VONNE

Youth Matters North East Consultation Event

Government Office North East (GO-NE) hosted a consultation event on 1 September 2005 for the region on the Youth Matters green paper with guest speakers Anne Weinstock - Director of the Supporting Children and Young People, Jane Haywood - Chief Executive Children's Workforce Development Council, John Thurlbeck - FPRs Director of the Strategy 0-19.

The event focused on the requirement for all local authorities to have a Children and Young People plan in place by April 2006, which will reflect the five outcomes of Every Child Matters but incorporate local need and consult widely. The Integrated Youth Service was considered from the perspective of young people, the workforce and communities. A full conference report will be available from GO-NE soon.

Regional Strategy to Involve Children and Young People

Government Office North East launched the 'Strategy to Involve Children and Young People' on 29 July 2005. The Strategy is available in a Friendly Version, and comes with a regional action plan (April 05-March 06). The strategy is a sign of GO-NE commitment to promotion and involvement of children and young people in regional decision-making and involved local children in its development.

Jonathan Blackie the Regional Director of GO-NE is the regional Children and Young People's Champion. The key areas of the strategy include, Building Capacity, Influencing Policy Development and Practice & Promotion. One major outcome of the strategy is that teams within GO-NE will have the capacity to involve children and young people.

The strategy follows national developments with guidelines from the Office of Deputy Prime Minister, Learning to Listen Action Plan 2003 and also combines the five outcomes of the Every Child Matters strategy PSA targets.

'Things to do, places to go' North East Seminar

A seminar hosted jointly by Government Office North East, the Arts Council and Culture North East took place on 21 October 2005 to discuss one of the outcomes of the green paper Youth Matters - 'Things to do, places to go'. The seminar aimed to promote collaboration and sharing of good practice between the youth work sector and the cultural sector in the North East in relation to Youth Matters.

The programme included presentations from a national perspective from Felicity Winter, DfES and Anne Marie Andreoli, DCMS, a local perspective from Leon Mexter from the Regional Youth Work Unit, and a strategic approach to arts and young people in the North East from Shirley Campbell, Arts Council North East England. There were also some excellent presentations, using a variety of media, of examples of work already going on in the North East which address the Youth Matters agenda. These were:

• Working with hard to reach young people in Hartlepool, Stonham
• COSIP in County Durham, County Durham Youth Engagement Service
• Sound Sense, a music and community radio youth project, Newcastle City Council
• LUNA productions filmmaking project, Ultimate Youth

Approximately 55 people attended the seminar, representing both sectors fairly evenly, and contributed to the workshops which produced feedback for the consultation.

Collated Feedback (Word 103kB)

National Framework for Youth Action

A report for the Russell Commission on recommendations for a new national framework on youth volunteering places young people at the centre of volunteering. The report published on 16 March 2005 was presented to Chancellor Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

The Russell Commission suggests proposals to enable this to happen:

• Create new volunteering opportunities
• Introduce young people into volunteering
• Volunteering portal
• Achievement links to Vocational Accreditation
• Youth Achievement Award - young people judge panel
• Quality Programmes on offer with a kite mark
• Youth Fund for community and youth led projects
• Campaigning

Extensive national consultation involved 7000 organisation and 6000 young people.

Safeguarding and Protecting Children and Young People in BME Communities

The Children's Society in association with Africans United Against Child Abuse (afruca) presented a conference on safeguarding and protecting children and young people in BME communities, held on 24 May 2005 at St James Park, Newcastle. The aims of the conference were to increase awareness of child protection needs in BME communities, to develop safe practice in working with BME children, young people and families in the North East, to respond to the Government agenda for the protection of children and young people (Every Child Matters). Jane Cater from VONNE attended the conference and has written a conference report:

Safeguarding Children Conference Report (Word 37kB)