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Children's Plan

The Government has made some pretty big decisions about how to make sure every young person enjoys their childhood and teenage years.

Young people today have opportunities that their grandparents didn’t. But there are some serious issues to address. The "Children's Plan" tell us about the changes that will take place over the next 10 years to help all young people, whatever their circumstances, to get on in life. It talks about how the government will support your family and community, so that they can support you.

Listening to you

The Children’s Plan has been written with the input and ideas of young people, as well as those of parents, teachers and others working in health and education. There are lots of ideas in the plan, such as:

  • Places to go like outdoor spaces...
  • Lots more opportunities...
  • Tackling bullying...
  • Help making the right education decisions...
  • Help keeping out of trouble...
  • Information about drugs & alcohol...
  • A new approach for young offenders...
  • Help and support to parents and carers...

Here are some of those ideas in more detail:

Outdoor space and a healthy lifestyle

We enjoy playing and taking part in activities outside school, but there aren’t enough places to go to meet friends and do fun things. Money is being provided to build up to 50 new youth centres or do up 500 youth clubs or make 2000 small centres. It's up to young people what should be provided in your area and how it should be designed.

Body matters

England is in danger of becoming a fat nation. In 2005, one in five people aged between 2 and 15 were obese. The Government is encouraging active healthy lifestyles by schools offering more PE and sport, creating safe routes for walking and cycling to school, teaching young people how to cook healthy meals and offering better school lunches.

Lots more opportunities

Over the next couple of years every school will be opening its doors for longer. You’ll be able to use their sports facilities, catch up on your school work and do other things you enjoy, like drama and music. Schools will get your help deciding what activities to offer. Young people could also have the chance to do 5 hours of arts and cultural activities a week (from going to see dance to making films).

Making you aware of what’s out there

It shouldn't be so difficult to know what’s going on in your area. Government is working with local councils to test new, easy to use ways to give us better info online.

Being careful about who works with you

Government is going to tighten up the system so that anyone who wants to work with children and young people anywhere (including volunteers) has to register first with a new scheme which will check to make sure they are not unsuitable.

The Staying Safe Action Plan

The NSPCC will get more money for ChildLine and its other helplines so that young people have somewhere to turn if they are being harmed or fear they are at risk. The money will help expand and improve services, such as the NSPCC’s ‘there4me’ service, which offers one-to-one counselling with an online adviser. You can call ChildLine for free on 0800 1111 – and it won’t show up on your phone bill.

Tackling bullying

The Government has already told schools what they can do to tackle bullying because of race, religion or culture, or because someone is lesbian or gay, or just ‘different’. Soon, it will give schools more advice on how to help children with special educational needs and disabled children who are being bullied. Of course, bullying can happen face-to-face or over the internet and by mobile phone. A group of experts, including people who run websites and mobile phone companies, is looking at how to tackle this ‘cyberbullying’.

Disruptive behaviour

Bad behaviour in school concerns us. Government has strengthened schools’ powers to ensure good behaviour and is encouraging schools to use these powers. Work is being carried out with parents to reinforce good behaviour, and help police and the children’s services fight bigger but related issues like drugs and gangs.

Skills

Employers say they want to see a greater focus on young people learning skills needed for real jobs, so things like team work will be included more in the learning you already do. And to support learning more there will be a single person by 2010 in each school who knows you well, helps you make good choices and ensures you can get extra support including for problems outside of school.

School leaving age

The age when you leave school, college or training, is 16 now, but is due to be raised to 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015.

Diplomas

Diplomas are new qualifications for 14 to 19 year olds. They will start to become available from September 2008 and will combine practical and classroom learning for everyone. They keep your options open, because (like GCSEs and A Levels) they can take you into either university or work. But they can bring your learning to life by putting it into practice. Employers and universities are deciding what the content of each Diploma will be – making sure it’s relevant to your future life and career. As well as giving you knowledge, they will help you develop communication, teamwork and other useful skills. You can take GCSEs or A levels as part of a Diploma, or alongside it.

Sharing knowledge

The Government is sharpening how it informs and supports parents. From 2008 telephone helplines will be able to take more calls from parents needing advice on things from dealing with bullying to family breakdown. In the future there will be a new search engine so parents can find support and advice online more easily.

Read the Children's Plan in full from the Government website

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