Agenda item

This is an opportunity for members of Brent Care Journeys 2.0 (BCJ 2.0) to feedback on recent activity.

The Chair welcomed representatives from Brent Care Journeys 2.0 (BCJ 2.0), now known as BCJ Empire, to the meeting and invited them to provide updates from the group.

SA and N presented the recent launch of the Empire Care Leavers Group, showcasing photos and videos from the launch event and the logo, which everyone had contributed to. J took the Committee through the resourcing involved in the project and the various consultation and design stages, which had all been undertaken by young people and voted on by young people. The launch event had taken place in The Base and had been open for both staff and guests with good attendance. The next steps for the project would be to acquire a safe space, undertake further recruitment to Empire, and launch the Trusted Buddies project. The Group was also planning for the Summer Fun Day. 

N updated the Committee on the recent World Social Work Day event that she and other care leavers had been part of, where they had led a resilience activity which she presented videos and photos from. 

In relation to Trusted Buddies, S was looking to set up a leadership programme to enhance the leadership skills of Empire Care Leavers which would align with the Trusted Buddies project and also enhance public speaking skills, hosting and team bonding. A survey had now been disseminated to garner interest in the projects. 

SA informed the Committee that Empire would be visiting semi-independent providers to recruit more young people and would be raising awareness of Empire through social workers and personal advisors to encourage more young people to get involved.

S presented to the Committee regarding the Family Justice Young People Board, of which she was a member. She advised that the focus of the Board was to give a voice to others, and the priorities of the Board for 2025-2028 were; improving young people’s participation in proceedings; helping professionals understand how Domestic Abuse affected children and ensuring all types of abuse and harmful parenting was considered; ensuring children knew their rights and there was a focus on children growing up safe and happy; and reducing delays in family courts to give children certainty and safe final decisions. The Board would be hosting their annual conference called Voice of the Child over the coming months. S had been involved in planning the conference, including agreeing the theme (children’s rights), ensuring the conference reflected what was important to young people currently, agreeing roles for the day including interview panel members, theme leads and bringing in experts with the biggest impact, agreeing content and creating a physical resource to bring the conference to life. The previous year saw over 1,000 attendees, with Dr Jahnine Davis (National Kinship Care Ambassador), representatives from the Ministry of Justice, representatives from the DfE, and Justice Harris from the family courts participating in interviews. S invited Committee members to attend this year’s conference and would share the relevant information with the Committee. Kelli Eboji added that there was a need to do some targeted advertising of the conference to ensure that social workers in the family court space attended.

The Chair congratulated Brent Care Journeys on the productive term, and commended the work being done to build the group and gain participation. 

As no further issues were raised, the Chair thanked Empire Care Leavers for their updates and closed the item.