Agenda item

The board will receive an update from our care experienced young people on activity between February- August 2023.

The Chair welcomed Adam, Holly and Caitlin to the meeting. The 3 care experienced young people had become care ambassadors and had been co-opted onto the Board.

 

Adam firstly outlined that Middlesbrough's Participation Team facilitates open, safe, and inclusive spaces for care experienced young people to tell us what is important to them. The team capture this information and support them to tell officers and councillors so you can improve the support they and others receive.

 

There were currently two groups which were supported:

 

'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

 

The young people provided an update in relation to the groups between February- August 2023. Whilst all the updates were outlined in the report, below are a number of examples given:

 

Adam firstly outlined that Middlesbrough's Participation Team facilitates open, safe, and inclusive spaces for care experienced young people to tell us what is important to them. We capture this information and support them to tell you so you can improve the support they and others receive.

 

There were currently two groups which were supported:

 

'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. There are 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

 

Over the next few months the young people plan to:

 

·       Continue to work with the teams to promote the We Matter group to increase membership and attendance at the engagement events

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

·       Create ASDAN awards to provide accreditation for their work

·       Work with the Commissioning team to create 'Young Commissioners'

·       Have the new Care Ambassadors attend the Corporate Parenting Board - 13th September

·       Hold a fun engagement event at Teesside University - Looking at Safety - 14th September

·       Meet more care experienced young people who live in residential care

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

·       Work with the fostering service to put on a 'Halloween' event - 31st October

·       Involve We Matter and the Care Ambassadors to undertake Regional Children in Care Council work- the first event is on the 1 November 2023.

·       Work with Virtual school to create a music group

·       Invite our care experienced young people with special educational needs and disabilities to attend the Choice event - 7th November

·       Hold a Christmas party for care experienced young people.

Following the presentation the Mayor advised that the input the young people had been invaluable to the interview process of the DSO for children’s services. He also queried whether they felt they were listened to and able to have an influence on decision making.

 

In response, the young people felt that they were but there was always room to improve. Example of this were being able to visit residential homes, introduction of ‘you said, we will, we did’ and able to participate in regional activities.

 

The Care Ambassadors asked the Board for officer presence at the Regional Children in care meeting in November and this would be discussed and representative would attend.

 

AGREED

That the update be noted.