ABSTRACT
The new social order promoted under New Labour and encapsulated within ECM was constructed around a welfare system based on the assumption of gains to be accrued in the future. These gains are the child’s and the later adult’s wellbeing, but also the fitness to join the economic workforce. Present investment in that future is encouraged via community involvement, as well as in the acquisition of education, training and skills. Central to this new social order is the child:
• as part of a family in its wider, more liberal constructs; • as a ‘citizen in waiting’; • as an expression of cultural values and aspirations, defined by
government and mediated through schools; • in creating a rationale for greater social cohesion and community
involvement.
