Agenda item

Young People and Barnardos

To receive feedback on the work our young people have been doing including:

·  What have LINX been doing?

·  Young Inspectors

·  Care Leavers Pledge from the Children's Society

·  CPB Performance Report.

·  Fostering and Adoption

What Have LINX Been Doing?

LINX began their session by informing the Board on what they had been up to since the last CPB.  A copy of the PowerPoint detailing this is attached.

Lynsey Evans, Foster Carer had attended the session at Woodlands on fostering teenagers, and she reported that feedback from this event had changed some carers perspectives on teenagers, who are now looking into taking teenagers into their care.

Young Inspectors

The attached PowerPoint showed the Board what they had been doing.

It was requested that a breakdown of the reports that have been carried out be brought to the next meeting.

Action:  Young Inspectors to provide a further breakdown on the reports.

Care Leaver's Pledge from the Children's Society

A short film was shown from the recent Care Leavers event that took place.  A link can be found here.

Mark Burrows, from the Children's Society, updated the Board on the Care Leavers Festival that took place in Manchester and spoke about the Pledge that Care Leavers had created.  The festival was designed by young people across the North West to bring them together along with professionals and to share issues.

The Pledge can be found here and individuals, groups, teams, County Councillors and Authorities were urged to sign up to it to show that they are committed to changing how they think and work with care leavers in achieving what they want.

Action:  All members were asked to share the link and encourage people to sign up.

Mark reported that at a Corporate Level across the North West, talks are being held around Council Tax Exemption and debt, financial management and education of care leavers.  Different authorities are at different stages, however the discussions are being had even at parliamentary level – Edward Timpson is looking at the proposal for Council Tax exemption for care leavers.

With regards the council tax exemption, LINX were asked to write a letter to all the Councillors with Housing responsibilities in the District Councils and the CPB would endorse the proposal within the letter.  LINX were asked to also include discretionary payments in the letter.

Action:  LINX to write a letter for the next CPB meeting, so the Board can endorse the proposal and distribute.

Care Leavers Activity

The Board were asked to look at the attached and decide which of the list were the top two priorities for care leavers in Lancashire.

Following discussions it was noted that adults felt that care leavers would have the following as the most important:

How much money will I have?

How will I sort out debts and manage my money?

However as can be seen from the attached, care leavers felt that the following were the top two most important pieces of information that they required:

What does a tenancy agreement mean?

What happens if I have a broken pipe/boiler?

CPB Performance Report

The Board noted the attached which was presented by LINX.

Fostering Teenagers

LINX have recently been involved in an event at Woodlands, where they spoke to foster carers around fostering teenagers and what it was that they felt they needed from them as carers.  Please see attached PowerPoint.

Also the Board took part in an activity (as attached), which shows how a young person thinks and how their brain works.  Answers are attached separately.

The final activity was for the Board to look at the positives of fostering teenagers.  Attached are the results from the flipcharts.

Once again the Board thanked LINX for their fantastic contribution.