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Whatever the political complexion of the government after 5 May, children's services will remain one of the most significant challenges. Getting on for two years since the Every Child Matters green paper was published, many of the reforms it heralded have either stalled because of unforeseen problems or been lacklustre in their implementation. The big picture is there: children's trusts, a children's minister and children's commissioners. But, as two more official reports on the subject suggest, much of the detail is still missing.


The children's workforce, underpaid, undertrained and understaffed, will need considerable investment if it is to do all that has been asked of it. The green paper itself set the tone: "Our goal must be to make working with children an attractive, high status career, and to develop a more skilled and flexible workforce." But the Children's Workforce Strategy, just published by the Department for Education and Skills, fails to do justice to this aim. The sheer lopsidedness of the report - the early years workforce gets far more attention than its social care counterpart - owes more to the government's continuing love affair with nursery provision than it does to the interests of children as a whole. In classic government style it avoids the critical issue - how to recruit and retain more children's social workers - by promising a ministerial project group to look into the matter.


One reason for ducking the question is evidently money. National occupational standards and a common core of skills and knowledge will help to establish a career structure and build a solid foundation for work with children. But any serious proposal for attracting more recruits into children's services must deal seriously with the issue of rewards and incentives. Low pay and status continue to deter anyone contemplating a career in children's social work, especially as it still labours in the shadow of a poor public image.

In the second report, the House of Commons education and skills committee criticises the government for failing to cost the implications of Every Child Matters adequately. There are many senses in which this is true, but the bargain basement price tag on the children's workforce cannot be sustained for much longer.