Case Study – Cwm Taf Morgannwg

Cwm Taf Morgannwg RPB have made involving children and young people more in their work a priority.  The Board’s own strategic priorities have been shaped by working with young people, for example through Youth Forums and individual projects which have taken a coproduction approach to designing services with young people. The Board are now working to develop more long-term arrangements for co-production.  For example, the scoring criteria for third sector ICF grants available to projects with a focus on children with complex needs includes the need to develop a co-productive approach to improving children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Successful applicants will also need to attend a coproduction workshop.

The next step for the RPB is to hold a workshop with young people, with the RPB Chairperson attending, to develop with young people a longer-term more strategic approach to how they want to be involved in co-production of the Board’s work.  Young people did not want to just to come and sit on the region’s sub-group for children or on the board, as they felt this could be tokenistic, and they have told the RPB they want their involvement to be meaningful. The board’s strategic group for children and young people have worked with children and young people, including representatives attending Youth Forums in the region, to come up with a set of priorities, of which the key concerns are around emotional health, wellbeing and mental health. The strategic group will be guided by this priority in their work.

As Cwm Taf Morgannwg is a newly-formed region, they are taking the opportunity to undertake a mapping exercise of the current provision across the region from universal to specialist provision, from conception to age 25. ICF revenue funding has also been identified for developing third sector and community support for children and young people.