www.nairo.org.uk ## **Chairs Annual Report for NAIRO AGM 28th April 2023** This has been another busy year for NAIRO when we have made further progress in achieving our charitable objectives of promoting the welfare of children in care. ## **The Children’s Social Care Review** The care review has occupied most of our time and energy and we have worked extensively with colleagues and partners to state our case for retaining the IRO role. We prepared a carefully argued case, setting out why the abolition of the IRO role would be unwise and dangerous, as well as including ideas for strengthening the role. Here is the link to that report. Social-care-review-NAIRO-Response-Ocober-22.pdf We communicated with ministers, civil servants, care review members and a number of potentially interested parties. We had a number of meetings including one with shadow minister Helen Hayes MP organised by patron Emma Lewell-Buck. Trustees and patrons alike were involved on a number of levels. We hosted webinars for members to seek views and feed back. We are grateful to a number of organisations for their support in this campaign, including Article 39, the Alliance for Children in Care and Care Leavers, BASW, the Interdisciplinary Alliance for Children, Coram Voice and NYAS. Our patrons Munira Wilson MP and Emma Lewell-Buck MP were very helpful in raising the issues in Parliament. The care review proposed abolition yet this was one recommendation that the government chose not to support and I think we can be confident that our campaign was a critical factor in this decision. The campaign was a huge success but this is the beginning of a process and we now need to focus on how to improve and strengthen the role. NAIRO has been part of a working subgroup which held three meetings at the request of the DfE expert working group and fed back to that main group on the journey of the child through the care system. NAIRO has been invited to be a part of the expert working group which will ensure that we have input throughout the process. There will be some work done on the IRO role and NAIRO are to be involved in this process once it is in place. We anticipate that this will be the main area of work and focus in the coming year. ## **Annual Conference** We have not held a conference since the online one in March 2021. The focus has been on the care review and resources have not permitted consideration of a conference which takes a huge amount of time to organise. We will continue to review this. **Training** In the last year we have offered 4 training events, 2 for new or aspiring IROs and to in relation to effective challenge. Attendance was good and feedback was positive The new board of trustees will be establishing the training programme for next year which will be published on our website. ## **New Trustees** We are always looking for new trustees and if you are interested please do get in touch. We meet about four times a year to organise the activity of NAIRO. We are particularly looking for - people with website expertise - people with social media expertise - people interested in training - people interested in conference organisation - people interested in developing policy and practice Please do get in touch with us at info@nairo.org.uk if you would like to help in this way If you have any ideas about for NAIRO development or improvement, please do post them on the Google group members forum or email us at info@nairo.org.uk ## **Conclusion** We believe, in spite of the difficulties, we have achieved much to protect and promote the rights and welfare of children in care, and we hope to be influential in improving IRO services over the next year. See our website for more information www.nairo.org.uk Good luck for next year! ## **Paul Smart and Jon Fayle** ## **Co-chairs of NAIRO** ## **April 2023** Created 15 June 2023 From Date 1 April 2022 To Date 31 March 2023 ## **NAIRO Profit & Loss Statement** **(All values reported in GBP)** ## **Turnover** |4010
Memberships
4011
Training
4900
Miscellaneous Income
**Total Turnover**
**Less Cost of Sales**||6,150.36
1,833.75
8.50
**7,992.61**| |---|---|---| |||| |**Total Cost of Sales**
**Gross Profit**
**Less Expenses**||**0.00**
**7,992.61**| |6003
Support Services
7501
Postage and Carriage
7506
Hosting Fees and IT Consumables
7507
Website Maintenance
7901
Bank Charges
**Total Expenses**
**Profit Before Tax**|(6,865.88)
(319.56)
(146.25)
(100.00)
(418.44)
**(7,850.13)**
**142.48**|| ||||