Agenda item

Luke and Billie-Leigh of the Children in Care Council (CiCC) delivered a presentation on recent activity (for copy of presentation see file of minutes). 

Information reported included the following:

·      Meetings had taken place with the Full Circle to discuss ideas for the re-opening of their premises and the production of child-friendly marketing materials.  It was agreed that some photographs of the artwork on display in the new premises would be brought to a future meeting of the Panel.

·      Both CiCC groups had met with the service manager of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) team to consider approaches with regard to progressing their work with the CiCC;

·      Life map work is being carried out and the young people are developing a ‘Know, What, When’ booklet to provide a timeline of expectations and entitlements at key milestones;

·      The Education Fun Fund is being accessed by UASCs;

·      The CiCC Life Skills survey is underway to gather young people’s views on life skills and savings;

·      CiCC members met with Durham’s Participation and Engagement Officer to review communication approaches;

·      Members of the CiCC continue to play an important role in foster carer training sessions.

Members congratulated the young people for their efforts to identify gaps in knowledge and how they are striving to ensure that as many children looked after as possible, not only those who are members of the CiCC, are informed through initiatives such as ‘Know, What, When’.

The Investing in Children (IIC) Project Manager explained that in terms of communicating the CiCC’s participation and engagement approaches, the work is ongoing and includes examining how the CiCC reaches out to young people on all levels, for example through the CiCC website, ‘Know What When’ and the ‘Mind of My Own’ app.

Sharon Davey, Strategic Manager for Looked After and Permanence, referred to the videos produced in conjunction with the CiCC on topics including understanding the process of Children in Care Reviews and Child Protection Conferences and she explained that the service is looking to commission a promotional video on ‘Know, What, When’.  It was agreed that the suite of videos should be shared with all members of the Panel, for their information.