Every Child Matters is a new approach to the well being of children and young people from birth to age 19.

The governments 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 will have far more say about issues that affect them as individuals and collectively.

Over the next few years, every Local Authority 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, when inspectors assess how local areas are doing, they will listen especially to the views of children and young people themselves.

The Government is committed to improving safeguards for children and has embarked on one of the most wide-ranging reforms of children’s services in decades. It has introduced new legislation, guidance, structures, and policy initiatives to make children safer. Local safeguarding children’s boards have been established in all English Local Authorities. Policies such as the workforce strategy, children’s trusts and the integrated children’s system and Common Assessment Framework are at the heart of these reforms.

Click the link below to access the Every Child Matters: Change for Children national framework for change programmes

West Berkshire have created a leaflet about 'Working with children and young people in West Berkshire'. Click Here to download the file.

Date Updated: 15/07/10