NACCC’s MP letter campaign
Elizabeth Coe wrote to 650 MPs in July inviting them to visit their local constituency contact centre. We have received over 100 responses from MPs keen to arrange a visit, meet volunteers and understand more about child contact centres and services. This is a great opportunity to inform local politicians of the value of child contact and help build political support and awareness for what we do.
Why not invite your constituency MP to visit your local centre? The NACCC office can help send out press releases and support your centre with the visit. Try and get a photograph of your MP visiting your centre and (with their permission) contact your local media telling them about the visit. This is an ideal way to help you raise awareness and build political support locally.
Richard Daniels, Government Relations Adviser
Catch up on what has been happening in our latest news since the last issue
The Good Childhood Report 2018: self-harm on the rise, particularly in girls…
Nearly a quarter of girls aged 14 (22%) said they had self-harmed in just a year according to a new report by The Children’s Society. A new report has been published by the Children’s Society, an annual report on children’s well-being produced by The Children’s Society in partnership with the University of York. It is the product of an ongoing research programme which began in 2005 because children’s voices were largely missing from the debate on their well-being. It uses analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study and highlights that self-harm is on the rise particularly in girls. It mainly has recommendations for schools but also mentions looked after children and children with special needs. One of its main messages is that “we must ask children themselves what they think about their lives instead of relying on the observations and assumptions made by the adults in their lives”.
New members join Child Contact Centre Standards Panel
The Child Contact Centre Standards Panel is an independent panel set up by the National Association of Child Contact Centres. One of the key roles of NACCC is the accreditation and re-accreditation of both Supported and Supervised Child Contact Centres against sets of nationally agreed standards. In March NACCC announced that it needed two additional members to join the panel; one member to be directly involved in the operation of a Supervised Child Contact Centre and a second member to not be directly involved in the running of Child Contact Centre but have experience or knowledge that is relevant to the work of the Independent Standards Panel. NACCC is delighted to announce that Victoria Taylor Robinson (IMPACT Family Services) has joined the panel to represent supervised contact centres and Judge Stephen Bedford has joined the panel as an independent member.
NACCC achieves the IASME Governance Standard for GDPR
NACCC achieved the standard for IASME Governance Standard for GDPR and was awarded the certificate in June. NACCC worked with the organisation Information Age to achieve this certification. Information Age are also supporting accredited child contact centres with their compliance.
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Child Contact Centres held in Parliament
As described earlier in this newsletter the first All-Party Parliamentary Group on Child Contact Centres and Services was held in Parliament in June. The group is an opportunity for MPs and Lords to discuss issues around child contact and raise awareness of child contact centres in Parliament.
