Working with young people to inform our Care Review responses

Yesterday evening, we met with care-experienced young people from our new Care Review Policy Group to discuss their thoughts on the recent report from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. 

The Case for Change report from Josh MacAlister and his team looked at the biggest issues in the care system in the UK today and opened up discussion on what can be done to fix them. 

These issues include the need to: 

• Help families more and provide early intervention support 
• Provide better child protection support for young people in the care system 
• Create a care system that helps young people develop better, more positive relationships 
• Change how services work to create a care system that works better for the young people in it.

You can read a summary of what the Independent Review into Children’s Social Care is about here. 

The next crucial step in the Care Review is to hear the response from care-experienced young people. Their voices will be the ones to influence real, impactful, long-lasting change going forward. 

Our first Care Review Policy Group meeting was an incredibly powerful conversation about the Case for Change report. 

We asked young people key questions about the ‘Case for Change’, including: 

• What was your initial response? 
• Is this an accurate representation of you? 
• What resonates with you? 
• What makes you feel angry or annoyed? 
• What is missing?  
• What would you like to see next?  

The young people we spoke with said they were happy the Case for Change didn’t sugarcoat what it’s like to live in and leave the care system. They appreciated the section about the care system failing to act as a ‘pushy parent’ but found the term awkward with negative connotations.  

When asked what was missing from the report, young people raised with us that Chapter 4 of The Case for Change (which focuses on the care system) doesn’t focus enough on how ethnicity and cultural background impacts children’s experiences in care. The group also wanted to see more said about foster carers. As the people who can make the most significant difference in children’s lives every day, they felt this section was lacking and didn’t sufficiently capture the voice of the child.  

This conversation, among many others, has helped to inform our official response to The Case For Change report.

The next time the group of young people meet, we will discuss the questions posed by the Case for Change report, including: ‘If we were creating care today that was good enough for all our children what would it look like?’ 

We’d love to hear from you if you’d be interested in getting involved with this and joining a safe and comfortable space for everyone to share their views and build ideas for solutions with each other.