Children's and young people's services
Many NAVCA members support local voluntary and community
organisations' work with the Every Child Matters agenda. Our report
Frontline Hopscotch
provides us with new evidence to confirm anecdotal feedback that
the new Every Child Matters framework, budgetary pressures on local
authorities and the advent of local area agreements are creating
significant obstacles for groups involved in children's services.
NAVCA has called upon ministers to address the issues identified in
this survey and is working with the Community Sector Partnership
for Children and Young People to draw attention to the problems
that arise in relation to consultation and policy, funding and
procurement for better practice at local authority level.
NAVCA believes that the Government, local government and their
agencies should urgently address the current tensions between the
need for preventative and child protection services and the
budgetary pressures on public bodies and the potentially
irreversible loss of third sector providers of children's services
as a result. Public procurement and commissioning arrangements at
all levels must create a level playing field for third sector
organisations delivering children's and young people's
services.
The policy positions on this page have been approved by the NAVCA
Trustee Board.