News

The Green Paper on children at risk will have a special focus on workforce issues, according to Children and Young People’s Unit director Althea Efunshile. There is concern that many of the new services and programmes for children and young people are fishing in the same, small pool for staff, often competing with longer established services such as child protection.

In the keynote address at the New Beginnings conference, organised jointly by 0-19 magazine and the CYPU, Efunshile  said the Green Paper’s purpose was to shift the balance in services from crisis intervention to prevention for children at risk of educational failure; offending;  being victims of crime, bullying or abuse; or poor physical or mental health.

But Sharon Moore, principle policy officer at the Children’s society, warned that Children at risk are being denied services due to the Government's misplaced focus on actual and potential youth offending.

"Children's organisations are concerned that resources are focussed away from children with current needs to those who are labelled a risk in society," she said.

She added that at present children have to be seen as potential offenders to receive services and that offending was focused on at the expense of other needs. "The narrowing of the focus down on offending and potential offending denies the needs of others," she said.
Moore also voiced doubts about the ability to target potential offenders before they break the law. "The truth is we cannot predict which child will offend," she said. 

Efunshile  said both the Green paper and the Nation’s Strategy for Children and Young People were still expected to appear by early summer. The strategy would set outcomes across the whole of children and young people’s lives, and would provide a focus for policy over the coming ten years and beyond.

She argued  for preventive approaches within universal services for children, instead of singling out particular children for separate provision. “We cannot serve children at risk well if we serve them in isolation from the rest. Preventive approaches in universal services are key, and support for children and young people needs to be located in the context of wider community regeneration and better outcomes for all children.

“The key to improving outcomes is to transfer the service principles that we know are working.”