On Thursday 6th April, we held a Circus Skills activity day for our Kent Disabled Young People. Throughout the day, young people took part in Easter arts and crafts as well as many other Easter themed games and activities. In the afternoon, Kinetic Circus joined us to teach the young people some amazing things such as juggling, box catching and how to throw diablos.

We also held two Pizza Making days at Pizza Express. The young people who attended all had a chance to make their own pizzas and enjoy them. They then did some food related activities after, such as making banana sushi and a blind taste test game. The young people all had fun and went home with lots of food. 

And last but not least, our two “Sublime Science” activity days.  The young people started the morning with engineering activities, including a paper airplane challenge, using different weights and designs, and a tower challenge to build the strongest and tallest tower out of straws. We were then joined by “Sublime Science” who showed the children some awesome activities and scientific experiments, and the children got the chance to make their own slime and sweets!

Young People’s Council Meetings 

This Easter, all of our Council Groups focused on the support Young People with Special Educational Needs receive. We asked the young people their views on how they would like information shared with them, as well as how they prefer to share their opinions about school and their education both individually and collectively with decision makers. Their ideas and feedback will be incorporated into the new Kent Local Area Communications and Engagement Strategy

The OCYPC, Super Council and OCYPC Extra meetings also focused on what young people think helps make their homes stable and secure, the support they think they need and how they know they are being listened to when they experience challenges. This feedback has already been shared with Kent’s Practice Development Team and practitioners in a training session. Finally, the groups took part in something creative to design a new logo for Kent’s Education Safeguarding Service.

At the Children WHO Care meeting we discussed the need to create a guide for schools to support Children whose families foster. All the feedback from young people is being collated and turned into a “Hints and Tips” document ready to be shared with schools.

Finally, at the Adoptables meeting we told members about the new head of RAA (Regional Adoption Agency), and we asked them what they’d like her to be like and what qualities she should have. Alongside, this the group discussed the support young people should receive when they return from school after a long absence to help them settle back into learning and their school community.

Monday also saw the first OCYPC Extra meeting of the year in Canterbury. OCYPC Extra is a meeting for young people who cannot attend the main OCYPC and Super Council meetings in Maidstone. At the meeting, young people discussed what it is like to change social worker and how this process can be made the best possible experience for them. Some members of the Young Life Foundation team also joined the meeting, introduced themselves and YLF to the young people and asked for feedback about their leaflets and website.

We also held our Children Who Care Council, for the sons and daughters of foster carers. Members provide feedback to the Performance Management Team about the look and design of the Annual Fostering Review forms.

On Valentine’s Day, we celebrated by making bath bombs, decoupage boxes, cards, cake jars and teddies at our Valentine’s Gift Making Workshop. All the attendees had lots of goodies to take home and share by the end of the day!

Wednesday was such a great day, filled with lots of important messages from young people for Kent’s Corporate Parents. Young People representing our three Children in Care Councils joined the Corporate Parenting Panel to discuss the importance of fostering and share their experiences of being in care with their corporate parents. We also premiered our film, ‘Never Stop Listening’, created in collaboration with some of the Young People attending the event about what being in care in Kent is really like and what can help to make it the most positive experience possible.

On the following day, at our Dinosaur and Reptile Activity Day, some very brave young people had the chance to hold real life reptiles and insects as well as join in with an interactive giant dinosaur workshop from the Travelling Natural History Museum.

We closed the week with our Adoptables meeting, as well as our main Super Council and OCYPC meetings in Maidstone. At OCYPC and Super Council, we again met with Young Lives Foundation staff to look at their leaflets and flyers and discussed young people’s experiences of changing social worker. Young people told us how important it is to have a good transition from one social worker to another with a proper goodbye and introduction to the new worker. We also played some group games and ended the meeting with some yummy pizza lunch!

The Adoptables members talked about their post 16 options, how they felt they were supported in school and who they could go to for information. We also made some well-being rainbows to support Children’s Mental Health Week.  

Young people from a variety of backgrounds, both in care and living with family, shared their positive and negative experiences of attending meetings with a range of professionals and produced a list of top tips for workers. These included advice for before, during and after meetings which they felt would help young people feel genuinely and meaningfully included in these and their own plans. Tips included involving young people in the planning and organisation of meetings, helping them to prepare for what was likely to be discussed and about the kind of language they would like to be used with them. They were keen for workers to really speak to them and listen to them during meetings and discussed how they would like to receive reports and plans. These tips have now been shared with a number of staff throughout Children’s Services to help them think about their own work with young people.

It was a really positive focus group with lots of insightful opinions shared by the young people!

Top Tips For Meetings

The project lasted a couple of months, the apprentices visited her every week and came up with creative ideas to bring this film together. With their support, the young person made a film that focused on the people who have helped her whilst she has been in care. She enjoyed using our animation software and telling us about her experiences.

After completing this project, she said that she wants this video to help other young people who have been in similar situations as her. This will be done by showing this film to other Children in Care. All her hard work has been noticed and greatly appreciated by professionals who have seen the film so far, but most importantly she was very happy with the end result. Seeing this young person’s confidence grow during each session has been very rewarding to us. We are enormously proud of her!