Are you a young person who is in care or left care? Read on …

 

Do you have views about being in care that you want to let people know about?

 

Then you could get involved with the 'council for children looked after'.

                                                                                                            

The ‘council’ is for all young people in care. It is to make sure that directors of children’s services and social care services can listen to the views of young people. The ‘council’ does lots of different things, including:

  • Holds regular meetings between young people in care and directors
  • Runs events like ‘open forums’ for all children and young people in care to come and talk about what matters to them, meet others in care and do fun activities – see Mogozout for details of upcoming events
  • Regularly checks the pledge to children and young people in care to make sure it is happening (see below for info about the pledge)
  • Runs lots of projects involving young people to look at some important things about care and how to make them better. Projects that are taking place from Autumn 09 and throughout 2010 include:

 

  • --Reviews: how do young people feel about reviews? Do they feel that they are listened to and fully involved?

    --Coming into care DVD: What’s it like when you come into care? This DVD will be used to help train social care workers about how things feel for young people

    --Contact with family and friends: Are young people happy with the amount of contact they have with family and friends? How could things be improved?

    --Relationships with social care workers: What do young people think about relationships with social care workers? How could things be better ?

 

 

 

If you’d like to get involved with the ‘council’ the Participation Team would love to hear from you. They can arrange to meet you to find out what you would like to do, whether it’s meeting with the directors, helping to plan events or taking part in one of the projects. You can contact them on 01992 556685, or send an email to councilforchildrenincare@hertscc.gov.uk

 

For lots more information about the ‘council’ visit: the Participation Hub on the Hertsdirect website

 

The pledge to young people in care

 

The pledge is for all young people in care. It is about the things you can expect from Hertfordshire County Council’s Children Schools and Families department. Everyone who helps look after you will do their best to make sure the things in the pledge happen. There are 10 statements in the pledge, and they are all based on things young people said were most important:

 

  • We will protect you and keep you safe
  • We will only share information about you if we are sure it is in your best interest to do so
  • We will listen to what you think when adults are making decisions about you
  • We will help you to keep in touch with family and friends as long as this is safe
  • We will help you have a book with all the important events and people in your life
  • We will make sure you have a social care worker. Your social care worker will do their best to spend time with you and make sure you are being looked after well
  • We will make sure you can take part in things you want to do
  • We will help you move into adulthood
  • We will listen to what you think about how to make being in care better for lots of children

  • We will advise you of what to do if any of your rights are not being upheld

 

Social care workers will be giving the pledge booklets out to young people from autumn 09. You should receive your booklet by the end of January 2010. If you haven’t received a booklet, contact your social care worker to request one or call the Participation Team on 01992 556685. Or you can read or download a booklet below.

 

For more information about all sorts of things to do with being in care visit www.incareinfo.org.uk