Warwickshire County Council is looking to hear the views of children and young people to continue to help shape the county and create a Child Friendly Warwickshire.
The council has just launched Dialogue, a new online discussion platform, and Child Friendly Warwickshire is the first initiative to use the tool to engage with young people, their families and schools.
In 2021, Child Friendly Warwickshire engaged with more than 1,800 young people to develop the five guiding principles. These are for all children and young people to be heard, healthy, safe, skilled and happy.
A year on, 80 businesses and organisations have signed up to represent and be a friend of Child Friendly Warwickshire, a youth conference has been organised and hundreds of children and young people took part in the young green shoots climate change competition… there is still much to do.
Dialogue provides a safe space to form constructive ideas and make comments on some of the areas and issues the county council is thinking about. The Child Friendly Warwickshire Dialogue expands on feedback from the previous survey, asking for more of what the county council can do to make Warwickshire as child friendly as possible, linking to the five guiding principles. To register, or read through the discussions, and take part visit: warwickshire.gov.uk/childfriendlydialogue . Anyone under 16 will need to get consent from a parent, carer, guardian teacher or trusted adult to register.
Cllr Jeff Morgan, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services at Warwickshire County Council, said: “I strongly urge all parents, carers, teachers, youth workers to encourage the children and young people in their life to take part in the Child Friendly Warwickshire Dialogue challenge.
“To create a Child Friendly Warwickshire, we need the views and ideas from young people so they can shape where they live. I welcome the introduction of this new platform to help us ensure we listen to Warwickshire’s youth so we can make a real positive difference to their future.”
The council hopes this will be the first of many Dialogue discussions and plans to use it to gather views on topics staff at Warwickshire County Council are currently working on from everyone who lives, works, visits and does business in the county. All comments are moderated and any which are deemed inappropriate, according to the safety policy, will be deleted.
Find out more about Child Friendly Warwickshire here: https://www.childfriendlywarwickshire.co.uk/