Policy

Providing appropriate support for parenting cuts across a range of the government's policy themes: social exclusion and poverty, education, maternity services, the family justice system, crime and anti-social behaviour, and policies to enable parents to balance paid work and family life.

The Social Exclusion Task Force has been carrying out a review to understand how a 'whole family' approach can be used for families with additional or complex needs, focusing on how services for adults respond to their clients as parents or carers. Policy proposals were due to be published in autumn 2007. The Cabinet Office website gives more details.

The Children's Plan - Building brighter futures
On 11 December 2007, Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, delivered to parliament a ten-year Children's Plan and promised to make Britain 'the best place in the world for our children and young people to grow up'. The government pledged £1bn to be invested in playgrounds, youth-centres, childcare and parenting advisers.

The Children's Plan can be downloaded here.

Next steps on the Children's Plan

On 3 April 2008, Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, announced the next steps in implementing the Children's Plan at a major conference for Directors of Children's Services and other key partners. The government revealed packages for investing in play, youth facilities and the children's workforce. It also outlined the next steps for Children's Trusts. As part of the launch a number of key documents have been published. These include:

• Building Brighter Futures: Next Steps for the Children's Workforce which sets out the government's plans for investment of £73m over three years to improve training, recruitment and professional development of social workers; £305m to develop graduate Early Years professionals and £7.5m to enable the play workforce to access Level 3 qualifications, starting from autumn 2008.

• A new expert group on children's workforce policy, comprising different parts of the workforce who will work with the government to develop a long term strategy for developing the children's workforce has been established.

• Leading and Managing Children's Services in England: A National Professional Development Framework to support the development of effective and innovative leaders across the workforce. This document describes the knowledge skills and behaviours relevant to leaders and managers of children's services.
• An updated version of the Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework, showing how the Children's Plan and other national programmes will work together to improve the lives of children and young people.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has also developed a Children's Plan Timeline of all the policy commitments from 2008 to 2010. It includes information on forthcoming publications, timelines, funding and implementation.