The Children Bill is now an Act, and it will eventually affect everyone working with children and young people. Structural and management changes, shared outcome measures and information-sharing mean that publicly funded, universal services – especially education and health – will be obliged to do more to support disadvantaged children. It’s easy to forget that 10 years ago, politicians showed no interest in children’s lives until a child hit the headlines as a result of committing a serious offence (like the boys who killed James Bulger) or by dying in tragic and horrifying circumstances.
The new Children Act reflects a society taking more care of its children. Unfortunately, instead of caring for children because they deserve decent lives and opportunities, the government is mainly concerned with preventing them from causing trouble to other people. As a result it has avoided the language of children’s rights, and has not held a genuine consultation with children about what changes are needed. It has also made sure England’s children’s commissioner will be firmly harnessed to its own, rather than children’s, agenda.
However, the people who will be implementing the Children Act won’t be politicians, they will be front-line staff and their managers. Research has shown again and again that what makes a difference to children, and to parents too, is not structures and frameworks but the quality of the relationship they have with the professionals they deal with. Children and young people need warmth, kindness, integrity and a sense of humour. They need adults to treat them as individuals and show them respect, to challenge them but also to listen carefully, and do what they say they will do. The Act, and the swathes of guidance that will follow it, will not change that.
