May '09 Blog!

I have become involved in a new piece of work, the draft 'Inclusion and Well Being Strategy', so you need to look out for it here! It's about how schools (and other settings where children may be educated) include their pupils who may have special/additional needs. I am working closely with Charlotte Bailey the Parent's Commissioner on a short DVD, to consult with children, parents and carers about their experience of schools, so that we can share this more widely. Once this piece of work is done I'll put a link here.

To make sure that children's views were considered, I went to some workshops about how services will work together in the future to make things better for children, young people, their parents and carers. This is about having teams of staff who do all sorts of different jobs, so that they can talk together, share information more easily and work closely together with families early on, before problems get too 'big'. This is called 'integrated services'.

Matt is looking at developing some 'chat sites', like 'twitter' to make it easier for you to get in touch and have your say - so, as ever - watch this space. You can contact Matt by his email if you are interested in this: matthew.dittmer@staffordshire.gov.uk

Joe is busy working on improving the way that you make a complaint - from the front covers to the wording inside the booklet - and of course - getting out and about asking what you think about complaints. You can get in touch with Joe by email: joseph.sullivan@staffordshire.gov.uk   

Both Matt and Joe are also working on the forthcoming 'Speak out' conference being planned for later this year. This will be a day run by young people, for young people and will be a chance to come along and change the things that are important to you! More details later.

Off on a long slow canal cruise now…………………………………..