FOR PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS AND PROFESSIONALS

Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to this second newsletter for the Involved by Right project! In October, we were treated to some exceptional hospitality during the transnational meeting in Bassano Del Grappa. We received a warm welcome by the Town City Mayor Dr. Stefano Cimatti who delivered a speech about the importance of the EU grant and international collaboration to promote and protect the rights and welfare of children. We were told that the meeting was hosted in Palazzo Sturm to give us the best view of the town and from the terrace we could see Ponte Vecchio, the old wood covered bridge, and the stunning mountain backdrop. The pictures show the dcor of the palatial rooms, and looking up there were painted angels watching over the proceedings.
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The town museum was conveniently situated in the Palazzo, and a guided talk was arranged to learn about the local history and the rich culture of the Veneto region. We enjoyed a further guided tour around the art gallery in the convent of San Francesco.

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Claudia Bontorin and Lisa Cerantola had made considerable efforts to arrange a programme to help us learn as much as possible about the child welfare and protection system in the region. It included a mix of presentations, study visits and workshops with young representatives from the Youth Advisory Boards (YAB) from Italy, England and Sweden. A young persons account of the Italy trip is featured in this newsletter with a summary of activities and outcomes from the meeting - including young peoples views about the role and function of the YAB. A particularly memorable part was a listening exercise to capture information accurately. The group was asked to divide into pairs and was given coloured pens and a blank piece of paper. They sat back to back and one of the pair was asked to try to draw an exact copy of a picture being drawn by the other, by listening to their step-by-step instructions. Some people drew fairly accurate pictures but most got some good laughs! The exercise was designed to show that advocacy is about listening and not making assumptions or judgments about what is being said. The experience was used to help stimulate a discussion about the importance of listening to children and the role of advocacy in child protection. In this edition, we put the spotlight on Ivana La Valle who is the Director of the National Childrens Bureaus Research Centre. Ivana and the NCB research team are leading the research work stream, and undertaking the pilot fieldwork study in Kensington and Chelsea.
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We are now saying goodbye to Jonathan Williams, the operational project manager in Kensington and Chelsea who has made a significant contribution to the project. Jonathan helped set up the project and has been the driving force behind developing the Involved by Right Child Protection Conference model. He will take up a senior safeguarding management position in Harrow, London and we hope to keep him in the IBR project family for mutual support and continued shared learning. We are welcoming Lisa Aldridge who will take over operational project management responsibilities. Lisa will be overseeing the implementation of the pilot field-work study in Kensington and Chelsea, and provide management support to implement international and local YAB objectives.

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I am pleased to announce that the project budget has been approved by the EU Commission. Elena Golcic deserves a special mention for getting us to the finish line which means that we can finally get the online budget reporting tool up and running. The aim is to finish this work before Elena goes on maternity leave at the end of March 2012. Alongside the Involved by Right project, Kensington and Chelsea is preparing to take on host borough responsibilities for the Olympic Games in 2012. The volleyball competitions will be staged at the Earls Court arena, and the open road cycle road race will go past some famous landmarks. The Council is bringing cultural events to the redeveloped Exhibition Road area to contribute to the festivities of the Olympic events. The interest in the Games will of course make it harder to visit London in the summer, and the YAB residential workshop is now provisionally booked to take place in mid-September 2012. I hope you will enjoy reading about the progress of the Involved by Right project, and your support to help achieve the targets ahead of us in 2012 is much valued.

Camilla Webster Involved by Right Lead Project Manager e: camilla.webster@rbck.gov.uk

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About the Project

The Involved by Right project is funded by the EU Daphne programme to deliver the following priority in the period of 2011-2013: Field-work at grass roots level with involvement of children, young people and/or women to empower them to protect themselves and their peers against violence. The Involved by Right projects mission is to advance advocacy and participation rights for children in the child protection system. The project is delivered in partnership with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Barnardos, National Childrens Bureau (NCB) and European partners (Italy, Sweden). It aims to realise the aspirations of Articles 3 and 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) for children to be listened to in child protection and residential care. The intentions of the project are modelled through Youth Advisory Boards to empower young people to steer the project and develop resources to increase childrens participation in decision making processes. The project runs alongside an international research programme overseen by NCB, and the findings will be published in early 2013.

