Newcastle joins forces with Unicef to become Child Friendly City

Newcastle City Council has been selected as one of the first local authorities in the UK to team up with Unicef to become a Child Friendly City.

The three-year partnership will see Newcastle working to become a city that puts children’s rights first and proudly supports all children to grow up healthy, safe and resilient.

The collaboration will focus on embedding the voices, experiences and rights of children into decision-making, governance and local services in order to positively impact all children in the city.

Newcastle was selected as one of only three other cities in the UK to work with Unicef, along with the London Borough of Barnet, to create a network of four partners.

They join a network of cities in more than 20 countries across the world.

Newcastle was selected to partner with Unicef after it demonstrated a clear vision, commitment to children’s rights and understanding of where improvements could be made.

The city council will now work with partners to develop six ‘badges’ they will work on over the next three years. Each badge represents progress in a specific area of work and the successful completion of each badge will mark progress toward recognition as a Unicef Child Friendly City.

Nora Casey, cabinet member for Children and Young People, said: “We are thrilled to have been selected by Unicef to partner them and make Newcastle a Child Friendly City.

“This matches our ambitions for the city perfectly, we want to make Newcastle a place that works for all our young people, helping them to achieve their goals and reach their full potential.

“I am looking forward to hearing the views of the young people attending our discovery journey and working with them to shape the plans that will help us reach Child Friendly Status over the next three years.

“We know that this is going to be a challenge, but one that I am confident we can achieve with our partners Unicef and key organisations across the city.”

Naomi Danquah, director of the Child Friendly Cities Programme at Unicef, said: “We are delighted to welcome Newcastle to the programme.

“At a time when councils are having to make tough choices about the delivery of local services, it’s essential that all children, particularly the most vulnerable, are supported, protected and able to flourish.

“Newcastle has made a bold commitment to work towards recognition as a Child Friendly City and to begin embedding children’s human rights across its services over the next three years. We look forward to collaborating with the council to help realise this ambition.”