December 09
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S STRATEGY UPDATE
December 2009
1. Proposed Children and Families (Wales) Measure
· On the 10 November, the National Assembly for Wales passed the Children and Families (Wales) Measure. The Measure has yet to be approved by Privy Council.
· The Measure makes statutory provision to take forward the Welsh Assembly Government’s commitment in terms of child poverty, and to take forward its strategy for vulnerable children by bringing forward legislation to provide greater support to families where children may be at risk, and strengthened regulatory enforcement in child care settings.
Part 1: Child Poverty, Play and Participation
· The increase in the recent child poverty figures for Wales demonstrates how important it is for us in the Assembly Government to do as much as we can, using all the legislative powers available, to increase the life chances for children living in low income families. That is what the Children and Families (Wales) Measure is about.
· The Measure will require Welsh Authorities, including Welsh Ministers, to prepare and publish a strategy for contributing to the eradication of child poverty in Wales. The Measure reflects our understanding that in order to make faster progress on child poverty we need to galvanise and draw on the expertise and experience of a wide range of public bodies in Wales.
· Chapter 1 of the Measure provides the framework within which public bodies will be expected to demonstrate their commitment to tackling child poverty in Wales through the publication of child poverty strategies. Certain public bodies, notably Welsh Ministers and Local Authorities, will be required to choose objectives relating to each of the Broad Aims identified as being the most crucial in tackling child poverty. It is our intention to strengthen local partnership arrangements not duplicate effort and so, it is fully expected, that local authorities and their key partners on the Children and Young People’s Partnerships will fulfil the Measure duty on child poverty through those existing processes. For the remaining public bodies affected by the Measure duty on child poverty, they will be expected to choose objectives relating to one or more of the Broad Aims.
· The intention, in developing this legislation in the way that we have, is to set, for the first time, a coherent and joined up framework to harness action on child poverty. Tackling child poverty is highly complex and involves a range of inter-related policy solutions. No one policy approach or one organisation will be able to deliver the solutions to what are often deep seated, intergenerational social issues.
· Monitoring the progress made against the objectives will be crucial and the legislation also provides for this. For the Welsh Ministers’ strategy there is a requirement that there will be a review of progress every three years. We intend to measure our progress through the Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Monitor. The Assembly Government published the first Monitor in 2008 and another edition is due in 2010. It will be publishing it every three years thereafter. The 2010 Monitor will provide a baseline assessment of child poverty in Wales for the Welsh Ministers’ new Child Poverty Strategy. It will also report on key measures at an all Wales level related to the proposed Outcome Measures Framework, thereby providing local authorities with national level (comparison) data.
· The Outcome Measures Framework will provide a set of measures that will underpin the Children and Young People’s Plans and will be one of the main delivery vehicles for this proposed Measure in terms of demonstrating improved outcomes.
· This legislation also underpins the important work currently being undertaken by local authorities and their partners through the Cymorth specific grant. It seeks to ensure that parenting and health support services, for example, will continue to be available to those most in need, when the specific grant moves into the Revenue Support Grant from 2011.
· Providing opportunities for children to play is also embedded in the Measure, as is assuring children and young people’s participation in decisions which might affect their lives. The Measure thus provides legislative reinforcement for 2 key areas of Welsh Assembly Government rights-based policy.
· The Measure also gives Welsh Ministers powers to require local authorities to secure free, high quality, targeted childcare in specific areas, in line with One Wales commitments.
Part 2 Child Minding and Day Care for Children
· The opportunity has been taken to use powers devolved under the Government of Wales Act 2006 to update, consolidate and improve existing child minding and day care legislation for Wales, making the law in these important areas more accessible and easier to understand.
Part 3: Integrated Family Support Teams (IFST)
· The Measure will strengthen the support to vulnerable children and families with complex needs by establishing Integrated Family Support Teams (IFST) across Wales.
· The IFSTs are unique to Wales. They will be multi-agency teams bringing together social workers, family workers, substance misuse professionals, nurses and health visitors – to work directly with families to protect and support vulnerable children.
2. Scoping a possible Children and Young People’s Rights Measure to give further effect to the UN Convention on Rights of the Child in Wales.
This work will be led by the Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills who is currently considering proposals for the shape of the Measure. The Measure will, however, impact on all areas of Ministerial responsibilities for which they have legislative responsibilities.
3. Proposed Education (Wales) Measure
The proposed Measure was introduced by the Minister for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills.
The purpose of this Measure is to extend children’s entitlement by providing them with rights to make special educational needs (SEN) appeals and claims of disability discrimination to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal for Wales (the Tribunal). It will amend the law that gives parents the right to make appeals and claims to the Tribunal. The proposed Measure will provide for children and young people making, or considering making, an appeal or claim to the Tribunal to have access to independent advocacy and, also, for an appeal or claim be brought on a CYP's behalf by a "Case Friend". The Measure also places duties on LAs to make arrangements for CYP to be able to access Disagreement Resolution Services and, also, Partnership Services.
