October Blog!
Staffordshire Police have appointed a new Inspector, especially for you! Following interviews by young people and a panel that included the 'Children's Champion' from Stoke and me - Paul Johnson has taken up his new role as Inspector for 'young people's issues'. He will be very busy I'm sure and has begun my getting involved in 11 MILLION 'Takeover Day'. The Police are holding events locally, across the county - as well as centrally at Police Headquarters in Stafford. So, if you want to know what the inside of a police station looks like, then go along and have a look! It all happens this Friday on the 7th November - or if you fancy a peep at Police HQ - get in touch with Paul: Paul.Johnson4905@staffordshire.pnn.police.uk;
Early this month I attended an event in Burton, with lots of young people taking part. Organised by the youth service, time was spent looking at important issues for children and young people in the Burton area. For teenagers, preventing teenage pregnancy and preventing involvement in crime was most important and for primary aged children reduce children being referred to social services, education and crime prevention came top. A great day and a really important piece of work that will be included in many important documents and should help shape the services that you get - for more information, contact gary.williams@staffordshire.gov.uk.
The Children in Care Council met on the first Monday of the month as usual and made plans for 'Takeover Day'. They will be taking over Corporate Parenting Panel, like last time - but with a twist this year! They will be going out on inspection visits with Councillors and Officers to local children's homes and then reporting back their findings. The council decided to design a new form for themselves, as they wanted to look at different issues to the adults. I won't give too much away here, as I plan to talk about this in my next month's blog!
I attended two events at Leek this month, the Shadow Trust board meeting - again this was about the important issues for young people in that area. The shadow board ran really interesting workshops to share their views about bullying, poverty, alcohol & drugs and education, so that the Children's Trust Board can include these in their plan. The following week, I attended an excellent Democracy dinner, where young people meet with local politicians and have the chance to chat informally. For more information about either of these events or the Moorlands youth forum, contact: kate.martin@:staffordshire.gov.uk.
Later this month, I spoke at a national conference about my role here in Staffordshire and how much work is going on across the county and also about the 'Big Bruvver' project and its success. The next day, it was back down to London again, as I'd been invited to 11 MILLION by England's Commissioner for Children, Sir Al Aynsley Green, to meet his new deputy and Chief Executive, Sue Berelowitz. For more info about 11 MILLION, go to: www.11MILLION.org.uk
Well - that's all for this month - I'll have loads to tell you in next months blog, such as Staffordshire's Pledge to the children in it's care and 11 MILLION Takeover day, of course!!
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04/11/2008 13:33:03
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