Archive Council News

21.04.05

Putting Children First

"A place where children and young people are valued" - that is one of the key messages outlined under Wrexham Refreshed, a vision for the whole of the County Borough.

In order to implement this vision and ensure that children and young people in Wrexham County Borough grow up to exercise their rights, fulfil their responsibilities and realise their individual potential, members of the Executive Board will next week be asked to approve a set of aspirations for children and young people.

As part of the Council's improvement programme a structure review of the Council's services to children and young people is now at the consultation stage and briefings and information are being provided for staff, partners and members. During the review process, lead members of a Project Board have stressed the importance of having a clear set of aspirations that will be used to judge the quality of existing service provision.

Strategic Director with responsibility for Children and Young People, Terry Garner said:

"The Council has always had Children and Young People at the heart of its workings but we are constantly striving to improve. The Council has been looking at its overall approach on delivering services to children and young people in Wrexham. Key to the review is to look at how these services are currently delivered and then look at ways to improve them.

"Members and officers have been working hard to identify key areas of improvement and we are now asking the Executive Board to approve a set of aspirations which we can use to benchmark services for children and young people in the future. We are planning to make these changes to further improve our services to children and young people and their families by bringing together all the relevant services, which are currently provided by different departments."

The services concerned range from schools and leisure opportunities, to child protection and family support services. These services are critical to the health, safety, achievement, well-being and development of children and young people in the County Borough, and are oftten delivered in partnership with other agencies such as health, the police and the voluntary sector.