Organisations in Wales are improving their services for children and young people by involving them in their work, taking their ideas on board, and upholding and promoting their rights under the UNCRC.
Here’s a flavour of some of the excellent work happening across the country.
If you need help or advice on your organisation’s work with children and young people, please get in touch.
Wrexham Local Authority
Whilst working on their Children’s Social Care Engagement Strategy, the Authority recognised that they didn’t have a child-friendly version of the complaints procedure for children and young people.
They involved the Young People’s Care Council and Senedd Yr Ifanc in drafting and designing a new form, which has now been published and promoted across the county’s schools.
Read the Wrexham Case Study here
National Museums Wales
National Museum Wales are continuing to embed children’s and young people’s rights into all aspects of their work.
In order to continue to deliver events and activities that are not just ‘for’ but ‘with’ and ‘by’ young people, they have established a network of young creatives; their ‘Young Heritage Leaders’ who help them develop and deliver activities and events.
They also consult on curatorial questions and events planning and are helping to shake things up at the museum.
This work is made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s ‘Kick the Dust’ project.
To get involved with youth projects at National Museum Wales, get in touch with youth.forum@museumwales.ac.uk
NRW Children’s Rights Approach
Natural Resources Wales worked with the Children’s Commissioner for Wales Office and children across Wales, to develop a Children’s Rights Approach that will help to make sure that the environment and natural resources of Wales are sustainably maintained, sustainably enhanced and sustainably used, now and in the future. It also captures the commitments the children made to help look after nature and the world around them.
The Children’s Rights Charter shows how NRW will uphold and promote children’s rights in our work and deliver better services for children and young people in Wales.
Children’s Rights Charter – A4 Poster Bilingual
Sport Wales
Sports Wales have been embedding children and young people’s rights into all aspects of their work. To know how they have embedded the 5 principles in their work, click on the link below:
Read Sports Wales Case Study here
Monmouthshire Children’s Services Participation Strategy for Children and Young People
This Participation Strategy from Monmouthshire’s Children’s Services is an excellent example of how services are embedding the principle of participation into their ways of working. We have chosen to share this best case example as it;
- Has a bold commitment to rights;
- Plans to strategically embed children’s views into all elements of children’s services – planning, policies, commissioning, reviewing;
- Aims to be collaborative, for children to be valued, respected and in control;
- It reflects on the different degrees of participation and the many ways in which children can be included and asked for views – no ‘one size fits all approach’
- Focuses on the importance of children being informed;
- Sets out a strong message that all children should know how their views can affect decisions about their life and services.
We plan to stay in touch with Monmouthshire, to learn about how this strategy has been put into practice. We’ll be keen to find out what difference this has made to children and young people’s experiences of services.
Monmouthshire Children’s Services Participation Strategy for Children and Young People