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Explain the role of schools in national policies relating to

children, young people and families

Obviously national policies cannot be implemented by government alone. The front

line of education consists of schools, teachers, and support staff, and these are the

people who must ultimately deliver the agreed policy.

School staff can only deliver the governmental policy if they are aware of it, so the

first part of the role that schools play in the dissemination of national policies is to

make staff aware of the new policy or the changes to the old policies. This can be

done through signposting to the relevant websites and documentation, or through

training days.

With this awareness, schools and staff can demonstrate that they know about the

changes by changing the way they work or by adding more 'value' to the way they

teach and support children and their education.

Changes in policy cannot be delivered by individual staff members in isolation.

Policies affect the way in which a school is run, the methods and types of teaching

and support that is available, and overall provision. Some changes are more wide-

ranging than others, and Help Children Achieve More (Every Child Matters), upon

which the Children's Act 2004 was based, was a very big policy change.

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How schools deliver national policy.

Helping Children Achieve More Previously known as (Every Child Matters).

The Department for Education (DfE) has recently made a key change in replacing

the phrases of 'Every Child Matters' and the 'Five Outcomes' with 'help children

achieve more'.

Background:

In 2003 the Government published a Green Paper called Every Child Matters. This

was published as a response to the report into the death of Victoria Climbié, the

young girl who was horrifically abused and tortured, and eventually killed by her

great aunt and the man with whom they lived.

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Although Every Child Matters is not mentioned by the current government the five

outcomes still hold true in that schools need to ensure that all children have the

support they need to:

Be healthy Stay safe Enjoy and achieve Make a positive contribution Achieve economic well-being.

Be healthy - that children should be healthy in every possible way, including

physical, mental, emotional, and sexual health. They should be given the

opportunity to live healthy lifestyles, and be given enough information to be

able to choose not to take illegal drugs.

Stay safe - that children should be safe from violence, abuse, neglect,

bullying, and discrimination. They should be cared for, and they should have

both stability and security.

Enjoy and achieve - that children should be made ready for school, and when

they go, they should enjoy attending. They should be able to achieve national

educational standards at all stages of their learning life. They should also be

able to develop their own personal and social abilities, and enjoy recreational

activities.

Make a positive contribution - that children should be involved and

engaged in decision-making and in supporting the local community.

Children should know the difference between negative and positive

behaviour, and should show positive behaviour outside of school as well as

when they attend.

Achieve economic well-being - that children should engage with the

opportunities given them through further education, employment and training

that will enable them to boost their own abilities to provide for themselves as

adults. They should be able to live in good homes where they have access to

transport and material goods, and should be free of low income problems.

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Extended services - Extended services provided through schools include

access to educational psychologists, clinical psychologists, family support

workers, health mentors, family literacy and numeracy specialists, and speech

and language therapists.

These types of services tend to link in with overarching services provided to pupils

and their families. For example, these might be child care, health and social care,

pupil support, parenting or family support, or ICT facilities.

Developing themselves as the mainstay of community cohesion (and you will

remember from earlier in this unit that this is a concept introduced to schools'

responsibilities as part of government policy), schools should also develop their links

with the local community, including offering the use of some facilities for their use

where appropriate.

The role of schools in national policies, therefore, can be seen as one that delivers

information and awareness around the new policy or policy changes, and that then

goes on to provide the recommended ways of working detailed in the policy, in

collaboration with other agencies that may be governmental or non-governmental

based.