ABSTRACT
The green paper Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003) and the subsequent Children Act 2004 had a significant impact on youth work policy, practice and curriculum. Many, if not all, youth services at the time modified, if not wholly restructured, their curriculum in terms of Every Child Matters. As Bracey, the principal youth officer for Southend-on-Sea, admitted at the time: ‘we all agreed it [our curriculum] needed a major rewrite to bring it up to date to reflect the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda … the challenge for us is to demonstrate how youth work contributes to improving the five outcomes’ (Bracey, 2006: 44). However, Every Child Matters is not merely of historical interest; its influence has been far reaching and in some crucial respects it remains very relevant today.
