The Child Minder

There will be no more posts on The Childminder for the time being as we have a shiny new blog where you can find all the latest news and views on children's issues and social care - The Social Work Blog. See you there!

The Queen's Speech has announced a new Children and Young Person's Bill.

"A Children and Young Persons Bill reiterated the pledges of the Care Matters white paper and will give local authorities piloting GP-style social work practices the power to test the model. The bill also recapped on other white paper measures including placing the role of designated teacher on a statutory footing and ensuring children in care did not move schools in Year 10 and 11 except in exceptional circumstances."

Read the whole story on it on the Community Care news site.

A report out this week from charity 4Children and ex-Labour MP Oona King tackles the thorny issue of young people's lack of engagement with mainstream politics.
Only 39% of those aged 18-25 voted in the 2001 general election, compared to 75% of those over 65; while 90% of pensioners see voting as a civic duty, just 56% of 18 to 24-year-olds feel the same way.
But while some of its solutions are admirable, one looks like a very familiar dead end: votes at 16.

Let me begin by apologising for failing to blog for the last couple of weeks. I have been somewhat tied up with the relaunch of Community Care, which now has a new design incorporating standalone children's and adults' services sections.

I have also been out and about, soaking up the atmosphere in Warwickshire at the last ever spring seminar of the Association of Directors of Social Services - which also doubled up as the first ever spring seminar of the Association of Directors of Adults Social Services.

But in this brave new world of splits and restructures, there are many who are concerned that the result will be new gaps for service-users to fall through, particularly young people approaching adulthood and the children of adult service-users.

It was therefore refreshing to find that, despite the adult-dominated agenda at the spring seminar, children were by no means forgotten. There were numerous references made throughout the two-and-a-half days about seeing service-users in the context of their family as a whole. And I discovered several interesting arrangements that have been set up to try and bridge the divide, such as adults directors sitting on children's trust boards, and at least one even chairing their local safeguarding children board.

I was pleased to learn this week that the health secretary will be forced to face up to the real life, everyday implications of NHS bodies struggling to balance their books.

Hounslow Council should be congratulated for flagging up to Patricia Hewitt the potential impact of NHS cuts on young people with mental health problems in their area and pointing out just how difficult these local decisions can be.

Hounslow's problems are symptomatic of a far wider issue that has seen social care services cut - or thresholds to access them rise - up and down the country.

Whatever the reason for the current funding situation in the NHS, vulnerable people should not be the ones paying the price. And Ms Hewitt would do well to acknowledge that and do something about it.

The Education and Inspections Bill received Royal Assent today, ushering in a range of changes around the way schools and local authorities interact, the way parents are made to take responsibility for their children's behaviour in school, and the way schools look after their pupils.

Anyone working in educaton who will be affected by the Act's duty on schools to promote pupils' well-being might be interested in a new document from Bristol on emotional well-being and mental health support for children and young people in schools. It was produced in response to growing concerns about pupils' mental health problems and the impact of these on behaviour in the classroom. For more details email David Goodban, CAMHS regional development worker for the South West.

I have just spent the last few hours trawling through the transcipt of the debates in the House of Lords last week on the Education and Inspections Bill and have been left thinking: what is the point? During 12 hours of debate over three separate sessions, only one amendment put forward by someone other than children's minister Lord Adonis was actually debated and agreed to. Four other amendments were lost at the vote after debate, and 12 others were withdrawn after debate - often reluctantly and more because time was running out than because their fears had been allayed.

The remaining amendments, with the exception of those laid by Adonis (a former No.10 adviser, we mustn't forget), were not even moved.

Maybe it's just because the bill is at the final stages of its journey through Parliament that few changes were made, but the whole process had the air of an elaborate rubber-stamping exercise. Carefully crafted amendments laid often on behalf of charities and pressure groups failed to even see the light of day.

The Lords will discuss the bill again tomorrow. Campaigners from across the children's sector are hoping that amendments challenging sections of the bill aimed at penalising parents who fail to supervise children excluded from school have more success than last week's amendments.

Failure to amend this part of the bill will mean that, in future, parents will be guilty of a criminal offence if their child is seen in a public place during school hours during the first five days of any exclusion.

One of the reasons for choosing to launch our blog this week was so it would coincide with the national children's and adults services conference in Brighton. This is basically an opportunity for directors and lead members from across the country to get together to share stories and woes, and to hear politicians' latest ideas.

I was therefore hoping to use this entry to summarise yesterday's keynote address by education secretary Alan Johnson. Unfortunately, though, I have been forced to reach the conclusion that he actually said very little that was either 'key' or 'of note'. As he himself admitted, he had allowed the department's writing team to get at his speech - and it showed!
Caught off guard by a question from the floor, he did however let slip that he shared delegates' concerns about the restrictive nature of the current funding system for schools and hinted at the possibility of greater flexibility in how the money could be spent in the future. So watch this space.

Time to go and hear from a former education secretary now, as Estelle Morris joins the conference donning her Children's Workforce Development Council hat. Log-on again later to see if she had more to say than her successor.