|
Cynulliad
Cenedlaethol Cymru Ymateb gan: ProMo-Cymru ___________________________________
|
National
Assembly for Wales CRW 23 Response from: ProMo-Cymru ___________________________________ |
About ProMo-Cymru: https://www.promo.cymru/
1. ProMo-Cymru is a company limited by guarantee, registered charity, and has a trading arm.
2. It is 30 years old and for most of that time has developed and evolved on the back of a value base and foundation built on rights, participation, and digital expertise
3. This has resulted in a number of high value and high profile projects and services such as CLIC, Meic, Family Point, Sprout, as well as business services facilitating coproduction through the use of creative media – in particular radio, video and social media platforms
4. In essence, most of PCs services and projects are all about facilitating participation through information, advice, assistance and advocacy – directly, in most cases, but also through capacity building and the sharing of knowledge and passing on of skills
5. Importantly, this is being done through digital / online platforms, supported and reinforced by facet o face work as an essential tool for promoting and facilitating awareness and participation
6. The legislative and policy drivers for our work and approach stem mainly from the UNCRC, The Children Act, the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011, WG Youth Strategy, and the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. Essential to our work is understanding and promoting the benefits of digital, online, artificial intelligence developments on the public and not for profit sectors.
7. This has all come together for us internally under our Transform, Engage, Communicate (TEC) model: https://www.promo.cymru/services/tec-model/
About Meic: https://www.meiccymru.org/
- 2000: Waterhouse Report, and WG: Working Together to Safeguard Children,
- 2001 Children’s Commissioner appointed,
- 2003: Telling Concerns Report (CC review into complaints against the authority), WG review of CYP advocacy services,
- 2005 WG: Keeping Us Safe,
- 2007, Jane Hutt Minister for Children and Education: “any new framework for delivering advocacy services should make some form of universal provision, as well as more specialist provision for particularly vulnerable groups. In this way, all children and young
people in Wales, wherever they are, and whatever
their circumstances, will be able to safely and
straightforwardly access advocacy support”
- 2011: Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure
- 2012: Children’s Commissioner’s Report: Missing Voices – review into CYP IPA
Our Response:
We wish to support and reinforce the responses submitted by the Wales UNCRC Monitoring Group, and The Observatory on Human Rights of Children at Swansea Law School in respect of the areas highlighted:
· the extent to which the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011 has influenced the Welsh Government’s decision making, including its financial allocations and whether it has fulfilled the Convention’s ‘general measures’ of implementation;
· evidence of whether the Measure has led to improved outcomes for children and young people;
· whether the duties within the Measure have been embedded effectively across Welsh Government cabinet portfolios and policy;
· the extent to which the Welsh Government has sought to ensure that its duties within the Measure are translated into the work of the public bodies it provides funding to, including local authorities and NHS bodies;
· the extent to which the Welsh Government has implemented its duty to promote knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC amongst the public, including children and young people;
· how the duty to have ‘due regard’ to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is being implemented in practice and whether Child Rights Impact Assessments are being used as a meaningful tool;
· the effectiveness of the Children’s Right’s Scheme and the most recent Welsh Government compliance report, and the extent to which they evidence sufficient action on the part of Welsh Government to ensure full implementation of the Measure;
· how effectively the Welsh Government responds on a strategic basis to the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
Based on our experience (including what children and young people present us with) we would make some general observations and comments as follows:
· the extent to which the Welsh Government has implemented its duty to promote knowledge and understanding of the UNCRC amongst the public, including children and young people;
1. School age / attending Children and Young People (CYP) are relatively familiar and conversant with the UNCRC, the 42 articles. A significant gap emerges however, between this and their understanding of how the UNCRC impacts on their personal and individual reality. This gap becomes much greater once CYP have left school, and / or in respect of those CYP who are not engaged or have a difficult relationship with formal educational environments.
2. This is evident both in terms of lack of knowledge / understanding of what entitlement to help they might have when things are not going well, what entitlement to redress they might have against decisions made that impact on them, and the power / limits to influence decisions which impact on them. Meic offers a clear and helpful resource to address this gap
3. While we welcome drivers such as changes to the curriculum, we suggest much more could be done to coherently promote Meic along with other rights-based resources and messages to a targeted and universal children and young people audience
· whether the duties within the Measure have been embedded effectively across Welsh Government cabinet portfolios and policy;
· the extent to which the Welsh Government has sought to ensure that its duties within the Measure are translated into the work of the public bodies it provides funding to, including local authorities and NHS bodies
· how the duty to have ‘due regard’ to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is being implemented in practice and whether Child Rights Impact Assessments are being used as a meaningful tool;
1. We recognise and have seen the increase in the reference to the UNCRC, and use of rights based language – most recently in the evolving CYP mental health and emotional well-being agenda. We are unable to comment on the extent to which this is a reflection of an approach that is embedded and value driven, except to say that there is little evidence of CYP being active participants and engaged in the testing, design, implementation and accountability of proposed / actual changes.
2. While we welcome the involvement and engagement of CYP in consultations and the sharing and promotion of their individual journeys, much more needs to be done to ensure their engagement at the level of influencing strategic and operational change and decision-making.