Coram Voice service: A National Voice

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.

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.

17 May 23

Coram Voice is committed to getting young voices heard in the decisions that matter to them, as part of that, we last week sent in our response to Stable Homes, Built on Love and the Children’s social care national framework and dashboard.

In our response we set out care experienced young people’s views on the strategy and what we think needs to happen to embed youth voice in the system.

• Download our response to the Stable homes, built on love strategy consultation
• Download our response to the Children’s social care national framework and dashboard consultation

In addition to responding to  the online consultation questions we produced two reports pulling together our feedback.

Feedback from ANV Ambassadors to the ambitions and missions

A National Voice (ANV) is the ‘National Children in Care Council’ for children in care and care leavers aged 11-26, every year a group of care experienced young people aged 16-25 are recruited from across the country to be our ANV Ambassadors and guide the work of the ANV.

Our Ambassadors have participated in a range of activities to inform the Government strategy, including sessions with representatives from the Department for Education working on the strategy.

There’s so many things that need to change around the foster care system. It is so important that the government, the people who have the power to make a difference, take some time to listen to children and young people who have experienced being in the care system. To them, this is just a job, but this is our lives. (Chloe, ANV Ambassador and Chair of ANV)

This paper summarises what two groups of ANV Ambassadors spoke about on two separate occasions, February and April 2023, about Stable Homes, Built on Love.

• Download A National Voice Initial thoughts on the Stable Homes Built on Love strategy 

(A summary of these views were included in Coram Voice response to the consultation)

How we believe the Department can work to Embed Youth Voice in the Children’s Social Care System

There is a commitment to the principle of youth voice throughout the Stable Homes, Built with Love strategy and National Framework, but not enough is said about how to make this promise a reality.

This paper highlights what our extensive experience of engaging care experienced children and young people has taught us about what needs to be in place for decision makers in children’s social care (and government) to hear and act on the voices of children and young people and what that may mean for an outcomes framework.

We need to move beyond principles to think about how youth voice can practically be embedded at all levels of decision making – individual (child’s own care), organisational (local authority and partners) and system (National Government).

In this paper we set out specific actions that should be taken to realise youth voice, in particular we make three key recommendations to inform the government’s implementation strategy and national framework:

1. Create a new mission to embed youth voice by putting in place the structures and systems to make the right to be heard a reality for all children and young people.

2. Focus more on making life better for children and young people by making well-being, as defined by children and young people themselves, a key pillar for children’s social care.

3. Support children and young people to be heard and safeguard their rights by giving them the information about their rights and providing opt out independent advocacy for all children and young people throughout and beyond the care system (including in child protection, kinship care, care leavers etc.)

• Download our Embedding youth voice in Children’s Social Care report – specific actions that should be taken to realise youth voice