Agenda item
Update from Care in Action and Care Leavers in Action Representatives
This is an opportunity for members of Care In Action (CIA) and Care Leavers in Action (CLIA) to feedback on recent activity.
Minutes:
A (Care Leavers in Action) advised that she had been involved in the youth inspection project where Care Leavers In Action (CLIA) were able to work alongside other services and meet senior members within Brent to ask tough questions. A had also been involved in the semi-independent accommodation project and had conducted a visit to a placement in semi-independent accommodation. She had been able to speak with the young person placed there and gather their views and feedback. The aim of the project was to improve the lives of people living in semi-independent accommodation. For the future of CLIA, A hoped to reach out to other Boroughs to see how they worked with their young people in care and wanted to focus on mental health, employment, training, and pathway planning.
C (Care Leavers in Action) had also been involved in the youth inspection. C felt that the work care leavers were doing was being seen and taken on board by senior leaders in Brent. The outcome of the project had been presented by young people to the Strategic Director for Children and Young People and Lead Member for Children’s Safeguarding, Early Help and Social Care in Autumn. Subsequent to receiving the report, Onder Beter (Head of LAC and Permanency, Brent Council) had chaired an implementation group which included young people, and the next Committee meeting would receive a summary report of the response and actions taken as a result of the inspection. A new project C was working on with CLIA included looking at mental health services in leaving care services, and also using hypothetical scenarios to test PAs.
L (Care Leavers in Action) highlighted that, at the last Care Leavers in Action (CLIA) session, they had a Christmas party, which had been good but not many people attended. CLIA was trying to engage more people to join and encourage people to see how CLIA could support them.
Tanya Williams (Participation and Engagement Lead, Brent Council) spoke on behalf of a member of Care in Action (CIA) who could not attend the meeting. The young person had been attending CIA for 3 years and had enjoyed the Christmas party. The CIA group were working on recruiting more people to join the group through video messages. The CIA member fed back that holding sessions in the Civic Centre was not suitable for all members and the group were looking into other venues to hold sessions. Gail Tolley (Strategic Director Children and Young People, Brent Council) highlighted that she would be interested to hear more about the reasons CIA were looking at venues outside of Brent Civic Centre and was happy to work with children and young people on that. Tanya Williams advised that views were currently quite mixed, but a trial session had been held at a Family Wellbeing Centre the previous day and a further session would be held there in February. Those sessions would then be reviewed to see if it was the right venue.
The Committee asked the young people present about the focus on mental health, which appeared to be top of the agenda for young people. C responded that mental health was an extremely prevalent issue, not just for care leavers but also those in care, foster care, and all the adjoining sectors linked with care. C highlighted that the current mental health facilities that care leavers had access to were sometimes not trusted or there was a lack staff. C highlighted that over the past 20 years mental health had become a much more vast area and while there were moves in the right direction, he felt mental health services were not completely where they needed to be yet, which was why CLIA wanted to focus attention on that.
In relation to the semi-independent accommodation project, the Committee asked whether care leaver involvement was making a difference to commissioning or placement arrangements. Care leavers advised that from their time in placement to now they had seen a huge improvement. There were things that could be worked on and care leavers were taking the areas young people felt needed more attention and working with the providers and key workers on those areas. Care leavers looked forward to reporting back on the project in the future.
Gail Tolley (Strategic Director Children and Young People, Brent Council) advised that on 12 January 2022 the London Children in Care (CiC) Council held a meeting with a Brent CIA member there as a representative on the London Council. In addition a panel held at the end of the meeting had been successfully facilitated by a Brent Care Leaver. The motto from the meeting from young people across London had been ‘less corporate, more parenting’.
The Committee thanked the representatives for the updates and RESOLVED:
That the updates by the representatives of Care in Action/Care Leavers in Action be noted.