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Reform of children’s services: Margaret Hodge appointed Minister of State for Children
To provide integrated leadership and responsibility for children’s services and family policy across Whitehall, the Prime Minister has today appointed Margaret Hodge as the first Minister of State for Children in the Department for Education and Skills.
Under the direction of Charles Clarke as Secretary of State, she will take responsibility for children’s services, childcare and provision for under-fives, family policy (including parenting support and family law), and for the reform agenda to be set out in the forthcoming Green Paper on children ‘at risk’.
Responsibility for children’s social services and the Teenage Pregnancy Unit will be transferred from the Department of Health to the Department for Education and Skills. The Family Policy Unit will be transferred from the Home Office to the DfES, and family law policy from the Lord Chancellor’s Department.
Specific responsibilities of the new minister will include oversight of:
- Sure Start, Early Years, Childcare, Connexions, LEA Special Education Needs, and the Youth Service;
- The Children and Young People’s Unit;
- Children’s Social Services and the Teenage Pregnancy Unit, which will transfer from Department of Health;
- Responsibilities for family and parenting law and support (transferred from the Lord Chancellor’s Department);
- The Family Policy Unit (transferred from Home Office)
The integration of children’s policy into DfES will create a single departmental focus for children, including disadvantaged children, improved co-ordination within children’s services (including family and parenting support), and between these services and mainstream schools and education policy.
Lord Laming’s inquiry into the Victoria Climbie tragedy highlighted the need for better co-ordination. The changes foreshadow further reforms to be announced in the forthcoming Children’s Green Paper, which will incorporate a full response to the Laming report. The Green Paper will be published before the summer recess.
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