Month: July 2019

ASH Wales has urged Welsh Government to follow in England’s footsteps after proposals to end smoking by 2030 were announced.

Under the plan contained in the Government’s Prevention Green Paper, every smoker being admitted to hospital would be offered help to quit. The paper proposes raising revenue to support smoking cessation services which would be focused on those groups most in need. It highlights the role that technology can play in delivering focussed, personalised support.

The paper also proposes setting an ultimatum for the tobacco industry to make smoked tobacco obsolete by 2030 so that smokers would quit or move to less risky products like e-cigarettes instead.

ASH Wales supports these proposals and believes there would be strong support for similar action in Wales. According to its latest YouGov survey into attitudes towards tobacco control in Wales, 68% of Welsh adults would support new government action to reduce smoking rates to less than 5% by 2035. Meanwhile 47% of Welsh adults feel the government is not doing enough to reduce smoking prevalence in Wales.

The Welsh Government target is to reduce smoking to 16% of the population by 2020 as part of its Tobacco Control Action Plan.

Suzanne Cass, CEO of ASH Wales, said:

“We whole heartedly support this ambitious target to eliminate smoking in England in 2030 and believe we should strive for the same goal here in Wales.
“Tackling smoking has become a key priority for the UK government and there is a new sense of urgency around the issue which we hope will create opportunities to provide innovative solutions to reduce smoking.

“Here in Wales smoking kills around 5,388 adults every year and costs the Welsh NHS £302 million a year. It is the cause of stark health inequalities across the country, hitting our most deprived communities the hardest.

“We know how challenging it is to reach smokers, with 17% of all adults in Wales continuing to smoke, despite free smoking cessation support being widely available from Help Me Quit. And, despite concerted efforts to raise awareness of the harms of smoking among young people, 9% of 11-to-18-year olds in Wales continue to smoke at least weekly.

“Wales will only become a smoke free nation if innovative and targeted smoking cessation support is provided for those adults and young people who need it most, such as social renters, people experiencing mental health problems and those living in our poorest communities.”

She went on to say that any plan to tackle smoking prevalence must be accompanied by efforts to tackle illegal tobacco, which is sold at pocket money prices across Wales, undermining tobacco control policy and allowing smokers in deprived communities to continue to smoke.

“A big challenge we face here in Wales is illegal tobacco which accounts for 15% of all tobacco sales in the country currently. Any efforts to stamp out smoking must be accompanied by robust enforcement action to prevent illegal tobacco from undermining the government’s tobacco control measures.”

The Youth Work National Occupational Standards are now live on the NOS Database: https://www.ukstandards.org.uk/EN

A PDF of the whole suite and the final Functional Map are available on the CLD Standards Council website: http://cldstandardscouncil.org.uk/resources/standards-and-benchmarks/national-occupational-standards/

CWVYS held its AGM at the Urdd Gobaith Cymru centre in Cardiff Bay on 10 July.
We were delighted to welcome so many friends and colleagues from a range of organisations and partner agencies.

Thanks go to Wayne David MP, who we are very pleased to say will continue as CWVYS President; and to the newly elected CWVYS Executive Committee with Claire Cunliffe (Chair), Sharon Lovell (Vice-Chair) and Marco Gil Cervantes (Treasurer) as Officers.

The event concluded with a stimulating session involving all attendees in a Trustee-led set of round table discussions based upon the five themes of the new Youth Work Strategy for Wales. Those findings have been written up and relayed to the Interim Youth Work Board and to the Welsh Government for further consideration, with an open invitation for continued, future discussions.

A list of CWVYS Presidents’ Group Members plus Members of the CWVYS Executive Committee is here: Trustees and Presidents

Here is the CWVYS Annual Report 2018/19.

Some of you keen-readers may recall that CWVYS are partners of EurodeskUK, which is based at Ecorys in Birmingham. Ecorys forms one half of the UK National Agency for the Erasmus+ programme (the British Council being the other half!), Ecorys is carrying out a study on behalf of the European Commission.

The study aims to gather evidence on youth participation in democratic life within the EU, to inform the ‘Engage’ strand of the European Youth Strategy (2019-27).

The first stage is a survey of youth NGOs and networks in Europe. The survey is now live and will remain open for a month (until August 16th). Our colleagues overseeing the study are hoping to reach as many youth NGOs as possible across the EU, whether they operate at EU, national or local levels.

We would be very grateful if you could support this important work by raising awareness of the survey with youth NGOs in your local area as well as your partner organisations across the EU. You can do this by sharing the following link via your mailing lists (email and/or social media):

Youth Participation Survey

It was a thrill to visit the House of Commons yesterday (2nd July) in order to attend a reception event for the CWVYS ‘Stories from Youth Work in Wales’ report.

The reception was kindly hosted by Wayne David MP, who, as our President, continues to be wonderfully supportive of all things CWVYS. Thank you, Wayne!

Kath Allen and Paul Glaze were ably joined by fellow intrepid travellers Mike Cook (Youth Worker), Morgana and Gethin (Young People) from Senghenydd Youth Drop-in Centre (SYDIC) plus Andy Borsden and Keith Towler.

It was a fantastic opportunity to share the ‘Stories’ report and films with the 10 MPs who attended the event but also to discuss the benefits of youth work in Wales, how the voluntary sector operates and the current context and issues (including the new Youth Work Strategy).

We were struck by not only the willingness of MPs to engage in those discussions but also to relate to their own experiences, including how youth work had played a fundamental and hugely positive role in their respective lives whilst growing up in Wales.

Oh, and Wayne also took us on a fascinating tour of the Palace of Westminster; where we marvelled at the surroundings, drank pop and tea, ate chocolate and were told off for taking photos in the wrong places!

You can find the report and the embedded video links *here*

At last week’s Youth Work Week Showcase event CWVYS met Rachael, a promoter of BrightSky, who’s post is funded by the Home Office.

Bright Sky is a FREE app for anyone who may be in an abusive relationship. It also provides support for friends and families of victims, practitioners and employers who are looking for information about domestic and sexual abuse, sexual consent, online safety, stalking and harassment.

Bright Sky contains a UK-wide directory of Specialist Support Services. The help includes short questionnaires to assess safety of a relationship and steps to consider if leaving an abusive relationship. It provides information on healthy relationships, different forms of abuse, types of support available, how you can help and so much more. It has a function to record evidence in a Private Journal and provides a guide to on-line safety.

In an effort to raise awareness of Bright Sky Rachael can deliver brief demonstrations to smaller groups e.g. trainers/managers/safeguarding leads/youth workers and other key people.

These presentations then allow organisations to see first-hand how this app could benefit them and the people that come into contact with their service.

There is NO COST associated with Bright Sky. It is endorsed by the Home Office, supported by Welsh Government\WCVA and is the only app that is licensed by Secured by Design.
More information can be found on www.hestia.org/brightsky

Rachael will be present at the next CWVYS Workforce Development Group meeting on the 25th of September. To learn more in the meantime visit www.hestia.org/brightsky or download the app on your phone, tablet or computer FOR FREE from the app store.