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Summary from the transnational meeting 23-26 October, 2011
The transnational meeting took place in Palazzo Sturm and from the terrace we had a stunning view of Ponte Vecchio, the covered wooden bridge over the river Brenta and mountain backdrop. The meeting had been planned to facilitate the involvement of two Youth Advisory Board (YABs) representatives from each of the three countries. It was the first time that the project brought together young people with different languages and cultural backgrounds in an unfamiliar setting. We felt it was important for young people to get to know each other, and help the group communicate as effectively as possible through the involvement of youth workers already known to them and translation assistance. To start off the group activity, the Steering Committee asked young people to explore the following three questions: How do you want to participate? How do you want to influence the project? How do you want to share your experiences of the project?

We were given a guided tour of the museum at the Palazzo to learn about the works of the Remondini family of printers who were in operation in Bassano from 1634-1861. During the guided tour we were shown objects from the collection which included games, playing cards, wallpaper decorative prints, woodcuts of saints and other popular objects. A further guided tour took place in a gallery situated in the convent of San Francesco to admire the works of native Bassano painters.

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The YAB co-ordinator facilitated the group work sessions, and the Steering Committee was provided with the feedback that: Young people want to be involved in meetings to discuss and share experiences with representatives from other countries. YABs want to work together to come up with topics or common themes for young people in the different countries to discuss and compare. Children in care would be helped by being provided with leaflets to raise awareness of the stigma of being in care in schools. Young people want to lead and be involved in the preparations and delivery of the next steering group. Young people want to feedback experiences from the meeting in local YABs and to Councillors. It is important to promote YAB objectives nationally, and to carry on discussions about how to influence the project with other young people who have experience of being in care. Young people told the Steering Committee that they had found it particularly valuable to discuss similarities and what was different for young people in care in the three countries. Everyone agreed unanimously that the YABs would be supported to have an active role in planning and delivering the next transnational meeting in Brussels 20-22 April, 2012.
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The Italian team had worked hard to arrange study visits to help transfer knowledge among partners. By visiting a local childrens home and a fostering and family centre we learned about child protection, fostering and residential care services in the Veneto region. Young people were given a guide of a childrens home for girls, and were particularly impressed by the homely feel and the provision to keep a resident dog. We heard about the importance of community support, and that local volunteers had put up a tree house in the garden for the enjoyment of the children. A more detailed account from the visits is available by emailing the Lead Project Manager.

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A young persons account of the Italy trip

Our trip to Italy!
For those of you who do not know, some of us went to Italy in October half-term. The project for the UK has been the Youth Advisory Board: the voice of children and young people in care, and we are involved in a bigger project called Involved By Right. The aim of this four day trip was to interact with Italians and Swedes who are doing similar projects to us, though not the same, and share our ideas about what we have done and what we could do to get children and young people more involved in statutory processes. On the first day we got there, we spent a whole day in Verona which was beautiful (and ate ice cream). We then went to Bassano and checked into the hotel (which was amazing!) and unpacked and relaxed before heading off with Michael and Amanda to find somewhere to eat around the town. When we got back to the hotel, we met with the Swedes who had just arrived, and went up to our hotel rooms to relax and go to bed. On the second day, the adults got ready and went to a meeting, whilst we went for a look around town. We spent the day at an orphanage with the Italians and Swedes getting to know each other (with the help of translators) and had a tour of the orphanage and other similar types of accommodation. Later that evening, we all went to a lovely restaurant near to where we stayed (then went for ice cream) and then returned to the hotel where we hung out with the Swedish young people for a while. On the third day, the last day in Bassano, we went to one of the meetings with all of the adults from all three countries. Each country split into their own groups and the young people told the adults what they thought about the project so far and their views on their smaller projects. We decided to perform a role play to them in order to get our views across, and then we all had a discussion about how the Youth Advisory Board is going. We also told them about what we had been doing throughout the trip and we showed them a few of the things we had been discussing and brainstorming. In the evening, we all went out to eat and, obviously, went for ice cream afterwards (even though it had been raining really heavily for the whole day). We were in Venice for the final day, shopping and sightseeing. It was so amazing because it is so different there what with all the boats and water. We went to St. Marco Square where we stayed all day before heading back to the train station to get to the airport. Although the flight to Italy was amazing, the flight back to London was not so great. However, we all had an amazing time and are really excited to share our experiences with the YAB! Thank you Amanda and Michael for taking us on such a wonderful trip!
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Progress in each Country

Sweden
The field-work study targets a group of young people aged 13-20 years, and the emphasis is on making a difference. The Youth Advisory Board has contributed with topics for the interviews in the research undertaken by Save the Children. The YAB questions were about: feeling listened to and understood, being taken seriously and being cared for by their social worker. It is envisaged that the engagement with the YAB will help raise standards and drive service improvement priorities. The culture project is about exploring young peoples meaning of involvement by engaging young people in story-writing with a published author. There are plans to start a blog, use music and creative media to empower young people to express their views of residential care. The aim is to support children to achieve positive outcomes in their health, education and well-being.

