Children in Care Council – your second voice

We are a group of young people who are in Care or who are Care Leavers and we represent all of Wokingham Borough’s Children in Care and Care Leavers.

Our aim is to act as a second voice for Wokingham’s Children in Care and Care Leavers and to improve their care experience.

There are 6 of us in the group.  We have many objectives that we try and cover in our meetings  – we meet up once a month, but if you can’t get there we also have virtual members who contribute over the phone and we do little bits of work in between meetings.  Meetings are held on a Wednesday evening once a month and refreshments are provided!

So far we have acheived:

• tackled the housing issues that care leavers and children in care have.  We researched them, and presented our findings to the Corpoarte Parenting Board  ( a group of councillors and senior managers)
• we have written and had agreed a pledge that covers all aspects of the standards that the Council should meet when caring for us  (we’ll be launching this in July and everybody should be a getting a copy of it soon)
• We’ve given our opinions on the Wokingham allowances for Children in Care and Care Leavers – soon coming everyone’s way
• We’ve surveyed opinions of Children in Care and Care Leavers and used the responses to inspire our work and reflect our aim of being a second voice
• Met with a group of councillors and passed on young people’s opinions
• Some of you may have seen us promoting the Children in Care Council at the Children in Care Awards day last summer – where we were recruiting new members and surveying young people
• We link with the children’s rights consultation groups On Board (for young people aged 8-15) and Making Care Fair (for those aged 16-21).

We’ve also started to meet up with other Children in Care Councils across the region.

We’re starting to plan our next campaigns – and we always want to hear your views!  You can get in contact with us by contacting Chris Ames, the Children’s Rights Officer via 0118 974 6180 or christine.ames@wokingham.gov.uk.  

Find out more about the Children’s Rights service here.

To be a member of this group you must either be a Wokingham Borough Child in Care or Care Leaver.