Next phase of Children & Young People's Plan underway

Friday 23 November 2018

Key professionals have been given a sneak preview of the next phase of Guernsey's Children and Young People's Plan which the authors say has those young people as an island-wide priority.

Covering the years between 2019 and 2022, the existing plan has been refreshed to confirm the island's commitment to investing "in all our children", while also seeking "to specifically meet the needs of the most vulnerable children and families in our communities."

All 'stakeholders and professionals' who work with children and young people and their families were invited to a conference at Les Cotils this week, so the authors could "share how we continue to develop and plan to ensure positive outcomes for all children and young people across the Bailiwick."

The existing plan has run for three years and it said to have "achieved some real positive change across the Bailiwick" with the next phase covering the following three years aiming at continuing to identify the need to "prioritise early help and prevention as well as inclusion as core priorities over the next three years."

One of the main contributors to the plan is Nick Hynes who said the conference covered all aspects of the policy plans, which has four key aims for all children and young people in the Bailiwick.

"Safe and nurtured, healthy and active, included and respect and the opportunity to achieve individual and economic potential" - Nick Hynes on the four key aims for all children and young people in the Bailiwick. 

He said cross committee and third sector working is key to achieving those aims and the new phase of the CYPP will take them even closer to that.

It was acknowledged however that there is still a great deal of work to do to achieve that. But Mr Hynes said for him and others it should be the States' main priority.

"We listen to children and young people a lot but we don't always act on what they say, so there's a real core focus on the refresh of making sure that when children and young people are telling us things we're acting on what they're saying and putting that into action really."

The CYPP is part of the island's 23 point priority plan agreed by the States of Guernsey, Mr Hynes said for him it is number one on that list.

"For me, and colleagues here, it is number one and actually I think it should always be number one, that we're investing in the young people today because they're going to be the adults of tomorrow on the island, who actually we're going to be looking to for leadership and support in the future.

"There is a real commitment in the room, and from colleagues here, from cross-committees politically and service areas and within the third sector, to all say this is really important and we need to make a difference to children and young people now."

Pictured l-r: Simon Westwood, the Independent Chair of the Islands Safeguarding Children Partnership, Dr Nicola Brink, the Director of Public Health, Nick Hynes, Leading Development and Implementation Officer for the Children and Young People's Plan, and Deputy Heidi Soulsby, President of Health and Social Care. 

Heidi Soulsby, President of the Committee for Health & Social Care, said: 

“Most of our children and young people achieve good outcomes and go on to lead successful lives as adults, but there are some who do not. We need to be focused and innovative if we are to ensure that all children, young people and their families have the same positive outcomes. 

This means that we need to think about how we reshape services and deliver them differently, how we will adopt an approach of ‘strengthening’ families; working with all stakeholders and ‘with’ the community rather than delivering services ‘to’ them. This goes to the heart of the new model of care for the Bailiwick, known as the Partnership of Purpose.

This conference willfocus on the CYPP which has at its core a principle a can-doattitude and an aim of providing early help and interventionby working together to identify what works best in each community so that we can help when a child or family need support and ensure that they have access to the right support, at the right time, in the right place.”

Pictured top l-r: Simon Westwood, the Independent Chair of the Islands Safeguarding Children Partnership, Dr Nicola Brink, the Director of Public Health, Nick Hynes, Leading Development and Implementation Officer for the Children and Young People's Plan, and Deputy Heidi Soulsby, President of Health and Social Care.