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Children in Care Council

Sarah - Chair of Children in Care Council

Alidja and Sarah from the Children in Care Council write the story of how children and young people in care are making a positive impact on Oxfordshire's care system

What has your group been created for?

It’s been designed for children in care to have their voice heard and to be listened to.  We were trained in October 2007 and launched on TakeOver Day 2007 – so it’s just been our first birthday!

We are a group of children and young people who are in care or have been in care, we meet up every 6 weeks. There are joint chairs – me and Sarah, then there’s another few of us in the team.

How has it made a difference?

I think it’s good because young people are having a say in what they are going through and have an opportunity to make improvements.

It's really a positive thing and a great opportunity.  Without the CICC there would be less positive thinking.  CICC does allow C&YP to aim higher and to think about their future. If you haven’t got something to look forward to then you don’t work as hard.

What do you do in your group?

We discuss about the Children in Care pledge and we discuss what we want to see changed. Our current major taks is creating our detailed workplan for the OCC to follow.

The pledge is on our issues like education, health, leisure, teenage pregnancy and housing. We go over these areas and see how things can be improved.

We discuss what needs to be done and how and when and timescales.It’s us and our decisions going across to adults – like social workers and PA’s which will make the changes we need now and in the future.

We consult with key professionals in different areas such as teenage pregnancy, foster care, residential care etc so we can make our points directly to the people who can make the difference as well as high up decision makers (we call them the "big wigs").

How do you make sure that every child or young person is heard?

Anyone who is in care can be invited to come to the meetings.  We are trying to link the top person – he’s called Andy Couldrick and he's been brilliant with us and Louise Chapman has too (council member for children and young people). We are trying to communicate really well with them so they can then tell all the social workers and PA’s what our views and opinions are and changes will come about.

Thank you to our adult workers James Collins, Isobel Holt and Jan Lewis who have been encouraging us to work hard, we really appreciate it.

By Alidja and Sarah: Joint Chairs, Children in Care Council

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