The Children's Rights in Early Years Network

The Children's Rights in Early Years Network (CREYN) is a network of academics, practitioners, policy makers and third sector organisations, which is coordinated by Dr Jacky Tyrie in the in the Department of education and Childhood Studies and by Anna Westall at Children in Wales. The network draws together, those with an interest in young children’s rights to share knowledge and work together, in order to: improve accessibility of research, develop a forum for future research activity, deliver a stronger advocacy for the rights of young children, exchange knowledge between professionals and to support the development of an evidence-base to better understand young children’s rights.

Network meetings take place every two months online, for further information please email Dr Jacky Tyrie.

The aims of the CREY Network are:

To bridge the gap between practice, policy and research
To improve accessibility of research, policy and practical experiences by providing a forum for practice, policy and academic communities to meet and work together
To develop a forum through which future research activity, that is collaborative and cross-sector in nature may be generated. That members learn about children’s rights and are able to deliver a stronger advocacy for the rights of young children across their areas of work
To exchange knowledge between professionals who share interests in the rights of young children, making sure that the knowledge shared identifies best practice and pertinent issues
To support the development of an evidence-base to better understand young children’s rights in Wales and includes the views of young children

Group membership

Any professional with an interest in children’s rights may become a member. Membership is for as long as the member is interested. All members will be asked to write a brief ‘Pen portrait’ to be shared online.

To reduce the size of meetings, most meetings will be themed so members can attend those meetings which they deem relevant.

For further information please contact either, Dr. Jacky Tyrie, email: j.tyrie@swansea.ac.uk or Anna Westall (Policy Officer), e-mail: anna.westall@childreninwales.org.uk

RAISING AWARENESS OF CHILDREN’S RIGHTS

The recently published strategy sets out the plan on how Welsh Government will raise awareness of the UNCRC in Wales until the end of 2023.

The CREY Network has a specific mention under the Early Years section:

..Support the children’s rights early years network. We will support this network to bring together key stakeholders to share good children’s rights practice.

We are keen to build on this and develop stronger links with Welsh Government and allow a more active role for the CREYN. https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2021-11/raising-awareness-of-childrens-rights.pdf