Making Sure Every Child Matters

Why is this a priority for Rochdale Borough?

The future of the borough is its children and young people. The better the start in life we can give them the brighter the future for the borough. We are committed to getting all our children off to a good start and we have had some considerable successes in investing in and developing our children and young people and meeting their health, safety and education needs. We have formed a Rochdale Borough Children’s Trust which has consolidated and built on the work undertaken so far. We know that through working together services are better able to provide the effective support for our children, young people and their families.

• More than one in four of our children live in poverty.
• Children feel safe in the borough’s schools but less safe out of school.
• Our children have two times more decayed, missing or filled teeth than the England average.
• Infant mortality is decreasing, and the gap is narrowing, but it is still above the national average.
• Obesity at age four and eleven is high in the borough.
• Our children are less likely to get good exam results in secondary school than the national average.

What is the focus of this priority

We want all children to be safe, healthy, to enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic wellbeing.

What has been acheived under the priority?

• Residential, adoption and fostering services have all done well in inspections.
• Young people tell us that anti bullying work has been effective.
• We have achieved Beacon Status for our healthy schools programme where children learn about healthy eating and exercise.
• Pupil levels of attainment are rising rapidly and our Primary schools have improved more than anywhere else in the country.
• We have built 3 brand new state of the art primary schools.

How will this priority acheived?

• We aim to spend more on preventative work with families.
• We want looked after children to do better in school and life.
• We aim to stop the rise in obesity and improve dental health.
• We will improve mental health support and promote health in early years.
• We aim for there to be less young people not in education, employment or training.
• We want to encourage young people to make a positive contribution to society and give them more of a say and more opportunity to get involved in the community.