Children’s Legal Centre Wales has been named Most Influential Small Charity at the Welsh Charity Awards, recognising a decade of work to advance children’s rights, legal education and access to justice across Wales.
The award comes at a significant moment in our journey. Ten years ago, our founder and Chair of Trustees, Jane Williams, identified a gap in Wales and began building a vision for a dedicated Children’s Legal Centre. Following eight successful years as a project hosted by Swansea University, and just 18 months after becoming an independent organisation, we are delighted to see this work recognised on a national stage.
We are hugely grateful to WCVA for hosting the awards, to the Lloyds Bank Foundation for sponsoring the category, and to our many partners, supporters and funders who have helped us reach this milestone.
While we are proud of this recognition, the award belongs equally to the children and young people whose experiences shape our work every day.
A Year of Growing Impact
As a small organisation, our focus has always been on achieving meaningful change for children and young people across Wales.
Over the past year, our policy and advocacy work has continued to influence national conversations on children’s rights, child justice and access to support.
Our Policy Lead, Dr Rhian Croke, recently submitted extensive evidence to the Senedd’s Early Years, Children, Young People and Education Committee setting out priorities for the 7th Senedd. The submission brought together recommendations across children’s rights incorporation, education, mental health, child poverty, youth justice, housing, asylum and access to justice.
Alongside this, we have:
- Contributed to national calls for the full incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into Welsh law.
- Successfully pressed Senedd Committees to revisit recommendations affecting care-experienced children and children subject to Deprivation of Liberty Orders.
- Worked with partners to highlight the impact of child poverty, including promoting evidence-based approaches such as the Scottish Child Payment.
- Influenced debate around policing and children’s rights, including concerns relating to Taser use on children and calls to end the strip-searching of children.
- Contributed evidence to the Senedd’s work on children who are “missing on the margins”, including issues affecting children vulnerable to exploitation, exclusion and barriers to support.
- Published briefings on issues ranging from the age of criminal responsibility to the use of facial recognition technology and its impact on children.
- Worked with partners to strengthen support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, with Welsh Government committing to explore the development of a guardianship service.
For a small charity, these achievements demonstrate the power of combining legal expertise, children’s rights and evidence from young people’s lived experiences.
Launching a New Era of Legal Education
Alongside our policy work, we are preparing to launch one of our most ambitious education projects to date. We have developed a new suite of bilingual legal education resources for secondary schools across Wales. The resources cover issues that young people told us matter most to them, including:
- Mental Health
- Identity and discrimination
- Family relationships
- The cost-of-living crisis
- Environment and pollution
We believe children need more than an understanding of their rights. They also need to understand the laws, systems and institutions that affect their lives. When young people know how the law works, they are better equipped to advocate for themselves, challenge unfairness, participate in democracy and make informed decisions.
To celebrate the launch of these resources, we will be hosting 2 special event at Swansea and Bangor University bringing together young people, educators, lawyers, policymakers and children’s rights professionals. As well as the launch of the resources the event will explore why legal literacy matters and how schools can play a vital role in helping young people understand the law.
We warmly encourage anyone with an interest in children’s rights, education or access to justice to join us.
Looking Ahead: Why Wales Needs Children’s Lawyers
While receiving this award is a proud moment, it also reminds us how much work remains to be done.
Every week we hear from children and young people with questions about school exclusions, additional learning needs, policing, discrimination, family relationships, online harms and many other issues with a legal dimension. Many do not know where to turn for help.
Through our research, education work and engagement with children and families, we continue to see clear evidence of the need for a dedicated children’s legal advice service in Wales.
Creating that service remains one of our long-term ambitions.
We want a Wales where children can:
- Understand their rights.
- Access reliable legal information.
- Influence decisions that affect their lives.
- Obtain specialist legal advice when they need it.
The award recognises how far we have come. Our focus now is on building the next chapter.
If you would like to learn more about why this work matters, we encourage you to read our Why Children in Wales Need Lawyers blog series and explore the growing case for a dedicated children’s legal advice service for Wales.
We’re incredibly proud of what has been achieved so far, but even more excited about what comes next.