Agenda, decisions and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

Councillor Hannah Lawson declared a personal interest in minute 13 “Swansea Council Volunteering Strategy Development”.

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City & County of Swansea, the following interests were declared:

 

Councillor Hannah Lawson declared a personal interest in Minute 13 “Swansea Council Volunteering Strategy Development”.

To approve & sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.

Approved.

Resolved that the Minutes of the People Policy Development Committee held on 23 June 2021 be approved and signed as a correct record.

Noted.

Katie Spendiff, Rights Policy and Partnership Officer presented a verbal report on the Children and Young People’s Rights Scheme.

 

She explained that they were in the process of refreshing and redeveloping the scheme which had been in place since 2014.  Over the last 18 months the scheme had been co-produced with children & young people, members, practitioners and national bodies in order to consider a more refined and renewed Children’s Rights Scheme to ensure it was fit for purpose as we recovered from Covid-19.

 

Consultation on the scheme had commence mid-June and was scheduled to conclude on 31 July 2021.  She encouraged all present to take part in the consultation.

 

Part of the work undertaken to date had been to align the scheme to some of the national work using the principles of the “right way approach” whilst considering:

 

-              how we embed children’s rights across the authority;

-              how we could support the children and their families to feel empowered;

-              how we could ensure that the above were done in a way that did not discriminate against particular groups of children and young people.

 

She stated that there was a dedicated section within the scheme focussing on the mechanisms that were inclusive and meaningful.  These should include safe spaces for children to be involved in decisions that the Council made that affected the lives of the children and young people.

 

Initial feedback received was there was a gap between the face to face / direct interaction between children & young people and the decision makers.  This was at a county wide level.

 

She would like to extend the conversation to the People Policy Development Committee, particularly in respect of collaboration to improve the mechanisms when listening to children and young people in order to make them inclusive in that decision making. 

 

She asked the Committee:

 

What do you think needs to be done to improve the mechanisms for listening to all children and young people, particularly those who are marginalised?

 

Were there any good examples that could be shared?

 

Were there any particular areas of work where children & young people could come together with the decision makers over the next 12-18 months?

 

The Committee highlighted some good work that had been undertaken in:

 

Schools – usually the first point of contact for any scheme;

Youth Clubs;

EYST;

Young Carers.

 

The Committee acknowledged the difficulty in ensuring that all children & young people were afforded the opportunity for their views to be captured and the mechanism used to ensure that took place.

 

The Rights Policy and Partnership Officer explained that the comments made to the consultation would be analysed by 20 August and a further report would be presented to full Council in October.  All Councillors would have the opportunity to continue the conversation over the next few months.

 

The Chair stated that all 5 Policy Development Committees should consider how they could engage with children and young people so they could contribute to the various work plan items and their decision making.  He went on to comment on the considerable amount of good work currently being undertaken in Swansea which was extremely positive and highlighted our ongoing commitment.

 

The Chair thanked the Rights Policy and Partnership Officer for the verbal report.

Update noted & workshop to be arranged.

Amy Hawkins, Interim Head of Adult Services provided a verbal update on the current situation in relation to the Volunteering Strategy Development.

 

The closing date for the time limited regional Project Manager post had now passed and unfortunately no-one had been recruited.   However, they had looked at the funding and suggested that the work could be carried out by our partners in Swansea Council for Voluntary Services (SCVS) and Neath Port Talbot Council for Voluntary Services.   Welsh Government had also been consulted to enquiry if some of the funding could be utilised in continuing work with an external evaluator who has been supporting us on a regional multi-agency basis for the last year.

 

Resources from the regional strategy and workstream had also been launched.  There were 12 information sheets on volunteering and 6 toolkits which were currently hosted on the West Glamorgan Regional Partnership and SCVS websites and would be posted on the Council website in due course.    In addition, a short animated video had also been created around the first steps to volunteering.

 

The Interim Head of Adult Services explained that Anthony Richards in the Tackling Poverty Team was leading on the Volunteering Strategy and he and his team had met with Julia Manser, SCVS this week to consider any examples of good practice.

 

Julia Manser explained that the programme of work had commenced and the team had engaged with Monmouthshire County Council and been provided with a copy of their Volunteering Strategy. They were also looking at Swansea Bay University Health Board volunteering strategy from a statutory sector perspective. Regular ongoing meetings would continue this piece of work.

 

The Chair suggested that a Workshop be set up around the key principles that will be informing the strategy to provide the Committee with more detail.

 

Resolved that:

 

1)           The verbal update be noted;

2)           A workshop be set up prior to the next People Policy Development Committee scheduled for 22 September 2021. 

Noted.

The Chair outlined the Work Plan for 2021-2022.

 

Resolved that the Work Plan for 2021-2022 be noted.