§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total cost was of drafting, publishing and circulating "Every Child Matters: Next Steps"; and to how many people the document was sent. [162265]
612W
§ Margaret Hodge"Every Child Matters: The Next Steps" was published for three purposes
To reflect what the Government was told in consultation on the Children's Green Paper, "Every Child Matters". Some 4,500 responses were received, two-thirds of them from children and young people;613WTo put into context the Children Bill, published on the same day as the document;To provide information to external partners, assisting them in taking forward the changes set out in the Green Paper and developed through discussions with a wide range of external partners.The figures in the following table are estimates of the costs involved in drafting, publishing and distributing 'Every Child Matters: The Next Steps'.
£000 Item Cost Drafting 17 Publishing 24 Initial distribution 3 The cost so far is therefore approximately £44,000.
Around 4,000 copies were distributed initially, leaving around 11,000 copies available for ordering by interested parties. We anticipate that many others will download the documents from the DfES website.