For information about forthcoming meetings of the group see the Events page, or contact Sarah Thomas, South Wales Development Officer, Children in Wales, 25 Windsor Place, Cardiff, CF10 3BZ, Tel: 029 2034 2434, E-mail:sarah.thomas@childreninwales.org.uk
Issues discussed at the last meeting:
January 2009
The Forgotten Few
Getting the message out there – children and young people need to know how to access their rights. This session identifies children and young people who are often in need of extra support and find themselves in situations out of their control.
The main focus of the practice exchange day is to share best practice, time for networking after presentations and discussion on how practitioners can instigate change.
1. Presentations:
UNCRC – Committee on the Rights of the Child Gareth Jones from the Children’s Commissioner’s Office provided a summary of the concluding observations report from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child – what are the recommendations and how, in respect to knowing and accessing rights, can we achieve them?
The presentation raised some issues of concern one of which being – is the message on Children’s Rights getting out there? Participants of the meeting were asked ‘who, back at your local areas and places of work, has had any notification or discussion about the concluding observations of the report of the Committee on the Rights of the Child?’ It appeared that no one had received any feedback from Partnerships or workplaces! Gareth was to feed this information back to the UNCRC Monitoring group.
NYAS Caerphilly: Emma Phipps-Magill and Alyson Sefton, shared their successes in Caerphilly County Borough Council, reaping the benefits of having a dedicated Disability Development Worker. The session explored new tools and techniques that are making a difference in engaging with children with communication needs.
Voices from Care facilitated a workshop; Participants were split into groups to discuss and share ideas around what is needed to build a bridge from exclusion to inclusion. The groups shared some common indicators; info sharing protocol, commitment and collective responsibility, resources, knowledge and understanding, accessibility and reflection and evaluation.
NYAS Blaenau Gwent: Emma Summerill previewed the DVD Looked After Children in Blaenau Gwent have played a part in creating. The DVD certainly hit the spot bringing home to the audience the emotions children and young people experience when leaving their homes and families.
2. Evaluation: The practice exchange was well received with positive feedback from the 16 participants; a synopsis of the evaluation can be viewed here.
3. Networking: Attendees completed an Information Exchange Sheet that asked them to share ‘What they were upto at the moment?’ and ‘What do you need?’ with contact details. These were available for sharing on the day and have since been written up and can be viewed here. This will help members to continue to network and support each other after the meeting.