Current policies

This section gives a summary of key developments under the Labour government's second term (May 2001 onwards)

Labour’s second term in office has been arguably marked by an emphasis on putting into practice the recommendations emerging from work done by the Social Exclusion Unit in respect of young people. The report of the Policy Action Team on Young People, Policy Action Team (PAT) 12: Young People (2000) looked at how Government could improve better co-ordination of policies affecting children and young people and improve services for young people and how they could be developed to help prevent social exclusion. It recommended the setting up of a Youth Unit. The report showed that children and families at risk of running into severe difficulties can be identified early through known risk factors, and that effective interventions can often improve their prospects. It argued for better local co-ordination in identifying the needs of young people and a shift of resources into prevention activities, both to help parents and children deal with problems before they become acute and to promote effective cross-cutting interventions for children and young people most at risk. 

The main policy thrusts currently lie in: 

• Better co-ordination of policies affecting young people 
• Further measures to widen access to post-16 education 
• Targeting of those perceived to be at greatest risk of social exclusion through early interventions 
• Management of anti-social behaviour through families 
• Greater focus on participation and active citizenship 

The establishment of the Children and Young People’s Unit, based in the DfES, is a direct response to the PAT 12 recommendations on policy mechanisms. The CYPU is something of a compromise, however, since it does not cover the full 16-25 age group recommended by PAT12. Its role is to support cross-government work on child poverty and youth disadvantage, looking across the 5-19 age range. The CYPU also has responsibility for administering the Children’s Fund (for 8-13 year-olds). The Head of the Unit, Althea Efunshile, reports ultimately to the Cabinet Committee chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and more immediately to John Denham, the Minister for Young People, who has responsibility for the development of youth policy. The Secretary of State for Education and Employment, Estelle Morris, retains ultimate accountability to Parliament. Through the CYPU, eight government departments published action plans on how they will involve young people in their decision making. The CYPU has a specific remit to develop an overarching strategy for all services for children and young people. 

There is a particular emphasis on putting in place measures to improve the life chances of those young people who are most disadvantaged. Following the recommendation of the PAT 12 report Bridging the Gap, on 16-18 year-olds who are not in education, employment or training, schemes are developing to encouraging young people from disadvantaged homes to stay in education or training. These schemes include Educational Maintenance Allowances for 16-18s (piloted earlier but now on stream) and most significantly the ConneXions Service which provides personal advisors for the 13-19 age group (originally proposed in the DfEE document Learning to Succeed). These developments will link with a new Skills for Life Strategy which forms part of a ‘Lifelong Learning’ programme. Citizenship education will be introduced into the secondary curriculum from Sept 2002. 

The government’s aim is that by 2010, 50% of the population should enter higher education by the age of 30. There are a number of initiatives associated with this goal. For example, the Excellence Challenge is a 3-year programme which aims to increase the number of young people from poorer backgrounds who apply for and enter higher education. There is now much more of a focus, in terms of education, on the ‘knowledge economy’ and a movement away from education as a one-size-fits-all structure. To this end there are targets about the level of attainment young people should reach (including individual pupil-level targeting), Learning Mentors whose role is to identify and support children needing additional help at school, and measures to encourage pupils to take greater control of their own learning, as ‘consumers’ of education. There are further developments towards the idea of graduation from secondary school at 18, based on the US model, but ensuring that all school graduates have some form of general or vocational qualification. A nation-wide consultation on the 14-19 Curriculum Green Paper is nearing completion and will provide a means of achieving this (developing from Curriculum 2000 ). The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act, which came into force on 1 September, removes the previous exemption of education from the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. 

As a result of the SEU reports from PAT 12, the inter-departmental Teenage Pregnancy Unit based at the Department of Health, and the Rough Sleeping Unit based at DTLR continue to implement the strategies developed. Homelessness Act 2002 covers main provisions of the Homelessness Bill 2001. Crime reduction policies increasingly deal with actual and potential young offenders through their families. The Home Office’s Family Support Grant of £2m over the next 3 years for the National Family and Parenting Institute is designed to help support families in need. Parenting Orders were extended by DfES in 2002 to allow parents of children who persistently misbehave to be brought before the courts and ordered to attend parenting classes or pay a £1000 fine. Attempts are being made to implement the Drugs Prevention Strategy defined in 1998, with variable success, but cannabis has still not been re-classified as a Class C drug, though its use is policed less heavily. Policy strategies are still being formulated by the Social Exclusion Unit PAT 12 for more vulnerable groups of young people, including young runaways and children in care, and on transport and social exclusion.