The Children’s Plan, ‘Broken Britain’ and Baby P

Abstract

This chapter discusses the development of children’s policy in the final years of the Labour Government after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister and his close ally Ed Balls was appointed Secretary of State in the renamed Department for Children, Schools and Families. The subsequent publication of the Children’s Plan effectively marked a relaunch of the ECM reform programme placing it on equal footing with the Department’s more established education policy agenda. Furthermore, Blair’s authoritarian perspective on crime and anti-social behaviour was superseded by a stronger focus on early intervention and the provision of positive activities for young people. However, competition from a resurgent Conservative Party under the leadership of David Cameron placed new pressures on the Labour Government in the run-up to the 2010 general election. Moreover, it is argued that Cameron’s used the Baby P scandal of late 2008 to highlight Labour’s neglect of child protection and social work and promote the Conservatives’ ‘Broken Britain’ narrative on social policy.