Friday 28th April, 2006.

I'm becoming so busy I hardly seem to have time to sit at my desk to write this weekly blog. On Monday I was invited by Peter Gerrard, the manager of East Staffordshire Children's Centre in Burton, to speak at a staff conference; the theme was all about working in partnership and the benefits of this. They certainly seem to be doing some good work and I look forward to working with Peter and his staff in the future.

An event was held in Lichfield on Tuesday to update all agencies and staff about the changes that are taking place for children's services. I dropped in to say hello and so that people could 'put a face to a name'.

Later that day I attended the 'corporate parenting panel' that meets monthly to ensure that children who are looked after by the local Authority are receiving the care that they should and to discuss any issues that arise.

By mid week I'd finished the draft version of a participation strategy that will ensure that all agencies across the county engage with and involve children and young people in all of the work that they do. I'll let you know the progress of that document as it goes through the various stages for approval.

On Thursday, I managed to attend for half of what seemed to have been a very interesting and thought provoking all day conference, 'challenging racist attitudes in primary schools'. I then met with Hilary Oomer and Chris Starkey, both of whom are Advisors for Ethnic Minority Achievement. They are considering how to introduce a way that will enable children to directly report any racist/homophobic incidents in school, as not all children are comfortable about telling a teacher. We shared thoughts and I'll let you know of progress via this blog; you can always email any thoughts that you may have about this.

Today I met with others to discuss what's been happening in Newcastle and the Moorlands in the 'Early Implementer Areas'; this is where a lot of new ways of working are being tried out. Mary Bentley is leading this project and we hope to work with a group of children, young people, parent & carers to find out what you think about different ways of working and the new forms that will be used.

This afternoon, I'm off to a 'consultation', one of a series of events to discuss something called 'community learning partnership'. I'll tell you more about these in my next week's blog.

A long weekend now and then back to work on Tuesday!

Last Modified: 29/09/2006 08:28:34
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