Children in Wales Strategy 2025-2030

Towards a better Wales for babies, children and young people

Overview of Children in Wales’ five-year strategy [2025-2030]

3

Croeso Setting a five year strategic plan requires no little perspective and a good bit of crystal ballgazing… just look at what we’ve been through in the last five years! Pandemic, austerity, governmental change at Welsh and UK level… a tumultuous time. Throughout that disruptive period, Children in Wales has remained a steady, reliable force, delivering for our members and funders, working hard to ensure that children and young people’s best interests have remained at the heart of decision making in Wales.

In preparing the ground for this strategic plan, my colleagues and I have had hundreds of conversations that have told us much about how CiW is viewed and which reflect well on the organisation’s work throughout that period and before. Colleagues told us how proud they are to work for CiW. They share a strong sense of achievement and a common understanding of when we are at our best: when the work we do is rooted in the rights, voices and aspirations of children and young people. Young people told us how much they value the opportunities we provide for them to have their voice heard in issues that matter to them (and how much fun they’ve had in the process!). Board members are conscious of their responsibilities and firmly committed. Externally, we heard that we have a strong reputation with those who we work with, built on years of championing children’s rights across a variety of spaces and effectively influencing on children and members’ behalf.

4

However, there was much gleaned from these conversations that demands a response: we were challenged to demonstrate what makes us distinct from others operating in this space; we heard that our membership offer would benefit from a refresh, and that clarity on our future direction was needed. I welcome those challenges and am optimistic that this strategic plan offers that clarity.

We’ve set ambitious, values-driven goals which firmly anchor the organisation in its core roles – representing our members, amplifying children’s voices, influencing policy decisions to deliver better outcomes for children – while adapting our offer to ensure that our service is the best it can be. My thanks to my colleagues, our dedicated board members and all those young people, members and partners of CiW who have lent their voice to the development of our strategic plan, an overview of which follows. As an umbrella body it is in our DNA to work in collaboration, so it is gratifying to have had such enthusiastic involvement from so many of you in developing this plan. I look forward to delivering it together with you.

Cofion gorau Hugh Russell, Chief Executive March 2025

Our vision Building a Wales where all babies, children and young people have all their rights fulfilled.

6

We campaign for and facilitate full realisation in Wales of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Our mission 7

How we achieve our mission 8

• We amplify the diverse voices, needs and experiences of babies, children and young people in Wales and facilitate their meaningful participation in decisions that affect them.

• We support and promote our members; we connect, collaborate and offer routes to influence change.

• We work with and encourage Welsh and UK Government, public bodies and organisations across Wales, to engage with babies, children and young people, in order to deliver transformational policy and practice that reflects their rights, aspirations and priorities.

• We challenge inequality and promote equitable access to sustainable, high-quality services for all babies, children and young people in Wales and their parents and carers.

• We provide learning and development opportunities through rights-focused training and consultancy for children’s organisations and professionals.

• We conduct and share research and innovative practices to improve the lives of babies, children and young people.

9

10

Values Our values, co-developed with colleagues and young people, inform how we behave and give us a framework for decision-making.

• We act with Integrity: our approach is grounded in children and young people’s rights. We will work to achieve our mission honestly and with courage, and we will not hold back from challenging on behalf of those whose voices we seek to amplify.

• We are Listening: we hear you. We care about what you have to say. We will respond by taking action, where we can.

• We are Respectful: we will ensure that we are inclusive, that those whose voices are not heard as often as others have a place at our table, and that all can have a say.

• We are Compassionate: we will be empathetic in our communication; we will seek to collaborate at every opportunity; and we will ensure that we are considerate of the experiences of others.

11

We listen to, coordinate and amplify the voices of children and young people in Wales and support those who work with and for them, so that their rights, needs and aspirations shape decisions that affect them.

Children in Wales campaigns for and facilitates full implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in Wales. We listen to, coordinate and amplify the voices of children and young people. As the national umbrella body for people and organisations who care for or about children and young people, we are a unique hub for Wales, building networks, capacity and platforms for the collective expertise of our members. We support and encourage government and child-facing organisations to deliver policy, practice and equitable services that reflect the rights, needs and aspirations of babies, children and young people.

Our purpose 12

13

Overview of objectives As we work towards our vision of a Wales where all children and young people have all their rights fulfilled we will direct our focus to three key audiences: babies, children and young people; our members - those who care and work for children; and policy makers, who are responsible for taking actions in their best interest. Our purpose-based objectives for the next 5 years have been developed with these audiences in mind.

14

15

Members

16

Children in Wales was established as a membership body over 30 years ago.

It’s fundamental to our purpose that our membership has a clear input into our work and that we deliver an exemplary service for our member community. Over the course of our 5-year strategy, we will reinvigorate our membership, to better co-ordinate, promote and amplify the voices of professionals and organisations working with and for children and young people. We will extend our membership to children and young people specifically, to ensure that we are always listening to and informed by their voices. Our Impact Report will offer accountability and we will improve the ways that we demonstrate our progress.

Members can expect the following: • We will launch a new, revitalised membership offer, with a wider range of benefits, offering brilliant value, providing opportunities for shared impact and enhancing the sense of being part of a vibrant community.

• Members will have more opportunities than ever to input into our work and help us to achieve our vision of a Wales where all children and young people have all their rights fulfilled.

