Agenda item

This is an opportunity for members of BCJ 2.0 to feedback on activity over the last quarter and facilitate discussion on issues pertinent to Brent children and young people with Members. This will include a progress update on co-produced work relating to our Bright Spots Action Plan.

The Chair welcomed representatives from Brent Care Journeys 2.0 (BCJ 2.0) to the meeting and invited them to provide updates from the group. Prior to hearing from each of the young people present, the Chair advised that this would be J’s final meeting with BCJ 2.0 and offered thanks for his involvement over the years. The Committee wished J well for the future.

K advised that she had recently worked with Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Community Development, Brent Council) and Palvinder Kudhail (Director for Early Help and Social Care, Brent Council) to interview candidates for Heads of Service roles, which had been a great experience for those involved.

N updated the Committee on summer activities, advising members of the summer fun day that took place in August 2025 for foster carers, looked after children and care leavers. There had been a DJ, food and drink, gifts, a bouncy castle and a ball pit.

NA updated the Committee on the residential trip that BCJ 2.0 had taken and presented some pictures from the trip. Activities included a farm visit, axe throwing, and pedalo rides which the organisation running the residential had offered for free. 

S informed the Committee of the Ikea Day that BCJ 2.0 had undertaken following the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and School’s lobbying for care packages. Those who had attended had been able to make suggestions to the care packages such as a laundry box, kitchen appliances, cutlery, crockery, towels, pillows and lights and the care packages included a living Bonsai tree. The Group presented a video of the day working with Ikea, which had included workshops where BCJ 2.0 learned more about the Company and its values. Following the day, Ikea was now looking to partner with Brent to provide jobs for care leavers, and NA highlighted that it seemed like a good place to work with good benefits.

The Group then made a presentation to the Committee outlining their wants to make BCJ 2.0 a success moving forward. Care leavers had come together across 5 workshops to design the BCJ 2.0 brand, with the aim to take control and ownership of their community, brand and identity. The group had brainstormed what their values were and what they wanted to stand for to create a name, logo and motto. Some of those values were around respect and feeling heard. The agreed name was currently ‘Empire Care Leavers’, and a logo  had been designed representing a building with ladders towards a flag to represent care leavers building something together and reaching their highest potential. The motto was ‘Empire believe in better’ which BCJ 2.0 hoped would give care leavers hope towards a bright future and empower each other.

In outlining the new brand, the Group highlighted the importance of having their own identity, but the need to also consider younger groups, so care leavers would work with younger children to co-design their own brand and ideas that would link and co-align with Empire Care Leavers. A workshop to do that was scheduled during the October half term.

The Group had agreed to meet in person every 2 weeks going forward and virtually every week to plan activity. They were hoping to make care packages for care leavers in prison for Christmas and birthdays and start a mentoring programme for young people based on having an older and younger ‘sibling’ who would do activities together.

As a call to action to the Committee, the Group asked the Council to prioritise an increased budget for this work. This could be put towards branded hoodies and other merchandise, and, most importantly to them, a dedicated space for care leavers where they could relax, work, study, plan events and talk together.

Kelli Eboji highlighted that, corporately, the participation budget was limited and, whilst a certain amount of money was set aside, it was not large. She asked Committee members to reach out to organisations within Brent or to inform the service if they knew of any organisations that could provide materials that could then be branded or printing services for less. Members agreed to reach out with their contacts and consider other fundraising activities to fund the proposals.

The Chair thanked BCJ 2.0 representatives for their updates and invited comments and questions from the Committee, with the following points raised:

In relation to the request for a dedicated space for care leavers, Kelli Eboji highlighted that the Curve space on the third floor of the Civic Centre had been given to young people and there was a want to improve that space for young people, but there were also potential spaces in other areas that could be considered. BCJ 2.0 expressed that there would need to be significant adjustments to the Curve space to make it practicable, as the space was sometimes used externally meaning young people did not have access to it. The space was also very open and used by many, meaning there was no ownership of it by BCJ 2.0. They did not want their space to be a professional space but more like a common room that they had permanent and reserved access to with bean bags and comfortable areas. It was agreed that Nigel Chapman and Palvinder Kudhail would attend a fortnightly meeting of BCJ 2.0 to talk about the specific requests and the options available.

BCJ 2.0 asked whether there had been any progress in the request to look at discounted driving lessons for care leavers. They advised that Barnet Council had a partnership with driving schools where they offered free or discounted driving lessons, so Brent could reach out to their counterparts to learn how they had achieved this. Kelli Eboji advised that she would look into this and feed back to BCJ 2.0 before the next Committee meeting.

As no further issues were raised, the Chair thanked BCJ 2.0 for their updates and closed the item.