Membership of Professional bodies by Children’s Commissioner staff (FOI)

Request

Further to the 2019 provincial accounts published by the Children's Commissioner, please provide:

A

Confirmation of any memberships of professional bodies held by the Commissioner and / or her staff and the annual cost of these memberships;

B

Details of any events attended (including virtually) in 2019 or 2020 by the Children's Commissioner and / or her staff in connection with any memberships of professional bodies and the total cost of this attendance (including event fees, travel, accommodation and other expenses);

C

Details and a breakdown of the costs of any training and development courses/programmes attended (including virtually) by the Commissioner and/or her staff in 2019 and 2020 (including fees, travel, accommodation and other expenses);

D

Confirmation of who the courses / programmes in 'C' were provided by.

Response

A

The Children’s Commissioner is a member of the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children (ENOC). The annual cost of membership is 1,100 euros.

The Children’s Commissioner is a member of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives). The annual cost of membership is £150.

Two members of staff maintain registration with Social Work England.

B

During 2019 and 2020 the Commissioner attended five meetings associated with ENOC both in person and virtually.

The total cost of attendance including event fees, travel, accommodation and other expenses was £1,110

C and D

Staff in the Office of the Children’s Commissioner are employees of the States Employment Board and as such attend Government mandatory and non-mandatory training through the Virtual College. This training is at no cost to the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and covers a wide range of topics from Health and Safety, Budget Holder training and Maybo physical intervention training. The Government does not keep centralised records of staff training and therefore it is not possible to report on the mandatory and non-mandatory training undertaken by staff. 

However, please see the attached table detailing additional training that has been sourced and funded by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner.

Staff training