The September 2011 bulletin from the Children & Young Peoples Trust is now out.

Download it here

G:up is an alliance of West Midlands, children and young people’s, voluntary and community sector organisations and networks as well as public sector and national partners.

G:up’s vision is to develop the West Midlands as a region that respects and acts upon the needs, interests and aspirations of all children and young people, and the voluntary and community organisations that work with them.

For lots of tools and useful resources, visit the G:up website

The government announced in May that the Vetting and Barring Scheme was to be halted, suspending the requirement for individuals working with children and vulnerable adults to be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority, which was due to come into force on 26th July.

The Criminal Records Bureau has published a briefing on interim arrangements during the Vetting and Barring Scheme review.

Crucially, the requirements introduced during the first phase of the scheme in October 2009 remain in place.  These are outlined in the briefing and include:

• The definitions of ‘Regulated Activity’ and ‘Controlled Activity’ (which itself is subject to ongoing consultation)
• The role of the Independent Safeguarding Authority in making barring decisions and maintaining the barred lists
• The prohibition of certain persons from undertaking regulated activity, and from undertaking controlled activity without safeguards being in place

The Vetting and Barring scheme, under which staff and volunteers working with children and vulnerable adults would have to register to be checked by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, has been halted, the Home Office has announced.

The scheme, which was due to come into force on 26th July 2010, will be remodelled.

The government is now contacting 66,000 organisations, including charities, voluntary groups and education authorities, to tell them that the planned registration is being cancelled.

Eligibility for CRB checks is unaffected for the moment, and the planned introduction of new CRB application forms is still scheduled for 26th July.

For a summary of the latest situation and information on checks that are still in place, see Sandy Adirondack’s legal update for the voluntary sector.

Solihull Council and the Children & Young Peoples Trust has been asking parents what they want to see for their children in Solihull. The results of this and other consultations has helped shape the new Children & Young Peoples Plan. To find out what parents said, you can download the summary and full reports here. They are worth reading to help you shape your own services

Ask Parents Summary Report

Ask Parents Full Report

A New Way of Sharing & Learning

The Chidren’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has just launched Share Street – an online resource for people who work with children & young people plus parents, carers and children & young people themselves.

So, if you work with children or young people and their families, Share Street is for you. It’s a community for sharing resources and discussing best practice in the workplace, for building networks and communicating with colleagues.

Download a short presentation about Share Street or go straight to the street and join in.

Do you recruit into the children and young people’s workforce?

All those organisations and individuals who work with children and young people, or are involved in providing services for them, have a duty to safeguard and promote their welfare.

The Childrens Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has developed an e-learning tool and comprehensive safer recruitment guidance for the children and young people’s workforce.  Alongside this training they are hosting online training that was developed by the National College (formerly NCSL) for the education sector.

For more information and resources, and to take the safer recruitment training please visit the CWDC Safer Recruitment website.

And we want to provide it but we have only limited resources and capacity. So, we would appreciate your help in gathering some basic information about the number of people providing services to children & young people – staff and volunteers – and how many children and young people use the services you provide. This applies to organisations who specifically provide services to children & young people but also to organisations who provide a more general service that is used by children & young people (e.g. sports and arts clubs, etc.

The information will help to demonstrate the volume of work undertaken by the voluntary sector and argue the case for additional resources to support you – especially given the pressures on you with increased safeguarding requirements, staff & volunteer induction, skills and experience requirements, etc.

It will take only a few minutes to complete a simple online survey.

In the meantime, if we can help, please contact Charles Rapson on 0121 770 8222 or email charlesr@solihull-sustain.org.uk

Thank you for your help

LINCS is the new name for the Solihull Child and Family Support Model.  LINCS is a simple, practical framework for multi-agency support of children, young people and families.  The LINCS ‘How to’ booklet is a step by step guide on what to do if you have concerns about a child.  It provides advice on issues such as when to carry out a Common Assessment Framework (CAF) assessment and how to decide on a Lead Professional or Lead Person (LP).

Download the ‘How to’ booklet here

If you would like to know more or would like free training on LINCS,CAF and LP please contact the LINCS team at Solihull Children and Young People’s Trust on 0121 788 5356 or email lincs@solihull.gov.uk

Useful newsletter detailing some of the excellent projects funded through DCATCH funding across Solihull.

• February DCATCH Newsletter