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Date: 10 Mar 2010
Address: http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/index/leadershiplibrary/leadingschools/working-in-partnership/ecm/about-every-child-matters/why-ecm-is-important

Why ECM is important

Every Child Matters (ECM) is a programme of change to improve outcomes for children and young people, including their health, safety and achievement. ECM is important to you as a school leader because it requires you to work with other leaders and move beyond the school boundaries to work with parents, communities and those agencies that impact on the lives of children and young people.

What is Every Child Matters?

ECM is a vision of change, support by the Children's Act, to improve outcomes for all children and young people. Five outcomes have been specified by children and young people directly.

These are to:

  • be healthy
  • stay safe
  • enjoy and achieve
  • make a positive contribution
  • achieve economic well-being

The Children’s Plan takes this work forward by aiming to improve children’s educational outcomes and their health by focusing on the needs of the 'whole' child, at home and in the wider community. It also aims to reduce offending rates among young people and is part of an overall strategy to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

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Why is ECM important?

The five ECM outcomes challenge you to think about barriers to learning and achievement which impact on the child in and away from school. These solutions might extend beyond the traditional school model, and now need to include parents, families, communities and the organisations and agencies that influence children’s lives, development and learning. Effective leadership is at the heart of developing a new, collaborative approach to achieve better outcomes for all young people.

In particular, as part of the government's extended services programme, children and young people are entitled to receive services from schools and their partners that relate to the five outcomes. These services take the form of a universal core offer, to be fully available in England by 2010. The core offer comprises:

  • high-quality wraparound childcare
  • activities to extend and enrich learning
  • parenting support, including information sessions for parents and family learning
  • swift and easy referral to a wide range of specialist support services
  • wider community access to ICT, sports and arts facilities, including adult learning

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Building 21st century schools

The 21st century schools white paper - Your child, your school, our future: building a 21st century schools system - was published  in June 2009. It represents a significant shift in policy, bringing schools more centrally into the system set out in the Children’s Plan. Its aim is to ensure that the Every Child Matters and well-being agendas are fully integrated so that every child can succeed and that we narrow the gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged learners. New pupil and parent guarantees set out new entitlements to personalised support for every child and for every parent.

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Leading extended provision

The requirements of ECM place greater focus on extended services in or around school, multi-agency working and children’s centres. It also involves you in consultation activities with students, parents, families and the wider community, as well as working with other agencies and the Children's Trust.

Depending on what local people say they need, and how the Children's Trust has indentified priorities, extended services and multi-agency working involve you in many different areas of leadership activity. Possible offerings include access to Ofsted-registered childcare, breakfast and after-school clubs, family learning opportunities and swift access to specialist services such as speech therapists and psychologists. As a result of all of this, you and your team need to develop new skills focused on collaboration and partnership working as much of this provision is delivered in clusters, partnerships and supported by the local authority and the Children's Trust. You cannot do all of this yourself.

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Working with families and the community

Children spend only 15 per cent of their waking time in school from birth to age 16. The influences of family and community have significant bearing on a child's achievement, personal development and well-being.

Forging strong links between schools, families and the community is a significant factor in addressing barriers to learning and participation. Harnessing the potential of the family and the community to contribute to improved learning outcomes requires you as a leader to open up new spaces for dialogue and participation.

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Planning, quality and evaluation

To successfully work towards the five ECM outcomes, schools have to adopt a new approach and see themselves as offering a strategic resource for the community. This is often better achieved working with other schools and providers in clusters and partnerships. A high-quality service depends on incorporating partnership working with outside organisations. You have a leading role to play in developing a shared vision and ensuring that planning is done in a collaborative way.

This all adds complexity to the process, but working together in this way can also build trust. It is important to set up a good evaluation mechanism to ensure that approaches are sustainable and that the quality of services is high as part of the local Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP).

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Developing effective leadership models

Integrating children’s services, developing extended services, working with the community and agencies are all have an impact on models of leadership and governance. In making this work a success, you need to move to new models of leadership, including adopting distributed leadership and decision-making approaches. In turn, these new approaches require you to develop different organisational and professional structures to help you and your team work successfully in an increasingly complex environment. None of this can be done alone, and forging professional relationships with other agencies is critical.

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