Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda item

Agenda item

Future Work and Support Required

Minutes:

Future events included a Fun Day on 15 July and the planning of the 10 year anniversary of having a Children in Care Council.

 

A conference was being planned by Who Cares We Care, Speak Out and Tom Baker Price, to allow Worcestershire Corporate Parents and other participants to have a better understanding of the lives of Looked After Children.

 

During Care Leavers week (24-31 October) people would be invited to take up the challenge of surviving on the same amount of money that Care Leavers in receipt of benefits received.

 

Who Cares We Care would be working with the Virtual School to help them to create a new website. They would also be working with housing to improve the use of terminology to ensure care leavers were not labelled as homeless.

 

 

Reflections on what it is like to be in Care.

 

 

The young people present shared their own experiences of being in care with the board.

 

Headline points:

 

·       Comments were made about the database, frameworki. They did not like the fact that their full history was available to everyone who had access to the database, especially as sometimes they wished to forget about their past

·       Some of the young people had had a poor experience with their social workers

·       They said being in care made you feel detached and institutionalised. It felt as though decisions about you were made at meetings and the young people were not clear what influence their carers had in decisions about them

·       There was an issue for the young people when their social worker or Personal Assistant was off and what back up arrangements there were and who they should contact

 

Following the thoughts from the young people Board members made some comments:

 

·       A Board Member who was a District and County Councillor wished to assure the young people that Councillors were available as corporate parents and would do their best to help. A Councillor from outside the Board asked if all Looked After Children and Care Leavers were given the name of their local Councillors. It was clarified that they were not given out as a matter of course but the District events helped to advertise the role of Councillors and identify them to the young people. It was also suggested that Councillors could add details of their corporate parenting responsibilities to their leaflets

·       Tina Russell, the Assistant Director, Children's Social Care said she would take back and consider how it must feel to know your entire life was on file and how Social Workers needed to consider this in how they worked with young people

·       A Board member said he was moved and disappointed that the Looked After Children and Care Leavers were not having a better time. He felt that Councillors had been told how much things were improving but it appeared that the young people were not seeing those improvements – he asked when that would happen

·       Tina Russell replied that things had improved but she couldn’t give a date for when everyone would see the full improvement. Hearing the comments at the meeting added to their knowledge which would help them to continue making improvements

·       Sally Clewes felt that the staff in Children's Services wanted to serve the young people of Worcestershire. She knew the Council was working hard to improve and staff and Councillors needed to work together with Young People to achieve that

·       The Director said she had valued the experiences shared that day and was committed to continuing the improvement for all Children and Young People. She had heard from other young people who had had good social workers and the Board had previously heard good news stories. She wanted to reassure the Young People and the Board that the bad experiences shared at the meeting would be heard.

 

Andy Roberts thanked the representatives of Who Cares, We Care and Speak Out for presenting a clearer picture to the Board of what it felt like to be a looked after child or care leaver. He hoped that Councillors could be of help to young people but did point out that they may change every 4 years depending on the results of elections. He felt the Board was making progress with their learning.