Saturday 18 August 2012

Every Goal Counts, Every Child Matters

As I've been driving to projects over in Middleton I find myself passing a number of billboard adverts for Sky, bearing the words "Every Goal Matters".

In the old days, just over two years ago, those of us who worked in or around education had the phrase "Every Child Matters" drummed into us. It represented our duty to make sure the children we worked with were healthy and safe, enjoyed and achieved, made a positive contribution and achieved economic wellbeing.

At the time it seems glib - it had too much of the sound bite about it - and too much a statement of the absolutely bleeding obvious. It felt overly bureaucratic too - partly because some of the quangos around education dealt with it in clumsy way - I know because I was one of the people ticking the boxes.

Now, with everything that's happened over the past two years it seems strangely noble. And with education stripped to the bare bones, with families shattering under the burden of poverty and with disabled people under attack from all quarters, the idea that every goal matters seems offensive.

Every child matters. Every goal really doesn't.