10 Oct 23
Coram Voice have collaborated with AYPH on a small-scale engagement project focused on understanding the health risks faced by young people who have been in care.
Young people who have been in the care of a local authority are, on average, at greater risk of poorer health outcomes than their peers.
This project involved the setting up of a youth panel for discussions co-facilitated by young people themselves. This was a chance to hear the views and experiences of care leavers about health, accessing healthcare services and health inequalities in order to understand the challenges better.
Many of the challenges relate to general issues young people in care face which made everything – including healthcare – more difficult. In addition, they spoke about issues that might contribute specifically to health outcomes. This included a lack of health literacy, the impact of mental health problems, experiences of healthcare, finance as a barrier to accessing healthcare services and bureaucracy within the healthcare system.
The young people made a series of recommendations specifically in relation to reducing health inequalities for care experienced young people.
Recommendations
- Offer financial help with prescriptions.
- Make care leavers more aware of the support that is available.
- Consider ways to alert healthcare systems to the needs of care-experienced young people.
- Improve training and education for healthcare providers.
- Improved targeted mental health support offer for care leavers.
Read the full report here
Find out more about the work of AYPH here
In an interview with BBC London News, Andrew Dickie, Head of Services at Coram Voice, says thousands of vulnerable 16 and 17-year-olds have not been looked after in accordance with appropriate child-protection laws. In fact, homeless young people have been steered away from going into care and instead put into cheaper hostel accommodation as a way for councils to save money.
“Each time that happens to a child that’s outrageous and it needs to stop.” Andrew Dickie, Head of Services at Coram Voice
This BBC interview follows the case of a young person named Charlotte, who in 2023 took Lambeth Council to court. The case settled in her favour, with the council accepting that she should have been taken into care under section 20. Most young people aged 16 or 17 years who are accepted as homeless by a local authority should be taken into care under section 20 of the Children Act.
If you are a young person seeking support for accommodation, then Coram Voice may be able to help you. Contact us on the Coram Voice Advocacy helpline.
03 Oct 23
We are excited to be hosting our second Amplify event on 25th October in London, along with our second round of A National Voice Awards.
This year, we received nominations from more local authorities, representing more of the country! As we prepare for the event on the 25th of October, Coram Voice and A National Voice are currently shortlisting and judging all the amazing entries.
We are pleased to share the names of the groups nominated and the categories for which they are nominated:
Campaign Award
- Children in Care Council Peterborough
- Darlington Care Leavers
- Hull Young Voices Influencing Care
- The Care Leaver Group (Oldham)
- Voices Making Choices (VMC) (Northumberland)
Participation Award
- Action Speak (Worcestershire)
- Cambridgeshire CiCC, Peterborough CiCC & Peterborough Care Leaders Group
- Care 2 Listen (Reading)
- Children in Care Council – Care Experienced (Torbay)
- CiCC Bristol
- East Sussex Children in Care Council
- Joining Up, Joining in (Leicestershire Cares Charity)
- MCYP (Medway Children and Young People Council)
- SUSU Total Respect Team (Devon)
- The Norfolk in Care Council
- Unite Children in Care Council and Insight Care Experienced Forum BCP Council (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole)
- Who Cares We Care (Worcestershire)
- York’s Children in Care council and Care Leavers Forum
- Young Inspectors Peterborough
The Voice Award
- Care4me – Children in Care Council, North Tyneside
- Children in Care Council Peterborough
- Lincc (living in care council) and CFCL Change for Care Leavers (Bromley)
- Norfolk in Care Council/ Change Maker Forum
- Our MCYPC (Medway Children and Young Person Council)
- Promise Ambassadors 2023 (Cumbria)
- Skittlz (Barking and Dagenham)
- SUSU Council – Takeover Day (Devon)
The Community Award
- Click Together (Wandsworth)
- Young Inspectors Peterborough
The Collaboration Award
- MCYP (Medway Children and Young People Council)
- North East Regional Children in Care Council
- Pass the Parcel (Devon)
- Refugee and Asylum Seeking Young People of Hull (Supported by RAST- The Refugee and Asylum Seeker Team)
- Somerset in Care (SiCC) and Somerset Leaving Care (SLCC) Councils
The Digital Award
- Cambridgeshire CiCC, Peterborough CiCC & Peterborough Care Leaders Group
- Click (Wandsworth)
- EaCES (UK)
- Greenwich Children in Care Council
- Hull Young Voices Influencing Care (YVIC)
- Peterborough Children in Care Council
- Somerset in Care (SiCC) and Somerset Leaving Care (SLCC) Councils
Shortlisting will conclude by October 6th. Shortlisted groups will be invited to attend The A National Voice Awards at Amplify 2023.
Shortlisted groups will also be contacted to invite them to share their work at the event if they would like to.
20 Jun 23
Coram Voice are excited to announce new opportunities for care experienced children and young people to inform the Government’s new plans for Children’s Social Care and we want you to get involved
The Department for Education (DfE) have contracted Coram Voice to work with policy officials to facilitate engagement sessions and focus groups with children and young people with lived experience of the care system over the next 12 months through A National Voice (ANV).
A National Voice is the ‘National Children in Care Council’ for children in care and care leavers aged 11-25, who are passionate about how the care system works and how it affects those within it. ANV had a key role in getting young voices heard in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care we are now excited to do the same as the Government implement their plans for change set out in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’.
Our plan
We will be looking at different topics over the next year (we will share these as soon as they are finalised). All feedback will be shared with the DfE.
- Children and young people will be able to take part in online polls, online sessions and in-person workshops at our annual Amplify event in October.
- We will also develop session packs that you can run with groups locally, and collect information about any relevant participation work you have already done
- We want to help the DfE understand how to best listen to children and young people. As part of this we are mapping current participation groups.
- There will also be opportunities for participation workers to share their views directly with DfE.
Get involved
We have created an online form for participation workers and anyone doing voice/participation work with children and young people who have lived experience of the care system.
Please fill this out using the link below:
A National Voice and Stable Homes, Built on Love – Sign up to get involved.
Our regular newsletter will have further updates about upcoming sessions, what came out of sessions, and links to polls and activities that can be completed individually or taken back to groups you work with.
Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch at ANV@coramvoice.org.uk
25 May 23
Last month our A National Voice Ambassadors were pleased to participate in a round table for the House of Lords Public Services Committee’s inquiry into the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy
The session informed the House of Lords response to the Children’s Social Care Implementation Strategy
The final report highlighted young people’s comments on diversity, suitability of kinship carers, separation from siblings, carers ability to deal with trauma, the needs of individual children and the importance of personalised care informed by listening to the child.
The full report can be viewed here.
A summary of the session and young people’s feedback can be found in Appendix 3.
