Commissioner responds to free school meals announcement
This month Rocio responded to the Welsh Government’s announcement that they will be reducing out-of-term free school meal provision and the schools essentials grant. In her response the Children’s Commissioner reflected that children and young people told us in our Ambitions for Wales survey that they are worried about not having enough food to eat. She shared her worry that this number will increase during the summer holidays, and wrote to the Education Minister calling for the decision to be reversed.
Two-child limit: A cruel policy that must be scrapped
Along with leading children’s rights organisations from across the UK, the Commissioner called for an end to two-child limit in a joint letter to Westminster party leaders.
You can read more on this web page.
Rocio said:
“I’m gravely concerned about the impact of child poverty in Wales, and I’ve continuously called on the Welsh Government to plan and monitor specific and measurable actions to help the huge numbers of children who are affected. But it is clear that UK Government are responsible for the main levers of financial support for families living in poverty. There are obvious changes that the UK Government could and should make to welfare payments, which would instantly put more money in the pockets of thousands of families. This includes getting rid of the two-child limit, which effectively punishes children for having more than one sibling, depriving them of their human rights to a good standard of living, health, and development. This is a cruel policy that must be scrapped.”
Senedd Teach the Future Event
This month our Young People’s Advisory Panel have had opportunities to attend events where they spoke about issues that are important to them. Three of our panel members recently spoke at the Teach the Future Event at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. All three members spoke brilliantly, sharing their views on climate change action.
Prifysgol De Cymru Educational Conference
Recently Rocio spoke at an Educational Conference held at University South Wales’ Pontypridd Campus. The conference discussed Additional Leaning Needs and the importance of emphasising a children’s rights approach in this area of education. Rocio was accompanied by two members of our Young People’s Advisory Panel. Both members shared their personal experiences in education as part of the Commissioner’s presentation. The Children’s Commissioner also used the opportunity to highlight our Investigations and Advice service.
To find out more about our Investigations and Advice service go to our website.
Young People’s Advisory Panel meetings
July has been a busy and exciting month for our Young People’s Advisory Panel. Members had the opportunity to attend face to face meetings to discuss and reflect on our office’s work. Meetings were held in Llandudno Junction for our members from North Wales, and in Merthyr Tydfil for our South Wales members. The young people engaged in discussions and provided fantastic insight for the office in both meetings. They discussed how we could improve our ambassador schemes and looked at some of the recommendations for our annual report. Thank you to all our young people that attended.
Denbigh Youth Council
This month two of our Participation Officers attended an event held at the Ruthin Council Chambers for Denbigh Secondary schools cluster. Pupils from several schools were present and discussed the work they have done with their school council across the last term. Our team completed a rights workshop with the attendees discussing their children’s rights.
Hawarden Pride event
The CCfW team were excited to attend Hawarden High School’s ‘Celebrating Being Me’ event. It was great to see young people from high schools all over Flintshire come together to celebrate Pride. Young people were invited to write a message on our ‘Celebrating Being Me’ banner, promoting children’s right to non-discrimination (article 2) and have their voice heard (article 12).
‘Listening to Our Youngest Voices’ Conference
This month a member from the CCfW team attended Children’s Rights in Early Years (CREY) network first annual conference, ‘Listening to our Youngest Children’. It was great to hear about good practice from around the UK, championing children’s voice in the early years. It’s so important that even the youngest children in Wales get the right to have their voice heard (Article 12)!