This page has some further background on participation for children and young people in care.
What does it mean for a child to be 'in care'?
A looked after child is a child/young person for who the Local Authority has taken responsibility for placing in some form of accommodation. The Local Authority subsequently has a statutory duty to monitor the young person and support them in this accommodation.
Children and young people may enter care because their parents have requested help, or because there is a risk of significant harm to the child or young person. When a child enters care because of the risk of harm, usually the court will have made a care order, passing parental responsibility over the child to the Local Authority, who become a legal 'corporate' parent alongside the child or young person's parent or guardian.
It is important to remember that Looked After Children are accommodated through no fault of their own.
Care Plans
A care plans is a document which sets out the services and support that should be provided to a child or young person in care and their family. It should identify what the Local Authority and other agencies will do to meet the needs of the child or young person - including:
Health and education needs
Religious and cultural needs
Hobbies and interests
Care Plans should be clear and easy to understand. They should be prepared immediately after a child or young person comes into local authority care, and they should be regularly reviewed. Children and young people should have the opportunity to be involved in the creation and review of their care plans.
The right to participate
Children and Young people have a right to participate in decisions that affect them under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This right is an individual and a collective right.
Individual – children and young people have the right to influence decisions made about their own personal circumstances.
Collective – children and young people have right to influence the systems, structures and policies that affect their lives.
The Children Act 1989 requires local authorities to ascertain the wishes and feelings of a child of young person in care when making a decision that will affect that child or young person.
The Office of the Children’s Rights Director, hosted within Ofsted, is charged by the Children’s Rights Director Regulations 2004, to “listen to children and young people who live away from home in either a children’s home, boarding school, residential special school, further education college or residential family centre, are in foster care, have been adopted, have left care, or are getting help from social services.”
Change for children and young people
Children and young people's participation should lead to positive change.
The ‘What’s Changed’ tool can be used to record change for young people as a result of their voice and influence. This example (displayed below and available for download) shows how young people in Hampshire’s Care Action Team were able to work with Hampshire County Council to create a ‘Passport to Success’ programme that allows young people who wish to stay in care for longer to do so, and which makes appropriate accommodation more readily available. The group won a Wavemakers award for their work.
The ‘This is Not a Suitcase’ campaign by A National Voice aims to put an end to the poor practice of placing children's and young people's possessions in bin bags when moving between care placements. The campaign has held bin-bag fashion shows and set up a ‘No Bin Bag’ charter, now signed by many local authorities.
Thanks to National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC) for some of the featured information.
A new package to develop local staff to support and train young people to conduct objective assessments of local services and support recommendations for service improvements.