Italy
The field-work study will involve at least 60 children in foster care, residential care and day care centres. In the Veneto Region, there will be three social and Health Local Authorities involved in the project (A.Ulss n.3leader of the italian project, A.Ulss n.8, A.Ulss n.15). Children in foster care and in residential care will be brought together in different groups and supported by the help of two facilitators to share with each other, discuss and reflect among peers their life experience, and to explain their opinions about the decisions that the social services have taken for them. The outcomes of the discussion will be important to obtain feedback on the social services practices. Four young people were selected as peer delegates for children in care to take part in the transnational meeting, and it is hoped that the experiences of young people attending the transnational meeting will strengthen future YAB developments. It is also envisaged that the research will support further developments to empower children in care to have their voice heard.

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RBKC and Barnardos

The advocacy service is now up and running and is currently reaching about half of all children subject to child protection planning. Staff have been trained to take a participatory approach to involving children in decision making processes to improve outcomes for children who have been subjected to neglect and child abuse. There is also a programme of work in place to implement Viewpoint consultations with young people involved in child protection planning processes. Viewpoint is a web-based interactive engagement tool which is used to capture the views of children through a questionnaire which is embedded within the tool.

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2012 Calendar
17 February Working group meeting to prepare an outline framework for the toolkit 7 March UK Advocacy and Participation meeting hosted by Barnardos 20-22 April Transnational meeting in Brussels June - UK Advocacy and Participation meeting hosted by NCB Mid-Septmeber YAB residential in London Mid-October Transnational meeting in London, focus on research and preparations for dissemination conference

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Project Contacts
UK
Lead Agency Project Manager: Camilla Webster Email: camilla.webster@rbkc.gov.uk RBKC Operational Project Manager: Lisa Aldridge Email: lisa.aldridge@rbkc.gov.uk Barnardos Operational Project Manager: Alison Levy Email: alison.levy@barnardos.org.uk NCB Project Manager: Nicola Murdoch Email: nmurdoch@ncb.org.uk

Sweden
Project Co-ordinator: Maria Rosendahl Email: maria.rosendahl@helsingborg.se

Italy
Project Manager: Claudia Bontorin Email: Claudia.bontorin@gmail.com; Claudia.bontorin@aslbassano.it

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Spotlight On...
Ivana La Valle is Director of the National Childrens Bureau (NCB) Research Centre in London. As a child what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to join the circus perhaps the urge for an itinerant life that later brought me from Italy, where I was born, to London! When did you first turn towards a social research career? My first degree at City University was in Politics. But it was the Research Methods module that really excited me, since in comparison, say, with political philosophy it held out the promise of practical application. So I then did a Masters in Research Methods at the Open University while working in adult education in Hackney. What was your first professional research job? This was at the University of East London working as the Research Assistant on a project on the career paths of social workers. It gave me immense admiration for their work. After that I went to the Institute of Employment Studies at Sussex University. Then next I joined the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) where I stayed for 11 years. What has been your best professional moment? Undoubtedly my move to NCB two years ago. What I value is the contact with professionals and policy thinkers in the organisation. For example, NCB was instrumental in developing the Sure Start centre concept. I strongly believe that effective changes in policy or practice come from the close association of researchers with practitioners. and worst? Not a personal moment, but I do regret the steady devaluation of professional research skills that seems underway. The term research is applied too casually to poor quality work that just generates some numbers that hit the headlines. It is not sufficient to just use some online survey tool that requires no reflection on, for example, sample or question design.

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Why is it important for the NCB research unit to be part of the project? There is very limited research evidence on the effects of advocacy in child protection, the evaluation of IBR will fill a very big gap in the evidence base and provide important lessons for practice. What has been the highlight so far? The international dimension makes this project very special for us, giving us a comparative perspective and a stimulus to learn new ways of doing research. We know that you speak both Italian and English fluently but how is your Swedish? I wish I could speak Swedish! Thank you Ivana.

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