Does your organisation have contact with children and young people (birth - 19 years old)? It could be anything, from a crèche in a church or sports centre to a full programme of structured services. We know there is a lot of fantastic work being done with children and young people in the voluntary sector across Coventry and we want to draw that out and help you to build upon it. So, whatever your involvement, we want to support you!

In 2009/10 we ran a project for organisations working with children and young people in Coventry, to see how they are operating in relation to the Every Child Matters guidelines. Every Child Matters (ECM) is the national framework that shapes all work with children and young people. You can find out more about ECM at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/

The aim of the project in Coventry was to help organisations work out where they ‘fit' within the ECM framework and what support and training they needed. We also wanted to pull that information together so that we could get an idea of what needs to be done at a city level.  To help with this, we carried out some research; the report is available to download here.  

In addition to the research, there were three other elements to the work:

• Developing a self assessment tool that organisations can use to assess their strengths and areas of development in relation to Every Child Matters;
• Identifying training needs within the sector, filling some of the 'gaps' and identifying other sources of support and training
• Developing a local directory of services

If your organisation works with children, young people and families, you are invited to complete a very short training needs questionnaire so that we can ensure we can respond to the need or that you are informed of training opportunities that are offered to Voluntary Action Coventry.

There are times when we are given free places to training events due to vacancies' on course at short notice. We won't know you are looking for specific training if you don't fill in the sheet and let us know, so please consider spending a couple of minutes today to send it in to us.

Please fill in the training needs questionnaire to register your interest in these areas to ensure we keep you informed.

The CWD project is currently managed by our officer Sabir Zazai. He is very keen to further explore the training needs of Voluntary Sector Organisations working with children and young people in Coventry.

Based on our findings and your responses to the Training Needs Questionnaire, we will organise or commission a series of short briefings and training workshops in February & March 2012 to address the training needs identified. 

These will include subjects of Safeguarding, Common Assessment Framework, achieving the 'Be Healthy' ECM outcome, writing Safeguarding policies and accessing CRB checks, and possibly an introduction to 1st Aid. You can find out more about each of these by clicking on the brown tabs at the top of this page.  

For a further discussion and information about our future training programmes and the work of the CWD project, please contact Sabir Zazai on s.zazai@vacoventry.org.uk or 02476 220 381.

This project was funded by the Children's Workforce Development Council.