1 At present, FICE has very few policies on matters of professional concern. If an outsider asks what FICE stands for, or what it believes is good practice on a specific subject, we cannot give clear answers on most subjects. The main policies prepared by FICE over recent years have been the Malmö Declaration, the Hadasseh-Neurim Statement on training and the Code of Ethics report (which is now translated into Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, Catalan and Russian, as well as the three official FICE languages). It was therefore decided at the last Federal Council meeting to set up a project to draw up FICE policies on key areas of concern, along the lines of the EFCW position papers.

2 Policies may be about :

- issues of current concern on which FICE wishes to state its views (such as the position of young women and girls in society, raised by IGfH recently)

- good practice, laying out standards which FICE believes should be maintained.

The sorts of subjects which policies could cover are :

- bullying, sex education, equal opportunities / diversity, HIV/AIDS, confidentiality, violence, services for gypsies / Roma people, adventure holidays, the use of secure accommodation for children, the integration of disabled children into ordinary schools,
dietary needs of children, assessing children's needs, the importance of play, and so on.

There are dozens more topics and these are only examples.

3 In order to avoid wasting time by repeating work which has already been done, it will be helpful if members of FICE are prepared to make available to FICE-International any policies which they have drawn up in their country or agency and which they believe would be a good basis for FICE's policies. At this stage it will not be necessary to translate any of the policies.

4 When the range of policies available is clear, it should be possible to decide :

(a) which policies are likely to need very little editing and could be translated into the three official FICE languages for presentation to the Federal Council for approval;

(b) which subjects are covered in a number of policies presented by members where different views are represented, and discussion is needed (perhaps through a working party) to draft a combined FICE International approach;

(c) where there are gaps which FICE International needs to fill.

Action

5 I would therefore be grateful if members could :

(a) email copies of policies to me which they wish to offer to FICE-International, or

(b) bring copies of the policies to Berlin.

6 I will report orally at the Berlin Federal Council if necessary, and will discuss with Federal Council members the contents of the policies they have offered.

7 If this process works, it should be possible to propose policies for adoption at Federal Councils from then on.

David C. Lane
Vice President

17th August 2002