The Measure is currently at Stage 4, having been approved in the National Assembly for Wales on 3rd November 2009. The proposed Measure will now pass to the Privy Council. Further information can be accessed at:
http://www.assemblywales.org/bus-home/bus-legislation/bus-leg-measures/business-legislation-measures-ed.htm
4. Children and Young People’s Plans
SPBO Guidance 1 and 2:
Work is underway to review the guidance on Partnerships and Plans set out in Shared Planning for Better Outcomes and Stronger Partnerships for Better Outcomes. A merged document combining both is currently being created and it is planned to consult widely between January and March. We are also planning consultation events to be held on 12 January (Swansea), 14 January (Newport) and 19 January (Conwy). Further information, which will offer up to ten delegate places per local authority area, will follow shortly.
5. Self Assessment Improvement Tool
The first phase of the creation of a Self Assessment Improvement Tool has taken place. A 3 day workshop was held with a wide range of stakeholders participating; ADEW, Estyn, voluntary sector, Police, Coordinators, HIW, and the PSU. It was a very productive 3 days in which the group reviewed the LSCB SAIT and developed draft ‘Standards’ for use in evaluating the effectiveness of CYP Partnerships, and ensuring the Standards were achievable and relevant to the wide variety of Partnerships across Wales. The consultants, Tony Morrison and Professor Jan Horwath, have now taken away the proposed changes to the SAIT to work towards a pilot tool. The next meeting of the group will be 25th January.
We will shortly be asking for volunteer Partnerships – 5 plus 2 reserves – to pilot the first SAIT version over the period April-October next year, beginning with a briefing seminar on March 15 to be held in Cardiff. The overall timetable plans for a final version of the SAIT to be launched in September 2011.
6. Mid-cycle review of Partnership Plans
The majority of the mid-cycle reviews of Partnership Plans have been completed and sent to the Partnership Working Branch, with the remainder having given completion dates. These will now be reviewed and a picture of the progress that Partnerships have made across Wales will be drawn out.
7. 2010 Monitor Website
A pilot website listing the data sources of Core Aim 1 and relevant demographic information has been completed and is ready for testing. We would find it useful to get around 5 or so coordinators to test and comment on the usability of the website. At present it is only published in English but the final website will be published bilingually.
8. Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy
Following the meeting of the Workforce Development Network in June, final versions of the Strategy and Common Core are being translated and are now planned for publication in February. The Workforce Development Network is finalising its structure and work programme for the next three years and it is planned to establish a Workforce Group of Assembly Government officials that will improve co-ordination nationally and work with the Network to implement the Strategy and Common Core. .
9. WAG Children & Young People’s Web Pages
Children and Young People’s Strategy Division is working with the Central and DCELLS Web Teams in WAG to review and update the content and format of the Assembly’s Children and Young People's web pages to improve accessibility. For example there will be a single opening web page.
The layout of the web pages is to be adapted to make the existing information relating to children and young people more accessible to partners and stakeholders. The need for making the web information more accessible to parents, carers, children and young people is acknowledged but is not the focus of this project.
We are using the WAG 7 Core Aims for Children & Young People as the basis for organising the various topics. We have developed short self-explanatory labels for use on the opening webpage and are consulting on them.
Consultation with officials, partners and stakeholders will take the form of a ‘card sorting’ exercise and user testing, undertaken by the Central Web Team. If co-ordinators are interested in taking part in this please contact Jane Hanbury
10. Advocacy
There have been real developments recently in realising Ministers’ commitment to establish a National Advocacy and Advice Service that will provide Children and Young People in Wales with a single point of contact via telephone or text 7 days a week. This will be a source for help for children and young people 0-25 years old in Wales and will provide information, signposting to other services and help identify when a child or young person needs an advocate to support them with their concern.
ProMo-Cymru will take forward a one year Pilot National Advocacy and Advice Service, probably to be available to the public early in the New Year due to the need to recruit and set-up time. Lessons learnt from this Pilot will inform the next three year contract which will go through a full open market tendering process. ProMo-Cymru is a youth enterprise organisation and registered charity specialising in working with young people, integrated communication solutions and cultural industries. The organisation has over twenty years experience of supporting innovative and experimental creative projects, creative ICT developments with a more recent focus upon the production and dissemination of information and advice for young people.
During the Pilot, the new Advocacy and Advice Service will be closely aligned with CLIC - The National Information and Advice Service for Young People in Wales, which is mainly web based. By aligning both services during this time it will show us if it is a good idea to align them in the long term as the one place to go for children and young people who need information, advice or/and advocacy. The intention is to expand on the provision already being offered by CLIC to include the provision of an information, advice and advocacy service via a telephone helpline and online communication methods. Where advocacy is needed, they will be transferred to an independent professional advocate. In an innovative and unique collaboration, the main advocacy providers in Wales have agreed to work together to provide a pool of multi-agency experienced advocates that will be available to support children and young people who access this service.
The service can be a starting point in bridging the gap between young people having a concern and accessing the appropriate help and support they need. It can assist with the question 'Where do I go from here?' - if they are young people who are eligible to access their local advocacy provider, the helpline will connect them. It can also provide information, connecting and linking to other support services - mapping the demand where services need developing and needs are unmet.