal offence for breaches of reporting restrictions; and to make adoption proceedings a special case, so that there is transparency in the process up until the placement order is made, but beyond that proceedings to remain private. The Government intends to bring forward policy proposals, in light of these responses, in due course.
This document sets out a plan for England in developing world class employment skills and is a companion document to the Green Paper, Cm.7130, In Work, Better Off (ISBN 9780101713023) also published today, and follows on from the Leitch Review, published December 2006 (ISBN 9780118404860) along with an Executive Summary (ISBN 9780118404792). This publication aims to explain how the Government will provide the right supporting framework to act as a catalyst for a skills revolution. More than a third of adults in the UK don't have the equivalent of a basic school leaving certificate; 6.8 million people have serious problems with numbers and 5 million people are not functionally literate. As part of this development, the Government has set out new rights that learners and employers will have, under what are called Skills Accounts and the Skills Pledge. The Skills Accounts will be part of the new adults careers service done through Jobcentre Plus, which aims to give every adult easy access to skills and careers advice. The Skills Pledge enables employers to demonstrate their commitment to improving skills in their workplace, with the Government supporting employers through Train to Gain brokerage. Also current funding entitlement for adults to free training in basic literacy and numeracy skills, will be strengthened. Produced by the new Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, the document sets out the Government's policy direction to build better skills.
This consultation paper is based on the reforms proposed by David Freud in his report "Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work" (2007, DWP, www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/2007/welfarereview.pdf). The Government's vision for the welfare state is one where no one is written off and everyone is required to fulfil their responsibilities to prepare for, look for and take up work, with support provided at all stages. The reforms are designed to achieve an active and personalised welfare state, boosting employment and tackling long-term benefit dependency. Disabled persons or people with long-term health conditions will be targeted, in a bid to reduce the number of people on incapacity benefits by one million. A new Work Capability Assessment will re-assess all existing incapacity benefits claimants for eligibility to the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) - to ensure they are receiving the right benefit and their personal needs are identified. ESA will be a temporary benefit for most, as people recover from or adapt to their condition and prepare for a return to work. Private and voluntary sector providers will be eligible to undertake support work. The medical assessment procedure will be reviewed. The reforms also tackle child poverty by providing additional support while strengthening parents' responsibilities to contribute financially and emotionally to their children's upbringing. The benefits system will be streamlined: a long term goal is the abolition of Income Support and the creation of a system based on Jobseeker's Allowance and the ESA. The Government also wishes to devolve more power to individual customers, local partnerships and providers to improve the quality and effectiveness of services. Providers will have greater freedom to innovate and deliver services through a new "Right to Bid" process.
The White Paper sets out the Government's proposals to further reform the management of schools in England, with the aim of creating a system shaped by parental choice where schools have greater autonomy in admissions policy. Proposals include: i) the role of local education authorities confined to being a local commissioner of services rather than an education provider, with a focus on raising standards through spreading best practice and championing parental choice; ii) each school able to acquire a self-governing trust status (similar to the network of Academies) or become a self-governing foundation school; iii) an increased role for new providers and the creation of a national Schools Commissioner to drive change and to promote the development of trust schools; iv) an expansion in the number of Academies to 200 by the year 2010 and easier provision for independent schools to enter the state system; v) the weakest schools to be given one year to improve standards or face closure, whilst high performing schools will have reduced bureaucracy and a lighter touch inspection regime; vi) increased provision for free school transport for poorer pupils; and vii) the introduction of a right for teachers to discipline pupils.
Report by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government under section 78A of the Local Government Finance Act 1988. On cover and title page: Local government finance (England)
This report sets out interim assessments of the progress made by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) against its Public Service Agreement (PSA) performance targets as agreed in the 2004 Spending Review, together with progress against the Department's efficiency target and the outstanding targets from the 2002 Spending Review. This report is supplementary to the Departmental Report 2006 (Cm. 6812, ISBN 0101681224).
This report establishes the amounts of revenue support grant (RSG) and non-domestic rates (NDR) to be paid to local authorities in 2010-11, and the basis of their distribution. The final figures for 2010-11 confirm those originally published in January 2008. Total formula grant for 2010-11 will be £747m, or 2.6 per cent, higher than in 2009-10 on a like-for-like basis. Specific grants, such as the Dedicated Schools Grant, are on top of these figures and bring the total increase in funding for local authorities to 4 per cent in 2010-11.
This report unveils proposals for the biggest programme of reform in the education and health support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities in 30 years. The Government wants to fundamentally reform the SEN system to address problems including: parents having to battle to get the support their child needs; SEN statements not joining up education, health and care support; children falling between the gaps in services or having to undergo multiple assessments; multiple layers of paperwork and bureaucracy adding delays to getting support, therapy and vital equipment; confusing and adversarial assessment process, with the perceived conflict of interest where the local authority must provide SEN support as well as assess children's needs; too many children are being over-identified as SEN, preventing them from achieving their potential because teachers have lower expectations of them. The Government proposes to: include parents in the assessment process and introduce a legal right, by 2014, to give them control of funding for the support their child needs; replace statements with a single assessment process and a combined education, health and care plan so that health and social services is included in the package of support; ensure assessment and plans run from birth to 25 years old; replace the existing complicated School Action and School Action Plus system with a simpler new school-based category to help teachers focus on raising attainment; overhaul teacher training and professional development; inject greater independence from local authorities in assessments; give parents a greater choice of school and the power to set up special free schools
The UK has comparatively high levels of child poverty: around one in five children are living in relative poverty (defined as living in a household with below 60 per cent median income before housing costs). The Government has made significant progress on reducing child poverty, with 700,000 less children in poverty than in 1988/89 (when the figure was 3.4 million), but missed its interim target of reducing child poverty by a quarter by 2004/05. It is unlikely, with current policies, to meet its 2010 target of halving child poverty, nor the 2020 target of eliminating it. This report recommends reforms to the Welfare to Work and New Deal for Lone Parents programmes. They should be more attuned to the particular needs of parents, who need guidance, support and skills to progress in work. They should not just encourage parents to take any job rather than one that offers them good long-term prospects, or leads to parents "cycling" between having a job and being out of work. Moreover, many children in poverty live in families that have no contact with Welfare to Work programmes. Jobcentre Plus, the agency that is charged with reducing joblessness, needs to focus more on the family, providing more flexible packages of support and seeking a wider customer reach. If necessary other agencies might have to be involved in delivering the recommendations. The author makes a number of recommendations for immediate implementation; others are for action after evaluation; and several new pilot schemes are also suggested.
This Action Plan sets out the Government's aim of addressing the problem of teenage drinking in three ways: (1) to work with the police and courts to stop drinking by young people under 18 in public places; (2) to develop clearer information and guidance on the effects of the consumption of alcohol for parents and young people and deal with irresponsible parents in this matter; (3) to work with the drinks industry to strengthen standards that govern the selling of alcohol to young people and the way drinks are marketed and promoted. This document sets out the Government's conclusions and the action which will be taken and was part of the Government's commitment as set out in the Children's Plan (Cm. 7280, ISBN 9780101728027). It also includes a Call for Views response form, with replies required by 7 July 2008.
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