Agenda item

Our Care Ambassadors, Holly, Caitlin and Adam will provide an update to the Board.

The Chair welcomed Adam and Holly to the meeting, who were in attendance to provide an update from the Care experienced Youth Voice.

A brief overview of the groups were provided:

 

'We Matter' (Middlesbrough's Children in Care Council)

 

·        Care experienced young people aged 11 - 16 years meet fortnightly at Easterside Hub 17:00 - 18:30pm. We have five members

 

·        They have fun, have a voice and create events to hear from their care experienced peers

 

·        They share their views with key decision makers who act on what they say and positively change services to meet their needs

 

·        They will support teams to act on what they say and help monitor the 'You Said, We Will, We Did reporting tool

 

·        We meet with young people at their residential homes

 

Older Care Experienced Young People

 

·        We have three older care experienced who have volunteer roles as Care Ambassadors and are co-opted onto the Corporate Parenting Board.

 

·        The Care Ambassadors will support the work of 'We Matter' and create engagement events for their older care experienced peers

 

·        We work with Pathways to support them with their events - Annual celebration event, Christmas dinner and we will engage with their care experienced young adults at the Forum

 

Whilst the report provided full details of the activities for each group, Adam provided the following examples :

 

We Matter

September 2023

The group planned the Teesside engagement event, which then look place on 14 September 2023, where Ralph Presgrave ran a session on staying safe online. 

October 2023

Catherine Prest (Fostering) attended to the group on 3 October and  talked to the group about meeting potential foster carers and delivering training to current carers. We Matter also held a Halloween Party on 27 October 2023, where 49 young people attended.

Older Care Experienced Young People

July/ September 2023

·        Engagement took place with residential services and the group visited staff within homes to discuss plans and focus for their engagement with young people. As a result, engagement with young people within our residential homes has commenced to ensure we capture everyone’s voice.

·        In July, members attended Pathways ‘Core Offer ‘ launch event and in late August, members attended the Regional Children in Care Council to help plan the conference in November.

·        13 September 2023, our New care ambassadors attended Corporate Parenting Board.

October 2023

Care Ambassadors started to attended Pathways Team meetings and spoke to Dawn Alaszewski and Sharon Hetherington regarding their journey in Pathways.

November 2023

1 November-attended the Regional Children in Care conference, along with Dawn Alaszewski and Rob Hamer. Everyone made a pinky promise.

Holly is now working with young people, Pathways and 16+ provision to design and develop a life skills course and accreditation.

 

Adam advised that over the next few months, the groups plan to:

1.      Continue to work with the teams to promote the 'We Matter' group to increase membership and attendance at the engagement and fun events

2.      Have all our care experienced young people/adults set up as volunteers

3.      Create ASDAN awards to provide accreditation for their work and the young people they work with

4.      Work with the Commissioning team to create 'Young Commissioners'

5.      Meet more care experienced young people who live in residential care

6.      Support We Matter and the Care Ambassadors to work with the fostering service to talk with potential foster carers

7.      Involve We Matter and the Care Ambassadors to undertake Regional Children in Care Council work

8.      Hold our Christmas party for care experienced young people - 14th December 5 -7.30pm Riverside Stadium

 

AGREED

That the information be noted.