Our Work 11-14
From the Commissioner
Thanks to everyone who has helped to develop my draft three year Corporate Plan!
The draft plan is now with the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister and will be published on this web site once it has been agreed.
Your input has helped me to look at the next three years in a strategic way, which means I can track my work over a sustained period.
Among those of you who told me what I should be doing were individuals, organisations, but most importantly children and young people.
We will be putting a summary of what you told me here on the website.
I will use this plan to create annual business plans, which contain the details of what everyone here at NICCY will be doing to promote and safeguard the rights and best interests of children and young people.
I can now give you a flavour of what the Corporate Plan will contain.
Measuring the impact of what we do is very important, I am currently looking at this for the last corporate plan (08-11) and will communicate a review later this year.
New Corporate Direction
My draft Corporate Plan outlines the broad direction of my work, providing focus and allowing everyone here at NICCY to be flexible, dynamic and responsive to emerging issues.
The previous Corporate Plan for 2008 – 11 highlighted 5 key priority areas that NICCY focused on over that period. This Corporate Plan will link more closely to the legislative remit of the office and specifically, NICCY’s duties and powers. You can find these in the Commissioner for Children and Young People (Northern Ireland) Order 2003.
What it means in practice
In practice much of NICCY’s work will be monitoring the work of the Northern Ireland Executive and its Departments. While some of NICCY’s work remains proactive, investigating issues as they arise, I will be also track political developments and scrutinise how government is delivering for children and young people.
Over the next three years, I will focus my powers and duties on improving and making children and young people’s lives better with the resources available to me.
I will work towards making sure the rights children and young people in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), are realised and respected.
It is clear that the next three years will be challenging, not least due to the economic recession. There will be many threats to services, and too often children’s services can be the easiest to cut.
Now more than ever it is important that there is a strong voice for children, who will hold government to account on how it delivers for children. I am committed to being that strong voice and to using my resources effectively to champion children’s rights and best interests with government.
Strategic Focus
I will focus my work on the corporate objective outlined above, matching these to the resources available to me. As I develop my annual business plans, the staff here at NICCY will identify the areas of work according to the following criteria:
- Where there are significant developments – new policy proposals and draft legislation that will have a significant impact on the rights and/or best interests of children in Northern Ireland;
- Where NICCY has evidence of significant violations of children’s rights, particularly in relation to groups of marginalised and vulnerable children; and
- Where structures and mechanisms are not in place to ensure the voices of children and young people are heard.
In determining these priorities each year for the business plan I will take account of the views of children and young people, as well as other individuals and organisations. I will also consider what other agencies are working on and make sure my work is adding value.
I remain committed to working with those public policy makers and others in the voluntary and community sectors to ensure that children and young people can be happy, valued and respected in society.