MPs push for evaluation of children’s trusts

Pilot children’s trusts should be evaluated before being
implemented nationally, a group of MPs has recommended,
writes Sally Gillen.

In a report released this week, the All-Party Parliamentary
Group for Primary Care and Public Health said “ a good deal
of work is needed to firm up exactly how such trusts are going to
function in practice”.

Their report, based on an inquiry held during the summer on how
children can become the focus of policies, argues that it is clear
“many senior professionals had no idea what a
children’s trust should look like”.

But it admits that waiting for the outcome of any evaluation now
looks “unfeasible” given the government’s plans
in the green paper on children to introduce children’s trusts
in every council by 2006.

The report also calls for the children’s minister to be
given cabinet rank, and for the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child, of which the UK is a signatory, to be incorporated into
law.