Warwickshire News Mine

Richard Wood and colleague Doug Gorman from the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development spent two days with the team to find out how some of their own pioneering projects have been implemented on the other side of the world.

The Family and Community Division, part of the council’s Children Young People and Families Directorate, works to increase awareness of and improve access to family services, promote parental choice and champion early intervention to solve problems.

They visited Children’s Centres and family services around the county to give them first hand experience of the many benefits available to Warwickshire children and their families.

On Monday 20 October the ministers met with Marion Davis, Strategic Director for Children, Young People and Families before spending some time at Children’s Centres in Leamington and Rugby looking at partnership working and how the centres involve local parents. They also met with staff from various teams within the division.

For Early Years and the Integrated Disability Service the chance to meet with Richard and Doug was a chance to reflect on what Warwickshire had learned and implemented in the county following a visit to New Zealand in 2006.  During this trip Warwickshire staff saw first hand the impact of New Zealand’s world class Early Childhood Curriculum has had on children. 

Their findings from the visit inspired development of ‘New Beginnings’, a training tool for early years settings to help promote and support new ways to develop inclusive practice based on New Zealand’s guidance ‘Catching the Waves’. 

The following day saw Richard Wood make a visit to St John’s Primary School, Nursery and Children’s Centre in Kenilworth where he met the staff and found out more about school governance issues. Richard Wood was delighted as two of the children at the school who originate from New Zealand had arranged for a traditional welcome. 

In the afternoon further visits took place at Children’s Centres in Nuneaton and Bedworth.  Richard visited the Inspirational Learning Space at Camp Hill Early Years Centre and met staff from the Adult Community Learning Team and the on site Hollyberries Nursery.

He then spent time at The Rainbow Children’s Centre in Bedworth Heath where he shared his own experiences as a grandfather with other grandparents attending the centre. He also observed how the Learning Journey’s inspired by the study visit by Warwickshire staff to New Zealand in 2006 were used effectively at this centre.

Warwickshire County Councillor Izzi Seccombe, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Families said: “This was an excellent opportunity for some of our Children’s Centres and schools to demonstrate their good work and the development of local community cohesion.  I’m sure our guests were very proud to see how some of the work taking place in New Zealand had been implemented around the county. 

“Warwickshire has excellent international links and a lot of our practice has developed through learning from others and adopting new perspectives to review our work.”

The New Zealand Ministry of Social Development is the government department leading on development of social policy to achieve better futures for New Zealanders.  Richard Wood is Deputy Chief Executive for Family and Community Services, a ministry service with the important role of working with government and non-government organisations to empower families and to strengthen services that support them.  Family and Community Services’ overall objective is supporting New Zealand families to be strong and resilient.

Link to WCC