Generally, outcomes for the 156,000 children and young people in Cheshire are good. The majority enjoy a good quality of life and academic achievement continues to be very high in comparison with the country as a whole. However, such a general picture masks the considerable numbers of children and young people for whom outcomes are not so good, whose personal circumstances mean that they are less likely to succeed in life and to achieve the five outcomes set out by the Government for all children and young people, namely to:
- be healthy
- stay safe
- enjoy and achieve
- make a positive contribution
- achieve economic well-being
The Government’s
Every Child Matters reform programme and the subsequent Children Act 2004 prioritise the development of integrated children’s services to try to ensure that no children or young people fall through the net of service provision or fail to achieve the five outcomes. Within Cheshire, a
Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership (CYPSP) has been established to lead this service integration. The organisations represented on the CYPSP include the County Council, the District Councils, Schools, Connexions, Health, the Children’s Fund, SureStart, the Criminal Justice Board, Police, Fire, the Drug and Alcohol Action Team, the Learning and Skills Council and the voluntary, community and faith sectors.
The CYPSP has analysed the challenges that children and young people in the
county face and identified a number of issues that need to be addressed, including:
- improving outcomes for children and young people living in the most deprived areas of the county;
- addressing the needs of particular groups who have been failed by the system in the past, for example looked after children who continue to have considerably worse life chances than their peers;
- tackling some of the national issues which affect Cheshire as well as all other parts of the country, such as substance misuse and the rise of childhood obesity;
- ensuring that all children and young people make the most of their potential and are helped to find further education, employment or training upon leaving school.
This is all within a context of significant demographic change within Cheshire, which is seeing a decline in the number of children and young people alongside an increase in the number of older people. It is important to note, however, that the number of vulnerable children or children with special educational needs is not forecast to fall proportionately and may even rise in some areas.
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