The Development Agency was established in 2005 in response to the level of external interest shown in the project. We also recognised that there was much to be gained by working in partnership with colleagues in other parts of the country, facing different dilemmas. Investing in Children has always aspired to be a learning organisation, and the creation of the Development Agency increased the opportunities to learn from new partners.

Governance.

The Development Agency exists as an interlinked series of public-public partnership agreements. Each individual partner organisation has entered into an agreement to use the Investing in Children approach, and become part of the Development Agency. Partners who enter into a development contract with Investing in Children effectively become co-owners of the Development Agency.

Children and young people themselves are crucial members of the Board. Of the two seats allocated to each Partner, one can only be occupied by a child or young person. Practice has developed within the Board for groups of young people from a partnership to attend, to provide each other with support, but exercising one vote. Thus 50% of the Board’s seats are allocated to children and young people.

A ‘Community of Discovery’       

To an extent, Investing in Children has always been and continues to be an experimental initiative within the field of children’s human rights. The Development Agency Partnership Board provides an important opportunity for reflection and discussion on the success or failure of our efforts. We can reflect upon the strategies that might be seen as effective in that they resulted in some change. We can also look at the (more frequent) attempts to create opportunities for the political voice of children and young people to be heard which have not been effective (or not been effective yet.) and learn from each other. To that extent, the Partnership Board is a ‘community of discovery’ and the practice,  created by young Board Members, of reserving the first hour of the Board’s time for an in-depth discussion of a key issue, has been very effective.

Investing in Children has attempted to keep up to date with and where possible, contribute to, the debate about the human rights of children and young people. There is a good network of academics, researchers, managers, practitioners and children and young people themselves, and contributions have been made, to conferences and to publications. This has been at a national and occasionally international level.

Current Partners Include:

There are currently 151 IiC Membership sites (*Dec 2011) across the Development Agency some from the formal contracts and others who have stand-alone IiC status.

For further information contact:

Felicity Shenton

IiC Practice and Development Manager

Tel: 03000 261502

felicity.shenton@durham.gov.uk