• We will define and promote a distinct (free) membership offer for young people, enhancing opportunities to get involved in our work and that of our members.

• We will develop an exciting calendar of events for members, including reestablishment of a Children in Wales Conference, supported by a calendar of regional and specialist events.

• We will continue to create, promote and share up-to-date learning and policy resources, which help our members to deliver the best service for babies, children and young people.

• We will provide spaces for members to come together to develop shared approaches to common challenges.

17

Babies, children and young people

Young Wales, our youth participation service, turned 10 this year. While we began life as an umbrella body for those working with young people, CiW has long had an important role in working directly with babies, children and young people. This strategy includes a commitment to do more to ensure that our work, across the organisation, is informed by the views of children. Ultimately this will help us to ensure that ever-more policies and decisions affecting babies, children and young people in Wales reflect their rights, voices and lived experience.

• We will increase opportunities for participation and engage with more children and young people including from diverse and seldom-heard backgrounds, directly and in conjunction with members, ensuring that our participation methods are of a high standard.

• We will facilitate more opportunities for children and young people to engage directly with decision-makers at local and regional levels including at Local Authority, Welsh Government, UK Government and UN levels. This includes non-devolved policies driven by the UK Government.

• We will identify new approaches to engaging with younger children and those who care for them, to ensure they are also represented appropriately in decisions that affect them.

• We will engage with more parents, schools, community groups and other organisations who share our values, to improve their understanding of Children’s Rights and to extend children’s ability to meaningfully participate in places that matter to them.

• We will engage more young people in research opportunities, building on successful examples of peer-research we’ve previously delivered, as another route to meaningful promotion of young people’s perspectives and experiences.

19

Policy-makers

CiW has a long and proud history of influencing positive policy change for children and young people, from campaigning to establish a Children’s Commissioner for Wales, to our involvement in the development of the legislation which prohibits physical punishment of children. Over this strategic period, we will seek to maintain and enhance this element of our work, supporting and challenging policy-makers, as necessary, on behalf of our members and campaigning for positive change for babies, children and young people, in line with our mission.

We will ensure that Welsh Government policies are influenced by the voices and experiences of babies, children and young people in Wales, and that Children’s Rights continue to inform policy-making. We will seek to develop further our work with local authorities, UK Government and the UN, to ensure that children growing up in Wales influence decisions that affect them, wherever they are made.

• We will continue to foster trusting critical-friend relationships with Welsh Ministers, Senedd Members and civil servants, with an emphasis on early policy and agenda influencing.

• We will continue to deliver commissioned engagement and participation opportunities for the Welsh Government that meet our standards and the needs of young people.

• We will coordinate a coherent manifesto for children, representing views from across our membership, ahead of the Senedd elections in 2026 and follow the same process for the next UK General Election.

• We will create more opportunities for children and young people to engage directly with local, national and international policy-makers.

• We will develop closer relationships with local authorities in Wales, as members and as partners in promoting children’s rights.

• We will develop closer relationships with Westminster, particularly with Welsh MPs and Welsh members of the UK Government, in order to influence nondevolved policy issues which affect babies, children and young people in Wales.

We will do this to ensure that children growing up in Wales, and those working with them, influence decisions that affect them, wherever they are made.

21

Enabling objectives In order to achieve our purpose-based objectives, we will deliver a range of enabling objectives throughout the course of this plan. Always with our Mission and Vision in clear focus, these additional objectives will enable us to expand our influence, sustain our organisation and demonstrate the impact we are having.

These will include areas in which we are firmly established, such as our wellrespected learning and development offer to professionals working with children, as well as a view to building on work in newer areas, such as a consultancy offering to support others to enhance their participation offer to children and young people. We will seek new income streams from funders whose values match our own and we will embody the organisation’s values in our activities.

Over the next five years our enabling objectives will include: • We will develop an enhanced learning and development offering to ensure that our well-established and trusted training provision expands to new areas, in line with our aim that all those organisations and individuals who care for or work with and for children should be rights-literate and equipped to engage in effective participation.

• We will develop new consultancy services in areas of expertise for the organisation, where there is a great fit with our vision and mission, such as in youth participation and in enhancing democratic engagement for children and young people.

• We will develop new communications strategies which enhance our ability to vividly show our impact to members, policy-makers and children and young people.

• We will ensure that the skills and experience of our colleagues, as well as our governance structures, reflect our purpose, values and strategic commitments.

• We will work hard to ensure that our values are always visibly demonstrated in our actions.

• We will be a sustainable, inclusive organisation, working compassionately and with integrity to achieve our mission.

22

We will provide clear opportunities for all of our stakeholders, including children and young people, funders and our members, to hold us to account. We will openly demonstrate our impact and be proud of the difference that we are making. Each of our strategic objectives will have clear KPIs and we will be transparent about both our progress and those occasions when obstacles get in our way. We will report back annually through our Impact Report, which is published in November of each year, giving us a chance to publicly celebrate our achievements for our members and for babies, children and young people.

Find out more at childreninwales.org.uk

Demonstrating progress 23

Cardiff University Social Science Research Park (SPARK), Cardiff, CF24 4HQ 029 2034 2434 info@childreninwales.org.uk @childreninwales.org.uk @childreninwales @youngwalesciw Children in Wales childreninwales.org.uk