Working Together in Calderdale

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A Charter For Parent Carers of children and young people with any additional need and Practitioners

 

Family Voice Calderdale have spent a number of years developing close working partnerships with Calderdale Local Authority, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group and the services they manage.  We have seen how working collaboratively makes for better outcomes for families and services alike.  Together, we wanted to find a way of spreading that message to encourage and facilitate families themselves being able to have better conversations with the services they use.

The result is  ‘WORKING TOGETHER IN CALDERDALE’  – a charter that a number of parents and officers spent 18 months developing.  We felt very strongly that we wanted to develop our own charter for us here in Calderdale.  This also recognises that often the process is as important as the outcome.  We hope to use the charter to help services, especially schools, and parent carers to develop their own close, collaborative working relationships to their mutual benefit.

The Charter was launched at the Family Voice Calderdale Annual Conference in February 2020, our biggest gathering of parent carers and practitioners yet.  The strapline of the conference was ‘Better conversations: Better outcomes.  We hope the Charter makes a significant contribution to making that a reality for families in Calderdale.

    

As Chair of Family Voice Calderdale I am delighted with the Charter for parent carers and practitioners working together.  It is the result of many hours of endeavour by many people, working together, naturally.  We hope the Charter will set the scene for parent carers to have a stronger voice in the lives of their children and young people and that it will help to embed the idea of ‘Nothing about us without us’

Pete Ruse, Co-Chair of Family Voice Calderdale

The Calderdale Charter shows the partnership work that’s helping to improve mental health and emotional wellbeing services for children and young people in our area.  People are already feeling the benefit of the influence young people, their parents and carers have in how services are planned and delivered.  The charter is a fantastic example of co-production, built on the equal footing and influence of all partners, and will help us meet our goal: to ensure children and young people in Calderdale get any help and support they need to thrive.

Rhona Rhadley – Deputy Head of Service Improvement, Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group

As Director for Children & Young Peoples Service for Calderdale Council, I am pleased and proud to sign up to the charter for parents and carers. In our view, parents and carers are the experts in what works for their family. Calderdale Council has a Vision for 2024, that it will be the Best Borough in the North for our children to grow up; to be known for its kindness and care.  Our ambition for children and young people with any additional need is clear – for them to be healthy, safe and successful. There is real strength in our partnership and co-production which will continue to help our children and young people to develop and flourish.

Julie Jenkins – Director for Children and Young People’s Services, Calderdale Council

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