On Tuesday 25 October last month three of our children from our Children in Care council, Our Voice, Listen Up! attended Coram Voice’s Amplify event in Manchester. This fantastic conference was attended by almost 100 care experienced children and young people and the day celebrated the amazing work done by Children in Care Councils, held workshops with Ofsted and the Department of Education on things that mattered to children and young people, launched the new ‘Support Our Journey’ mental health campaign and held the A National Voices awards.
It was a wonderful, jam-packed day with energy from all young people across England, so really was something special to be a part of. Our young people who attended had a great time interacting with the organisers, and getting to know other young people from all around the country. One particular poignant activity, facilitated by the Department of Education asked the question of “Loving relationships within the care system (DfE). No young person should leave care without at least two loving relationships, by 2027. What does children’s social care need to do to achieve this?”.
This raised some interesting points by all council, on why should look-after-children only heave care with a minimum of two relationships, why not 10, 20 or even more? One of our young people, Matt, raised the point of a professionality barrier being a possible cause of this, between looked-after-children and childcare offers in residential homes. For example not being able to hug the young people; these discussions across the councils created a real problem-solving environment which was embraced by all.
Ebony, one of our young people who attended said “The activities were really good on paper, but it would have been good to have an interesting activity like building something, would have been better.”
Matt, our young person said “It was a very good event. I really liked how all of us across the councils were allowed to express our opinions and feelings, importantly without the bureaucracy from adults who try to water down our feelings and voices.”
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