What is the me2 award?
The award is a kitemark that recognises, promotes and ultimately celebrates inclusive service provision for disabled children and young people throughout the Dudley borough.
Services achieve the me2 award by working through the me2 award standards, which are a series of good practice guidelines that have been developed with a variety of specialist organisations. The me2 award scheme recognises three award areas that reflect the key identified areas of concern: inclusion, environmental access and training monitoring. To achieve the me2 award, settings are required to make adaptations to their service, attend a series of training courses and work towards making their setting as accessible as possible, in order to enable all children to attend. This is done with support from the me2 staff team. The award officer works hand in hand with play, leisure and childcare settings to identify where they comply and areas where training, development and access improvements are required in order to achieve set criteria. The award officer also helps settings to identify sources of funding wherever possible.
me2 supports the development of inclusive service provision for all settings working with young people between the ages of 0 – 19, including statutory youth settings, early years settings, leisure settings voluntary settings, etc.
Who is on the me2 young people's panel?
Up until now, disabled children and young people have rarely - if ever - been asked their views in regard to play, leisure and childcare provision. To address this, training is provided to children and young people - known as me2 young people’s panel members - empowering them to contribute their opinions effectively about how the goals of the project can be achieved. Twenty-seven disabled and non-disabled young people have been trained to support the project by carrying out audits on services to see how welcoming and accessible they are for all children and young people. The panel will award settings they feel are truly inclusive and offer advice and support to settings which need to make improvements to their service.
Then what happens?
All awarded services get press coverage to publicise their success. Their details are shared with local signposting services, (including the Family Information Service, Kids Orchard Information Service and the children's disability register) enabling parents to hear about local inclusive clubs.
This clearly identifies to disabled children and young people and their carers, which play, leisure and childcare providers meet set standards of inclusive childcare practice and hence allows children with additional needs and their parents to make informed choices when looking for suitable play, leisure and childcare settings.
We aim to increase quality and choice in services for disabled children and young people in Dudley borough, ensuring that they will be treated as children and young people first!
How it helps:
The project gives children and young people with a disability more choices and opportunities for playing, learning and developing. In turn, this gives them a greater sense of inclusion in the community.
The me2 award acts as a clear guide for children and young people with a disability, informing them and assisting them in making decisions for themselves rather than having decisions made on their behalf.
Parents know that services they access will be local and have good quality and safe facilities, and that the settings staff are trained to have the awareness required to welcome their children. This helps parents feel more comfortable about leaving their children behind, allowing them to enjoy their short break.
The settings and the people who work in all areas of the settings, also benefit from a real sense of achievement that, for the first time, they are able to respond positively and appropriately to this important and new group of customers.
me2 awarded settings – current list
For a list of settings that have achieved the me2 award please see the attached document at the bottom of the page or visit the me2 directory.
