Children in Care Council

Brief Description/Aims of the Group:  

The CICC is a group available to all children and young people who are looked after by the local authority. The overall aim of the group is to effect changes to the standard of care which they receive from the County Council. They aim to do this by researching all looked after children and young people’s views and engaging in dialogue about this with senior managers including the Corporate Director and the Lead Councillor. This will ensure that children and young people feel valued and listened to and will improve their daily life experience. Members of the CICC are also involved in staff development training, recruitment and selection of staff and other developmental work across the service.

Location of work: 

County Durham

Meeting Times and Dates:

The CICC meet monthly as a minimum (usually at the IiC office) with extra meeting dates added when necessary. The group meet at 5.30- 6.30pm unless a different time is agreed.                     

Work to Date:

Current areas of work and development:

• Regular Agenda days throughout the year. This will generate ideas and areas to change on a regular basis and keep the discussion fresh.

• Young People’s input into the Delegated Responsibility debate. Overnight stays and rules regarding mobile phones are just two of the issues which children and young people feel could be discussed and the current systems could be adapted to improve their lives.

• “We should be listened to and allowed to take part in decisions made about our individual lives” This is heard time and time again from children and young people. Through discussion it is clear that some young people believe many social workers are too busy to build relationships with them, decisions are made without discussion with them, they feel that adults aren’t truthful etc. Suggestions put forward to address this issue include young people being involved in recruitment, selection and training of social workers, foster carers and residential staff, and on the 24^th February 2011 a group of young people from the CICC will deliver a training session to Social Work team mangers entitled ‘Key messages from young people’

• Moving placements in an emergency: The young people have designed a profile card for foster carers to complete which will be held by the emergency duty team and within the placements team. A copy of this card will be given to a child or young person on their journey to an emergency placement. This is in response to young people describing how frightening it is when you turn up at a house and don’t know anything about the person who opens the door or even what they look like.

• Anti- Bullying development work: Bullying was discussed during the idea’s morning in relation to foster children and foster carers own children. I became apparent that all children and young people could benefit from support around issues of bullying which can be transferred into any setting in their life. The Fostering Service and the Anti- bullying Service met with myself to discuss these issues and agreed that Tom Cunningham from the Anti-bullying Service would deliver ZAP training (assertiveness and anti- bullying training) to children and young people who are part of a fostering family. The anti- bullying service will also deliver regular training to foster carers and the young people from the CICC are currently working on the anti- bullying policy which will be implemented across the fostering service.

• Review meetings: The young people are keen to work with the reviewing officers to look at ways to remove the barriers which prevent children and young people from attending their reviews.

• Foster Carer Reviews: The CICC were asked to look at the young people’s questionnaire for the foster carer review, and amend and update it. Foster carers’ own children were also involved in a group session to look at their document. Draft questionnaires are currently being looked at by the management team.

• Art Strategy and Tech Max: The CICC are taking part in the Tech Max project. This is an art and culture based project funded by Generation 2012, Legacy Trust UK programme. Tech Max have given an amount of money to us for the young people to experience various cultural and artist experiences and learn new skills with a view to performing these in summer 2011 and summer 2012 (eve of the Olympics’)

• Freedom Card: The CICC will be involved in the regular review and expansion of the Freedom Card scheme and venues.

• Fostering Network Contact consultation: Fostering Network approached the CICC to gain their views on contact. This will inform a good practice guidance document being produced by Fostering Network.

• Regional Children in Care Council meeting: One young person from the group took part in a regional meeting in January 2011 with the Department of Education and a National Voice. They are reviewing and reporting to government on the development and progress of CICC nationally. The young person who attended was able to share what developments the County Durham CICC were working on and listen to what has been happening regionally.

• Who Care’s Trust: The Trust have approached the CICC to take part in a piece of national young person’s research which will inform the development of a new Childline service which will be available to Looked After Children and young people nationally. This research will take place on the 5^th March 2011 and they will consult with 25 children and young people aged 8-18 years.

• The Associate Parliamentary group for Looked After Children and Care Leavers: We have been invited to take part in these meetings which are held during key months in the parliamentary calendar and are attended by members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, representatives of voluntary organisations, childcare professionals and people who are currently in care or have past personal experience of the care system. It is hoped that the interested members of the CICC will be able to attend one meeting during 2011.

• Links with participation groups across SASS: It has been agreed by colleagues across SASS that any issues arising in the FLAC group, M8’s group, young people’s participation group and the Girls group will be shared with the CICC for them to discuss, research further and share with senior managers.

Workers Name and Contact details: 

Camilla Hunter

Tel: 03000 261506

Camilla.hunter@durham.gov.uk

Reports/Articles:

Available on request