Support for care experienced children and young people in care and care leavers. Information on corporate parenting, the children in care council, supported lodgings and children’s homes.
Every child needs a stable loving family to grow up in, but for different reasons this isn’t always possible. We aim to help families to stay together where we can. When this is not possible, we provide care in other ways.
The ‘Get LOUD’ Participation Team offers a range of opportunities and activities for Children and Young People in North Lincolnshire. The focus is to build confidence and self-esteem and empower and support young people to share their experiences of care to ensure quality, consistency, and good practice.
The groups come together monthly to share views and experiences. The aim is to help us to continually reflect and gain their feedback on what’s going well and what’s not going so well in their lives to enable us to continue to reshape services.
This is an overarching group of young people that oversee all activity and all groups and represent and report to senior managers on a regular basis. They also feedback to the other larger groups.
If a service has a document, they would like us to look at and decide if its ok or not for children and young people it needs to be through the ‘We Say It’s OK’ process.
The aim of the Voice and Participation Groups is to discuss important issues for young people in care in a fun and creative way. If you would like to meet other young people and make a difference by sharing your views and ideas, then this is the group for you! We have two groups; under 12’s and over 12’s
When North Lincolnshire Council is hiring staff to work with children and young people, it’s important that young people are involved. Your experience of for example having your own social worker, is invaluable to help make sure the right person gets the job!
Basically, we get asked to create our own questions and do some fun tasks too, we do it together in a supportive little team, so don’t worry you wouldn’t be on your own! This is good for your CV and will also help to boost your confidence and experience. Plus, you’ll get a GIFT VOUCHER for helping.
After all the interviews have taken place, the professionals who are also interviewing will listen to your feedback and a decision will be made on who will be offered the job. We like to say our involvement should be at least 20% of the overall score.
Before taking part in the interview panels, you’ll be given training and support from The Participation Team.
Want to get involved?
Contact us by:
Email: participationteam@northlincs.gov.uk
Call: 01724 298277 or speak to your social worker, carer or PA
It’s nice to BEE-YOURSELF outside of the meetings and have fun and socialise together. Members of this groups help decide what we do, and in the past, we have done things like creating Poems/Music, Cooking Classes, Residential Trips, Our Annual Celebratory Show at The Baths Hall and many more.
This group is for any young person aged 16 and above who have care experience. The aim of the group is to provide a safe space to have some fun and to share experiences, this is so valuable because it can help improve services for ALL young people. We would love to hear from you.
Whether you live with a foster carer, in a residential home or whether you live in or outside the North Lincolnshire area, your ideas can make a big difference.
Taking part in our GET LOUD Groups may help you gain new skills, meet new friends, and make a difference for children in care and care leavers. You can also help to shape and reshape the services that you access.
Contact us by:
Email: participationteam@northlincs.gov.uk
Call: 01724 298277 or speak to your social worker, carer or PA
We understand that not everybody wants to take part all the time… and that is OK. If you don’t want to join or attend our group’s you can still have your say by speaking to the Advocacy Team.
Email: myvoicematters@northlincs.gov.uk
Advocacy Team: 01724 298505
As a care experienced child or young person you will have access to the all the same health and wellbeing support as your friends and family members, which will include GP’s dentist, and opticians. Up until the age of 18, you will have yearly health assessments completed by our care experienced nursing team and these will support in keeping you healthy and well.
We understand that care experienced children and young people may need extra support, and there are different services to offer this, including:
We will support you into adulthood to make sure that health services are accessible and continue to meet your needs.
We want to make sure you feel supported in the places you learn and you enjoy your experiences. Within schools and other settings there are ‘Designated Teachers’ to support you and make you’re your education needs are met.
The Virtual School is a team within the council that support care experienced children and young people within their education.
Care experienced children and young people will have a termly Personal Education Plan – this will be a meeting you can attend alongside your parents/carers, Social Worker, Virtual School and Designated Teachers. The meeting will give the time to discuss your likes, dislikes, progress and targets, alongside how we can support to achieve your potential.
There is also additional funding available to care experienced children and young people which schools can apply directly for. This is called pupil premium.
We know how important is for children and young people in care to spend time with their family members. Family time may be supervised by people working for the council. We have worked with our Get Loud Group to make sure our family time centre is child friendly and has everything you need to enjoy your time together. We will ask your views around who you want to spend time with, where and when.
The council and partners take on the role of a corporate parent to support and care for children and young people who are care experienced.
Corporate parents aim to make sure children and young people have the same opportunities, love, and support that any good parent would provide, such as education, health, safety, and chances to enjoy life and prepare for the future.
Corporate Parents provide young people with opportunities to see what different jobs are really like. Go behind the scenes, meet friendly staff, and sometimes work with customers. These experiences can be short and fun, just a morning or a whole day, or they can last a few hours spread over several months.
There are so many interesting things to try. Helping families, creating awesome social media posts, take photos like a pro, do important admin work, work in gardens, or even explore leisure activities. There’s something for everyone, and it’s all about discovering new skills and having fun while learning.
The council, the lead member, the director of children and families and partners on the Corporate Parenting Board take a clear strategic lead to ensure we fulfil our responsibilities towards our children in care and care leavers and children and young people experience better outcomes.
The Corporate Parenting Promise has been in place in North Lincolnshire for a number of years. It has been developed with members of the Children in Care Council to set out the commitment of corporate parents towards children in care and care leavers. The promise has been central to delivering corporate parenting that is aspirational and effective.
Building on the on-going support and involvement of corporate parents from all agencies to further develop this, plan for the future and ensure that our aspirations for children in care and care leavers are clear, developmental and forward thinking, we have developed the promise in conjunction with implementing our Care Leavers Local Offer.
The Children in Care Council have also further reviewed the promise and we have collectively agreed the revised North Lincolnshire Corporate Parenting Promise 2022-2024. The purpose is to have a child-focused, aspirational and comprehensive promise to children in care and care leavers.
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 sets out the following Corporate Parenting Principles:
The Care Experienced Children and Young People’s Partnership Plan explains how we secure sufficient accommodation for children and young people in care and care leavers.
A child in care is looked after by the council until they are 18. We continue to provide advice, guidance and assistance and a Personal Adviser for all care leavers until they are 21 (up to 25 if they wish).
Care leavers can ask for support from a Personal Adviser at any time they would like some help up to the age of 25 (whether they are in education or training or not).
Further information on support for care leavers is available on Gov.UK.
The local offer to care leavers [PDF, 1Mb] explains what is available for care leavers. We know that it’s a big step to move to living on your own. We want to make sure that you know where and who to go to for advice and help.
Our care leavers helped us design and write this local offer. We will continue to listen to your views to make sure the services we offer are what you need. If there is anything in the document you are not sure about or need further information about, please ask your worker.
A children and young people’s version of the local offer to care leavers [PDF, 248Kb] is also available.
The Care Experienced Children and Young Peoples Partnership Plan is for all council staff and partner agencies. It supports the delivery of effective services to children in care and care leavers.
We understand that Care Leavers who are also parents can benefit from a tailored approach. That’s why we developed The Grandparent Offer – a package of flexible, personalised support designed to offer the kind of encouragement and guidance a grandparent might provide.
The council has a responsibility to ensure all care experienced children and young people have stable, loving homes, and we want you to feel happy, safe and cared for.
The council cares for children across a range of living environments including –
For more information please visit our supported lodgings webpage.
The children and young people’s advocate supports:
The advocate is independent and will work with you to help get your point of view across. If you need someone to listen to your worries or help you get the support you need please contact the advocate on 01724 298505 or email MyVoiceMatters@northlincs.gov.uk.