Beacon peer support open day

On Friday 9 November visitors from all over the country will be learning from Shropshire’s experience as a Beacon Council for its excellent and innovative work on engaging children, young people, their parents and carers in service design and development.

The conference will include interactive workshops covering four themes around engagement: ‘participation in action’, ‘challenges and solutions’, ‘recording customer satisfaction’ and ‘engaging schools and parents’. Members from the Young People’s Participation Team have been actively engaged in the planning and delivery of the conference.

Ann Hartley, Member for Children’s Services, said: “The Beacon Peer Support Open Day event is a great opportunity for Shropshire County Council to share our good practices with other councils and organisations. The Open Day is also a great way of learning from other organisations too, which in turn, could influence changes within Shropshire to better provide for engagement to take place.”

Shropshire County Council in conjunction with City of York Council, recently secured Beacon funding for a further year, to provide targeted and innovative support to other authorities who can benefit from the excellent records of both councils around early intervention and engagement. Their expertise will build the capacity of other authorities to perform similar tasks in the future.

Delegates from other authorities and a wide range of organisations involved in Children and Young People’s Services will be present at the day-long conference. Stephen McCarroll, Integrated Working Team Leader for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), will talk about the importance of integrated working and the value of engagement.

Further information

• Stephen McCarroll, Integrated Working Team Leader for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), Christine Smart, Children’s Rights Director for The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) and Caroline Willow, National Co-ordinator for Children’s Right’s Alliance for England (CRAE) will be key note speakers.
• Shropshire County Council will also be hosting a national Learning Exchange on 16 May 2008 at the Shirehall, to enable other authorities to showcase their innovative and creative work around the effectiveness of participation.
• The event will be taking place on the Friday 9 November 2007, at the Albrighton Hall Hotel, Shrewsbury. It will be commence at 9.30 am and the day will close at 16.40 pm.
• The Beacon Scheme is government recognition that a local authority is providing excellent and innovative services. The scheme is more than just a badge of excellence. It exists to share good practice so that best value authorities can learn from each other and deliver high quality services to all. Each year authorities are able to apply for Beacon Status in a number of categories or themes, for example supporting people, ICT, children's services and affordable housing. The range of themes change each year.
• For further information on the Beacon scheme, visit: www.idea.gov.uk/beacons

5 November