ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the place given to children, families and communities in two different political agendas. It begins with the radical changes brought about by the New Labour Government in the 13 years following 1997. The social policy agenda Every Child Matters (ECM) marked a signifi cant shift in the relationship between the state and those it governed. This continued under the 2010 Conservative/Liberal-Democrat Coalition. Both administrations used the business and voluntary sectors to open up and modernize public welfare provision. For New Labour, emphasis on community involvement was intended to enhance a sense of public ownership of reform and to make services more directly accountable to those who used them. The rights and responsibilities of service-users could be set out clearly: for example, parents in their engagement with schools. ‘Modernization’ allowed for the infl ux of private fi nance in the funding of state services in order to alleviate pressures on the public purse. The Coalition Government took this further and promoted social action for the benefi ts of community empowerment, together with a renaissance in local rather than state institutions in determining policy at the district level. This was depicted as ‘the Big Society’ as opposed to ‘big government’. However, rather than the loosening of state control over public services that these measures promised, the state not only extended its infl uence into the areas of family and community life previously untouched by government, it increased its powers over local decision making with its mobilization of non-elected bodies and individuals, particularly in education and schools.
