Monday 25 September 2023
We are corporate parents to nearly 1,400 children. But what does that mean?
There are currently nearly 900 children and young people in our care, aged up to 18 years old, and a further 500 young adults aged between 18 to 25 years old who have left care, that we continue to support.
Young people come into our care for a range of reasons. Sometimes it's for a short time, if a parent is unwell and there’s no-one else to look after them, for example; and other times it's for longer, if it's necessary for a child to be cared for by someone other than their parents for their own safety. It means that we have parental responsibility for that child, and that's known as corporate parenting.
Corporate parenting is wider than just caring for a child or young person though. It is about working with partner agencies to ensure that care experienced people have good access to health, education, love and affection, and are supported to realise their dreams, goals and aspirations. It is about championing them, and ensuring that they are able to recover from any challenges that they have faced before entering our care. It is about ensuring that their previous experiences are validated, but that these do not define them and that they can live, grow and achieve as well and if not better than their peers.
In this special edition of our Connect Me newsletter, we highlight some of the work that we’re doing to support children and young people in care, and those young people who have now left our care.
Sixteen-year-old James is a young person in our care. Last week he met Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh during her visit to local charities and community groups in Tiverton.
James told the Duchess about his experience in care, and about the work that he does with Devon County Council's Stand Up Speak Up (SUSU) and ‘Champions for Change’ groups to help better support young people in care.
"We talked about the challenges and the things that go on in the average foster kid's life, about how difficult it is being in care, and what affect it has on our daily life," he said.
Step Forward programme supporting care experienced young people into work
As part of our commitment to support care leavers across Devon, we offer our Step Forward employability programme for care experienced young people between 16 and 25 years to learn new skills and take steps towards employment, education and training that fits with their interests and aspirations.
The programme has been created to allow us to be flexible and adapt to the needs of care leavers. We understand everyone’s journey is different, so tailored programmes are offered to suit every individual worked with.
Our video features some of the young people who have benefited from the programme.
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We're making care experience a protected characteristic
Our Councillors recently made an important decision that will help improve the lives of children in care and care leavers in Devon. They agreed to give care leavers - young people who have been in our care - protected characteristic status.
That's because young people's experience of being in the care system can be a potential source of discrimination, similar to other protected characteristics such as race or disability.
This is what care leavers said after councillors made the decision:
“Today is literally a day in history for care-experienced people in Devon,” said 18-year-old care leaver, Jemeillia.
“Making this a protected characteristic will put us on an equal level with everyone else in society and will make life fair for us,” said care leaver, Luke, aged 19-years-old.
“It’s a really positive moment,” said care leaver Teddi, aged 18-years-old. “It’s great that we’ve finally been seen and heard.”
You can read about the decision, and more of what care leavers have said about it, on the news page of our website.
Celebrating Keira’s Gold Duke of Edinburgh
Like any parent, we like to celebrate the successes and achievements of the children and young people who are, or have been, in our care.
We're so proud of nineteen-year-old, Keira Connolly's amazing achievement of gaining her Gold, Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award.
Visit our website to learn more about Keira's inspiring story of accomplishment, from starting her Bronze award aged 14, through to her Silver award, and as she moved into foster care, her Gold DofE challenge.
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Ask any young child what they want to do when they grow up, and you may possibly hear something influenced by what they’ve seen on TV, or by someone they know.
The conversations around the table at home, and the things that children and young people hear at home, help them formulate ideas and ambitions about their own futures.
But some young people grow up in environments where there hasn't been support or encouragement, and if they're not seeing or hearing positive opportunities that they'd like for themselves, then perhaps it's harder for them to see their own full potential.
We've been thinking about that for children and young people in our care, who for a range of reasons do not live with their parents, and who have had very difficult starts in life.
We spoke to Wendy Ohlson, Headteacher of Devon's Virtual School which links all of Devon's schools with additional support for children in care, to hear what we're doing to help young people in our care to aspire with their education and ambitions in life.
We are keen to work with local businesses in Devon that can offer work experience, apprenticeships or supportive work environments to care experienced young people.
We're working with Exeter College to offer businesses support and advice to help and enable them to do that.
We're currently developing our support offer to businesses, but would like to hear from companies that are interested in working with us to provide employment or training opportunities for care experienced young people. If you own a business, and would like to work with us, please contact us by emailing arabella.moore@devon.gov.uk
Total Respect training a total success
Eight of our care experienced young people delivered their first two sessions of Total Respect training at the beginning of September 2023.
Total Respect is a nationally acclaimed course designed to help those working within the care system to comply with young people’s right to participate in decision-making about their lives and the systems that affect them.
In July, a group of care experienced young people from Devon attended a residential course where they were shown how to deliver this training. Over the next year, our new trainers will be providing sessions to all teams within Children’s Services.
Well done and thank you to all of the young people who delivered two excellent days of training!
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 New family structure is helping foster carers and their children
Our fostering service is one of the key ways in which we support children and young people who are in our care. So, supporting foster carers is also really important to us.
We've been piloting a new programme, called the Mockingbird programme, that is improving the way that foster carers support each other and the children that they look after. It's based simply on a family structure, with experienced foster carers, Sarah and Andy, as the key 'hub carers', who in turn support nine foster families, including 13 fostered children and young people.
We spoke to the hub carer, Sarah, and some of the foster parents in our Mockingbird family, and they told us what a positive impact this is having on their lives and those of the children they look after.
The programme was featured on ITV News Westcountry at the end of August and the video of that report is available to watch on YouTube. You can also read all about it in the story on the news page of our website.
 Could you foster for Fostering Devon?
There are many misconceptions around the role of a foster carer, and what it takes to become one. Potential foster carers can worry about whether they are the sort of people we are looking for, and whether they are the right person for the role. But there really is no such thing as an ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ foster carer.
What we need are flexible, open, honest people who can understand the difficulties our children have experienced and offer them a loving environment.
It doesn’t matter how old you are, whether you’re married or divorced, living with a partner or single, gay, lesbian or transgender. Foster carers come from all walks of life and we welcome people from all religions, races, genders and sexual orientations.
Could this be you? Do you fancy the challenge of helping us support foster children currently in our care?
 New pilot will provide essential accommodation for adult care leavers
Young people in our care most often live with foster carers until they reach 18- years-old, when they’re considered to be care leavers. They and their foster carers can choose to continue those arrangements if they wish, with the young person remaining living with their carer. Others however move on to live in their own accommodation.
We've secured a grant of £1.1 million from the Department for Education to run a two year pilot, as part of a national initiative called Staying Close, to help those young adults transition into independent living and support them in quality accommodation.
Find out more in the full story on the news page of our website.
Click on the banner below for more news stories about care experienced children and young people.
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