Consultations

The following items are live consultations relevant to the Every Child Matters: Change for Children programme. Click on the links for more information.

Closed consultations can be viewed in the Department for Children, Schools and Families archive

Consultation on Revised Missing from Home and Care Guidance - 14 January 2009 to 8 April 2009

In the Young Runaways Action Plan published in June 2008 the Government committed to updating local authority guidance on supporting children and young people who go missing from home or care. The existing guidance was published by the Department of Health in 2002.

After working with a task group, which included representatives from across Government, the English Coalition for Runaway Children and from local authorities, the revised draft guidance is now ready for formal consultation.

To read the draft guidance and for full details of how to respond, including a set of questions, go to the DCSF consultation page.

Events
Three events are being held in February to discuss the draft guidance. For full details, go to the Events page.

Further information
There are still some sections of the guidance that need to be fully completed as the information necessary to do this is not yet available, these areas are clearly marked in the document and include: details of how local authorities should use the new national indicator (NI71) and recommendations on emergency accommodation. These sections will be updated before the final draft is published. A number of good practice examples to illustrate some of the processes described in the document will also be included.

The document is broken down into three main sections:

1. Responding to the needs of all missing children and young people
2. Children who go missing from home
3. Children who go missing from local authority care

2020 Children's and Young People's Workforce consultation - 16 December 2008 to 10 March 2009

The children and young people's workforce strategy sets out a vision for 2020 in which everyone who works with children and young people is: ambitious for every child and young person, excellent in their practice, committed to partnership and integrated working, and respected and valued as professionals.

The Government's ambition is that all children and young people should achieve their full potential across all the Every Child Matters outcomes: staying safe; being healthy; enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution and achieving economic wellbeing. The quality and capacity of the children and young people's workforce are critical to making a reality of those ambitions.

The strategy describes how Government will work with partners to ensure that everyone in the workforce receives the support and development they need to achieve this vision. And it identifies reforms which need to have impact across the whole of the children and young people's workforce as well as priorities for development in each part of it.

For more information, and to submit your views about the vision and priorities for addressing issues that affect the whole workforce, go to the DCSF consultation page. 

Closed: Video games consultation - 31 July to 20 November 2008

As part of the Government's implementation of the Byron Review recommendations, on children and new media, the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) asked for your views on the current classification system for video games.

This consultation has now ended. The consultation period was 31 July - 20 November 2008

For more information, go to the DCMS Video Games Consultation page.

Closed: Forced marriage consultation - 23 July to 15 October 2008

The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 provides for the Government to issue statutory guidance setting out the responsibilities of all agencies dealing with forced marriage issues. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office consulted on proposed new guidance relating to forced marriage.

The consultation gave practitioners and the public an opportunity to comment on the draft guidance. It set out statutory requirements that agencies must have with regards to tackling this issue, which built on their existing responsibilities to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Following the consultation, which closed on 15 October 2008, The Right to Choose: multi-agency statutory guidance for dealing with forced marriage was published on 25 November 2008. The guidance plays a key role in the fight against forced marriage. It will make sure victims and potential victims receive the response and support they need.

The consultation documents are available on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website and a formal response to the consultation will be issued by the FCO in January 2009.