Warwickshire Childcare Awards

Warwickshire frameworks and structures for children, young people and parents involvement

	Structures
	Frameworks
	WCC Structure for Involvement

Warwickshire’s commitment to involving children, young people and parents

Warwickshire County Council believes that the views of all those living and working in Warwickshire are important in providing effective and quality services. A consultation strategy was established and first published in March 2001 and is reviewed every two years.

The focus of this strategy is to avoid duplication, share best practice, and ensure policies and services reflect the need and aspirations of people living in Warwickshire. This strategy is implemented through the Corporate Consultation Strategy Group, which has representatives from each department. The group meets every two months and has a regular programme of consultations to discuss.

The three corporate consultation activities are;

1.	Public Satisfaction Survey - undertaken annually and sent to 4,000 randomly selected residents, normally have 40% response rate
2.	Citizens' Panel - made up of 1,000 residents, representative of the County as a whole, we consult 4 times per year via postal survey. The panel can also be used to recruit focus groups.
3.	Mystery Shopping - twice a year our front line services are Mystery Shopped by phone call, letter, email and visit to test customer care issues and to monitor our corporate standards

Warwickshire is also committed to involving children, young people and parents in consultation. This is demonstrated through a multi agency Children and Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board (CYPSPB) that ensures agreed priorities for the planning and performance management of integrated commissioning for all children and young people’s services. It consults with children, young people & families through the county youth panel, area youth forums & wider structures made available through partner agencies. In addition a specific Workstream “participation and consultation” has been established and embedded within the implementation of the Children Act.

The County Council is funding the youth service to ensure opportunities are available to consult with young people. This is currently done through the County Youth Panel and five district based Area Youth Forums. The Youth and Community Service add value to this by employing 5 participation workers, 1 for each area to ensure young people (aged 12-19yrs) are involved in consultation and decision making and link into the national work of the UKYP (United Kingdom Youth Parliament).

Other organisations and agencies who provide services for children, young people and their families within Warwickshire, including the Community and Voluntary Sector have also established structures so that more children, young people and parents have their voices heard and can influence decisions that affect them. Both of these mechanisms offer opportunities for children, young people and parents to be consulted and to become actively involved in the commissioning, and development of services that they use.

In addition, the County Council has also developed and maintains a Consultation Database, which holds information and results of all public consultations undertaken by WCC and its partner organisations. The database is also accessible to the public via the Consultation Web pages.

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