This section gives you information about the two key government policy areas for your reader development work in Libraries: Every Child Matters and Youth Matters.

Every Child Matters is a shared national programme of change to improve outcomes for all children and young people. Like all services for young people libraries have an important part to play in the effective delivery of Every Child Matters.

Youth Matters is a national government programme to improve the provision of services for teenagers and to build young people's involvement in shaping services to meet their needs.

Every Child Matters

This is based on consultation with young people which has produced 5 key outcomes for well-being in childhood and later life. These are:

The outcomes link together, for example, children and young people learn and thrive when they are healthy, safe and engaged; and the evidence shows clearly that educational achievement is the most effective route out of poverty.

Every Child Matters brings services together around the needs of the child and the family, to achieve these outcomes. Everyone delivering services for children and young people has a role in this, including those working in childcare settings, schools, health services, social care, youth services, the police and criminal justice system, the voluntary and community sector, and cultural, sports and play organisations.

TRF will enable and support libraries in rising to the challenge of Every Child Matters, in:

Developing the core skills for working with young people
Partnership working and development
Finding out young people's needs and providing services and activities which focus on these needs
Contributing to the 5 outcomes

On the government's website Every Child Matters you will find full and up-to-date information about this programme. A key document for the programme is Every Child Matters: Change for Children (pdf, 742Kb).

Inspiring and encouraging young people in their reading will help in the achievement of all 5 outcomes in this programme. For an illustration of the support libraries can provide see the page What is TRF?

Further detail and case studies featuring the 5 Every Child Matters priorities will be added shortly to the following sections on this site.

Youth Matters

Youth Matters is the government’s strategy to build improved public services for teenagers. One of its main aspirations is to increase the range of ‘things to do and places to go’ for young people in local communities. It is also focused on supporting the most socially excluded young people, who may at risk of offending. Youth Matters links closely with Every Child Matters, particularly the ‘Making a positive contribution’ outcome, as it encourages all public services to find ways of involving young people in a meaningful dialogue about what they want from public services.

Libraries are well placed to address many of the issues in Youth Matters. Fulfilling their Potential (Word, 77.8kb) is the national programme aimed at improving services to 11-19 years. FtP outcomes have been mapped against Youth Matters and are particularly focused on involving young people in helping to improve libraries’ offer for young people. In the TRF Resource Library you will find the FtP Outcomes Matrix (Word 77.8kb) produced by this mapping.

The Reading Agency prepared a response to Youth Matters (Word, 245kb) You may find this a useful starting point for understanding how libraries’ work links to Youth Matters.

On the Youth Matters website you will find full and up-to-date information about this programme.

TRF will support library staff to address the issues raised in Youth Matters by:

Giving ideas and case studies of activities library staff can develop for, and with, young people, so they can provide ‘things to do and places to go’
Supporting library staff to build the involvement of young people in all aspects of library and reading services, so young people feel able to ‘make a positive contribution’
Encouraging library staff to work in partnership with other agencies, including Youth Services
Helping library staff to build their skills to work with hard to reach young people
Encouraging library staff to advocate the value of reading and libraries on young people’s lives to local stakeholders

Look now at the sections What is Reader Development? and Vision for Libraries for further information and examples about how libraries can bring reading to people and why it is important.