Every Child Matters: Change for Children is a shared programme of change to improve outcomes for all children and young people. It takes forward the Government’s vision of radical reform for children, young people and families.

Children and young people have told us that five outcomes are key to well-being in childhood and later life: being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being. The programme aims to improve those outcomes for all children and to close the gap in outcomes between the disadvantaged and their peers.

The new Children Act 2004 provides the legal framework for the programme of reform. Every Child Matters: Change for Children published in December 2004, brings together all the ways we are working towards improved outcomes for children, young people and families into a national framework for 150 local-authority-led change programmes.

For more information go to:
www.everychildmatters.gov.uk