North Wales Children's Rights Practice Exchange Group

Anita Myfanwy our North Wales, Development Officer co-ordinates the meetings of the North Wales Children’s Rights Practice Exchange Group. The group provides members with an opportunity to exchange ideas and discuss recent developments affecting children. Meetings are held quarterly usually in the Children’s Commissioner’s Office in Colwyn Bay. Dates of the forthcoming meetings are available in the events section.

Anita can be contacted at our office in Caernarfon – Tel 01286 677570 or E-mail anita.myfanwy@childreninwales.org.uk.

Issues discussed at the last meeting

1. Presentation on Full of Care – Julie Edwards, CCW: ‘Full of Care’ is a report on the way caring responsibilities can infringe on the ability of young carers to exercise their rights, as set out in the UNCRC. Julie explained the definitions of a young carer as follows:

SSI : A child or young person carrying out significant caring tasks….
Carers Act 1995 : Children and young people who provide a substantial amount of care on a regular basis
1998 Carers UK: Anyone under 18 whose life is restricted because of the need to take responsibility for the care of someone who is ill, has a disability , is experiencing mental distress, or is affected by substance misuse

The Report:

to gather the views of young carers across Wales
Commissioned Powys Carers to carry out a survey of young carers’ views
Gathered the views to inform recommendations
Published report and recommendations

Julie went through the report’s recommendations and explained what the next steps would be, as follows:

Continue to work with colleagues in Welsh Assembly Government and the voluntary sector
Formally monitor recommendations asking for views and action plans
Register of monitoring responses publicly available
Influence the carers LCO and resulting Measures

Further information can be obtained on www.childcomwales.org.uk/ href="http://www.childcomwales.org.uk/">www.childcomwales.org.uk or in Welsh on www.complantcymru.org.uk/ href="http://www.complantcymru.org.uk/">www.complantcymru.org.uk

2. Presentation on The Financial Inclusion Champions Initiative in Wales by Rhian Hughes, Regional Financial Inclusion Champion: There are 2 other Wales Champions, namely Katija Dew, National FI Chamption for Wales and Ryan Jones, Regional FI Chamption (South and West Wales). The Government’s key goal for financial inclusion is to ensure everyone has access to appropriate financial services, enabling them to manage their money on a day to day basis, plan for the future and deal effectively with financial distress. The tools include:

Banking
Savings
Borrowing
Insurance
Capability
Advice

The 5 key aims/priorities are:

Access to mainstream financial services
Access to affordable credit and savings
Accessible financial and debt advice
Financial capability and literacy
Income maximisation

There is a cash savings account named Savings Gateway aimed at individuals on low incomes. The Government will match 50p for every £1 people put in. They are allowed to save a maximum of £25 per month and should not withdraw for 2 years. Another resource for secondary school age children is called Credit Union in Schools and further information is available on www.cuinschools.org/ href="http://www.cuinschools.org/">http://www.cuinschools.org ‘My Home’ is a pre-tenancy advice pack which is now available to every new tenant of housing associations i.e. in Conwy, Denbighshire, Cymdeithas Tai Eryri and Shelter Cymru

3. Presentation, by Ed Janes, Participation Worker's Network for Wales Development Officer, Children in Wales, on the Participation Workers' Network for Wales: The PWNW (Participation Workers' Network for Wales) is a new free service for workers and organisations that are promoting children and young people's participation, or who are interested in doing so in the future. The network offers:

An online database where members can find and network with other participation workers
The opportunity for workers to share information on good practice in participation, and experiences and ideas for participation methods.
Bi-monthly e-briefings including news and consultations regarding participation

The website needs to be developed further and has gone out to tender. Funding has been awarded in order to work with 1 C&YP organisation in each authority and to work with young people and practitioners to develop participative skills. More information can be obtained at: www.participationworkerswales.org.uk/ href="http://www.participationworkerswales.org.uk">www.participationworkerswales.org.uk or ed.janes@childreninwales.org.uk

Any Other Business

The following suggestions were made:

It was suggested the name of the group should be changed to North Wales Children and Young People’s Rights Practice Exchange Group.
A re-launch of the group
Questionnaire should be sent to members to evaluate the network
A comment was made about the possibility of combining the network with that of the North Wales Voluntary Organisations Support Group, due to the success of previous joint meetings.
All members agreed that the network is of great value, as it increases their awareness of children’s rights and enabling them to share good practice with other organisations.

Previous Meetings