Agenda item

Representatives of the Senior In Care Council will give a presentation to the Panel.

Lisa Mukherjee, Participation Development Worker, Off the Record introduced this item and said that representatives of the Senior In Care Council and the B&NES Youth Forum would give two presentations. The presentations will be available on the Panel’s Minute Book and online as an appendix to these minutes. A summary is set out below.

Destiny, Jaz M and Jaz L from the Senior In Care Council addressed the Panel.

What we do

We are a group of young people aged 11-18 who campaign on issues effecting young people looked after in care by BANES. We’d like to tell you about the work we have been doing and some of our campaigns.

Our Approach

We use a ‘You said we did’ approach with everyone we work with. This means we give them feedback about what they are doing well and what they can do even better and then ask them to report back to us on the changes they have made. We are positive and friendly towards everyone we meet and that way they want to work with us.

SICC won Young Volunteer Group of the Year at the Chairman of Bath Awards 2016

Our Campaigns

We promote our campaigns in lots of different ways, for example creating Podcasts with Somer Valley FM.  We also attend the In Care Council Steering Group Meeting and the Corporate Parents meeting so we can tell them what we think and they can help us to make changes. We created a postcard about our group and sent it to all LAC young people.

The Pledge – we monitor the Pledge and discuss with BANES what we think they are doing well and what needs to be built on

We are working on a PSHE Curriculum for Life and have discussed our ideas with Kate Murphy (BANES Anti-Bullying and PSHE Lead).

We fed back the importance of LAC young people’s right to work experience being promoted to them, as a result Virtual Schools put on a work experience event.

We fed back to Corporate Parents about how our confidentiality was being compromised and as a result Ashley Ayre sent out a letter reminding schools of their obligation to respect our confidentiality.

We have been involved in recruitment for roles such as LAC Nurse, Deputy Safeguarding Lead and Participation Commissioner. We have looked at job descriptions, sat on interview panels and fed back to applicants.  We have even offered candidates their jobs.

We ran a creative workshop to speak to Social Work Students about what we look for in a social worker. As part of our involvement in recruitment – we carried out a consultation on what makes a good Social Worker with the JICC and BANES care leavers and created a document which is now featured on the recruitment section of the BANES website.

Podcasts

Last year we launched our Podcasts, created with Somer Valley FM, in which we:

•  Promote SICC and encourage other young people to join their local In Care Council

•  Discuss what it is like to be in care

•  Bust the myths of being in care and talk about our work and campaigns.

If you would like to listen to them they are on the Off the Record Website

IRO’s (Independent Reviewing Officers)

• SICC and JICC altered the forms used by IRO’s.
• We met IRO’s & created a Powerpoint for their team training day.
• As a result the IRO’s have put a reminder out in their letters to young people that they can choose where, when and who attends their review.
• Have promised to promote work experience opportunities.
• Will remind young people they can see their IRO on their own.
• Will make sure young people are happy with the date & time of their next review.
• Will make sure all LAC young people receive the appropriate age LAC pack

Consultations & Commissions

We have taken part in (some as part of BANES Youth Forum):

• Your Care Your Way
• Health Project (run by PHD student who is a Care Leaver)
• Sexual Health Project Research
• Immunisations commission

What Next?

• Make a film/video about being in care which can be used in PSHE lessons.
• Meet the PSHE Leads in schools so they understand why this campaign is so important for us.
• Create a ‘model’ Confidentiality Policy around working with young people in Care that can be used in BANES and beyond…
• I (Jaz M) am also Deputy Member of Youth Parliament and am currently working as part of a team analysing over 800 responses to a Mental Health Survey written and circulated by BANES Youth Forum. I was a key note speaker at Primary Parliament Day and have pledged to go back next year and tell them what changes have been made.

Members of the Youth Forum addressed the Panel.

Make Your Mark

This is the UK’s largest youth consultation.

978, 216 votes were cast nationally.

Curriculum for Life was the top subject matter both locally (776 votes) and nationally (142,471 votes)

Jake Bishop-Ponte said that he attended the House of Commons on the 11th November and spoke during the debate on tackling racial and religious discrimination.

What next?

A member of the Youth Forum said they would discuss as group soon what areas to focus on, whether it would be the two main items from Jake’s manifesto which were Transport and Gender Equality or the issues raised through Make Your Mark.

The Chairman offered his congratulations to all who took part in the presentations.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked how do other Looked After Children find out about your work.

Lisa Mukherjee replied that all IRO letters have details of the In Care Council’s on them.

Councillor Dine Romero asked what the response had been to the postcard campaign.

Jaz L replied that it had been very positive and that through suggestions from Social Workers two young people may be joining the Senior In Care Council.

Jaz M added that the group has helped all its members develop so much.

Councillor Peter Turner asked how they felt about the issue of voting at 16.

Jaz M replied that this is why the Curriculum for Life is so important to enable young people to vote confidently in their own right.

Jake Bishop-Ponte said that it was a very important issue as he pays taxes currently yet has no say in how they are spent. He added that he hoped that the Council would support young people as they progress the issues raised.

Dawn, a member of the public, recalled that when her son was at school that not many children discussed their problems with members of the School Council and would talk to him instead. She asked how many of the young people were aware of safeguarding issues.

Lisa Mukherjee replied that Off The Record explains confidentiality to all the young people that it works with.