It is believed that significant numbers of North Wales’ children and families are affected by imprisonment. However, very often, their unique vulnerabilities and challenges are overlooked or hidden, and they end up serving a so-called ‘hidden sentence’ themselves.

The FABI Project – A Multi-Agency Approach

In order to raise awareness of the issues faced by these North Wales families and to drive change to encourage prevention work and more targeted non-stigmatising support, eleven public bodies from across the region and HMP Berwyn, have appointed a small regional cross-cutting team; this is part of the work of the North Wales Safer Communities Board and the North Wales Substance Misuse Area Planning Board.

The next phase of the programme will see work progressed with Local Authority Pathfinder Areas working across different service areas and between custody and community.

There are two officers within the team, namely Sara Kettle and Catherine Pritchard, who are working collaboratively with partners. 

If you wish to contact Sara or Catherine about their work and can support and inform it going forward, please contact them:

sara.kettle@wrexham.gov.uk
catherine.pritchard@wrexham.gov.uk

01978 292453 / 01978 292444

For further information:
https://www.northwales-pcc.gov.uk/en/Working-in-Partnership/North-Wales-Families-Affected-by-Imprisonment-Project.aspx

The following 7 minutes Briefings are now available to access via the resources web page:

• Mental Capacity (Amendment) 2019

In partnership with Dogs Trust, the North Wales Safeguarding Board are working to promote awareness during Child Safety Week (3^rd to 7^th June) of how to teach your child safety around dogs.

Unfortunately, a high number of dog bites happen to children in the family home. With the rate of hospital admissions related to dog bites highest among the 0-9 age group*, there is a greater need to educate children and families on how to behave safely around dogs. *NHS dog bite hospital admissions data.

[Read more…]

The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill was approved by Parliament on 24 April 2019, meaning it will become law shortly, when it receives Royal Assent.

The legislation provides for the repeal of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) contained in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA), and their replacement with a new scheme called the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS).

The LPS establishes a process for authorising arrangements enabling care or treatment which give rise to a deprivation of liberty within the meaning of Article 5(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), where the person lacks capacity to consent to the arrangements. It also provides for safeguards to be delivered to people subject to the scheme.

[Read more…]

Brexit will happen, in one way or another, although further delays have occurred. This paper attempts to pull together what is feared, what is known and what the impact might be for services serving children and young people in UK.

The EU has enacted over 80 legal instruments that confer direct entitlement for children in the UK covering issues such as migration, asylum, child protection, health and safety, paediatric medicine, access to social and economic rights and cross-border family breakdown. In one way or another Brexit is likely to have an impact on all of these.

Impact of Brexit on Children and Family Services