Every Child Matters is a new approach to the well-being of children and young people from birth to age 19.The Government's aim is for every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, to have the support they need to:
· be healthy
· stay safe
· enjoy and achieve
· make a positive contribution
· achieve economic well-being.
This means that the organisations involved with providing services to children – from hospitals and schools, to police and voluntary groups – will be teaming up in new ways, sharing information and working together, to protect children and young people from harm and help them achieve what they want in life. Children and young people will have far more say about issues that affect them as individuals and collectively.
Over the next few years, every LA will be working with its partners, through children's trusts, to find out what works best for children and young people in its area and act on it. They will need to involve children and young people in this process, and when inspectors assess how local areas are doing, they will listen especially to the views of children and young people themselves.
In March 2005, the first Children's Commissioner for England was appointed, to give children and young people a voice in Government and in public life. The commissioner will pay particular attention to gathering and putting forward the views of the most vulnerable children and young people in society, and will promote their involvement in the work of organisations whose decisions and actions affect them.
In addition, the Children's Fund was launched in November 2000 to tackle disadvantage among children and young people. The programme aims to identify at an early stage children and young people at risk of social exclusion, and make sure they receive the help and support they need to achieve their potential.
(this information was found at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/about/aims/aims/)
An exellent overview of the Every Child Matters Agenda for Change can be found at: http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/greenpapersummary/
Aiming High For Disabled Children http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/healthandwellbeing/ahdc/AHDC/ Aiming High For Disabled Children launched in May 2007, and is the transformation programme for disabled children's services. AHDC is jointly delivered by the DCSF(Department for Children Schools and Families) and the Department of Health (DH). AHDC - Best practice to common practice provides an update on the key developments in the programme since the launch. The AHDC conference, Transforming best practice to common practice held on Wednesday 3 June 2009, highlighted the progress made as a result of the Aiming High for Disabled Children (AHDC) programme. The conference materials are now available and they include Ministers’ speeches and presentations from the day.
Every Disabled Child Matters www.edcm.org.uk/Page.asp
EDCM is a campaign by four leading organisations working with disabled children and their families – Contact a Family, Council for Disabled Children (CDC), Mencap and the Special Educational Consortium (SEC). We will challenge politicians and policy-makers to make good on the Government’s commitment that every child matters.