Chairs of the Conference Nick Ward, and Hannah Youngs with Staffordshire's Children's Commissioner, Gill Stanford.

Children's Trust Annual Conference

Staffordshire's Children's Trust held its 3rd Annual Conference on Tuesday 27 November 2007 to discuss ways different organisations can work more closely to improve the lives of children and young people in the county.

Young people from across Staffordshire who are members of the Staffordshire Shadow Trust Board helped to run the prestigious conference. 

The Shadow Children's Trust Board, is made up of eleven young people aged from 10 to 19 years from a wide range of organisations across Staffordshire.  The members questioned delegates about the way organisations are making a difference to the lives of young people and presented their results to the conference in the afternoon.

Young people from Nether Stowe High School, Lichfield also played a major role at the event, with two students chairing the conference and others running registration and directing delegates throughout the day. 

Speakers at the conference included Christine Goodfellow, National Director for ContactPoint (click here to view Christine Goodfellow's presentation ), as well as Peter Traves, Corporate Director for Children & Lifelong Learning (click here to view Peter Traves' presentation ) and Staffordshire's Children's Commissioner, Gill Stanford (click here to view Gill Stanford's presentation ).

Gill Stanford commented: "It was extremely important that young people were represented at this conference.  Nearly 300 social workers, health care professionals, teachers, youth workers and other professionals came together at the event. 

"By inviting young people to chair and host the conference we show we are committed to improving the life opportunities and outcomes for children and young people in Staffordshire.  It also gave young people a chance to make a positive contribution to the debate and an opportunity to develop new skills."

One of the highlights of the conference was a 10 minute video montage of young people's views on a range of topics from services for youngsters in their area, to what life is like as a teenager.

The conference also ran a series of workshops on subjects including breastfeeding, child and adolescent mental health, children and young people's views on integrated services and involving fathers in the delivery of services.

Page Last Modified: 08/06/2009 07:43:18

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