Third Sector Sub Group to the Children's Trust Executive Group - Next meeting Friday 5 Feb at 9:30 am at The Core

Facilitated by the VAB Participation Team, monthly meetings of this group bring together Third Sector providers of services for Children & Young People, in order to share ideas and good practice, voice concerns and feed issues into the local decision making mechanism of the Trust Executive Group. The team also manage an e-mail network for people who would like to be involved but are unable to attend the meetings. If you would like to attend the Sub Group meetings, be added to the e-mail network or require further information, please contact 01226 320106 or email

Information from the Regional Youth Work Unit Bulletin

Key documents for organisations recruiting staff and volunteers - The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) have developed guidance for the children and young people's workforce on safe recruitment practices, consistent with other safer recruitment guidance and training produced by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). A CD-rom resource toolkit has also been created. This contains the full guidance document but also example documents and best practice for you to use as well as links to useful websites.

The toolkit contains some really useful resources, example policies, useful links and a glossary for organisations to use. The guidance material and CD-rom are available now. To download or order your copy please use the link below:

Mediabox funding has just been launched. This fund is to support organisations to manage and deliver a bursary project for disadvantaged young people aged 13-19. The project will enable organisations to distribute funding of £500-£1000 to individual and small groups of young people. They are really keen to see applications from Yorkshireas it remains an under-represented area for this fund.Awards are up to £40k, no match funding is required and capital costs up to 10% can becovered by the awards. The deadline is 31st March 2010.

Screen Yorkshire will be continuing to provide pre-application advice and ongoing support to all Mediabox applicants as part of the Mediabox Consortium. Contact Emma Melling on 0113 2944410 or email

Safeguarding - The government has launched an internet safety strategy to help children and young people stay safe online. The strategy, Click Clever Click Safe, was drawn up by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety and includes plans for online safety to become a compulsory part of the curriculum from September 2011, giving children lessons on avoiding cyberbullies and predatory paedophiles alongside more traditional warnings about busy roads and strangers. The strategy will also allow parents to access a one-stop shop website for internet safety advice hosted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

To inform the internet safety strategy, the DCSF commissioned the Staying Safe Survey 2009. The report covers the findings related to use of the internet and internet safety, principally among parents and carers of children aged 5 to 17, and children and young people aged 12 to 17. The survey found that internet safety is not a major concern for parents of children aged 5 to 17, compared with other concerns in relation to their children’s safety. Young people aged 12 to 17 also have fewer concerns in relation to internet safety than parents. Of significantly greater concern for children are: gangs and knife crime; strangers and paedophiles; bullying; smoking, drinking and/or drugs; anti-social behaviour; accidents outside the home; sexual health, STDs and/or pregnancy. Findings on other aspects of safety will be published in a further report.

Everybody Matters is a practical and engaging training programme that uses working examples which are not common to the majority of the Workforce. We have found that this approach supports learners to build greater confidence to work with any individual or group, learning that no one is hard to reach. This training programme has been developed to support Government Policy Drivers including Integrated Working, CAF and Information Sharing.

Important training elements:

•Underpinned by research and development work with Harder to Reach, Vulnerable and Disadvantaged people, with over a decade of experience

•Use of several films clips to communicate with and engage participants

•Includes the 5 Step Practice Model

•Supports the personalisation agenda

The 5 Step Practice Model© provides a framework which focuses on:

•Planning & goal setting

•Awareness of potential barriers

•Development of strategies

•Clarification of need

•Monitoring, evaluation & sustainability

•Development of knowledge & understanding

•Use of the process of “identification” as a key factor for successful engagement and review of outcomes

Everybody Matters - Giving your staff the tools and methodology to engage with their clients whilst giving you the framework to review outcomes and achieve a successful project.

For more information, please contactRichard Manning on 0118 961 2000

Children England (Yorkshire & Humber) and

VCS Engage (Yorkshire & Humber) invite you to a:

Regional Workshop - Up Close and Personal:

A seminar for the VCS on person-centred approaches to services for children & young people

Tuesday 2 March 2010

10.00am-2.00pm, including networking lunch

Hinsley Hall, Leeds

Change is in the air and not just in the area of ‘big’ politics. Talk of person-centred planning, self-directed support, budget-holding lead professionals and direct payments all foretell a fundamental shift in welfare thinking. The key unifying idea is the devolution of power and control to people and families who need support. The question to be explored at this event is ‘what will this mean for the VCS?’. The session will include background information about the change agenda, an update on what’s happening around our region, thoughts about the positive potential and pitfalls for the VCS and will link key players in the region who want to ensure that the changes serve the interests of children, young people and families who need support, equitably.

Speakers invited so far include:

  • Gill Crawshaw, from Volition a Leeds-based mental health VCS organisation, with experience of similar models in mental health;
  • Laurie Erwin a children’s services specialist from Helen Sanderson Associates, an international organisation in the field;
  • Representatives of parent’s networks in the region to talk about the family perspective;
  • A speaker from regional Government Office.

Who is the event for?

  • Anyone with an interest in the ‘personalisation’ agenda in services for children, young people and families;
  • VCS organisations working with children, young people and families across the region;
  • People working to support children, young people and families VCS at either regional, district or local levels.

There will be a fee of £50, with some free places for smaller VCS organisations. Places are limited to 80 and will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, so please book as soon as possible, contact for a booking form (or request one by post from Karen Speller at Action for Children, 12, Granby Road, Harrogate, HG1 4ST). For further information, please contact Lesley Wood, VCS Engage Regional Development Manager, or telephone 07704 452862.

Free training - Multi Sensory Storytelling Technique

Barnsley Libraries are hosting a visit from 'Bag Books', a learning disability literacy charity who write and make multi-sensory stories for children and young people with severe or profound learning difficulties. During the day'Bag Books' staff will be working with an invitedgroup of local school age children with special needs. This will be followed by a free training sessionfor librarians and other related professionals with the aimof encouraging and enabling libraries to work more closely with children with severe or profound learning difficulties andto expand inclusion of these children in the local communities. The training presentation on MSST (multi-sensory storytelling technique) covers the research and experience on which multi-sensory stories are based and includes the early development of language skills relevant to children and adults with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties and children on the autistic spectrum. The training (which is also appropriate for anyone working with children in Early Years services) will take place at Barnsley Central Library on Monday 22 February 2010 from 3pm to 4.30pm and we would like to extend the invitation to colleagues from outside of the library service to take part. Places are limited and will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

For more information or to book a place, please contact Joanne Northam - , 01226 773952, or Deborah Blewitt - , 01226 773935