Starting with Arts and Crafts, we had a couple of activity days for younger children at ‘The Activity Box’ in Herne Bay, where they had the chance to make their own pottery and do UV painting in the dark.

At the Canterbury Leisure, we all enjoyed a day full of fun with Crazy Golf, Laser Tag and Bowling.

For those interested in cooking (and eating!), we were back for a couple of activity days at ‘The Cookery Cabin’ in Gravesend.

Creativity and expressing ourselves were at the centre of our Wellbeing Interactive Drama Workshop, where children explored their emotions through different scenarios and tried positive thinking techniques.

Luckily, the sun was out during this Easter Holidays, and we could make the most out of our outdoor activity days! Curly’s Farm, with our disabled young people, and Yew Tree Farm.  We also hosted a filming activity day, where we interviewed our young people and children to listen to their stories and opinions about being in care. The interviews will be part of a film that we’re producing, with the aim to look at the past and compare it with the present to see how the services we offer have evolved over the years.

Our first speech was around pride of place, so we had to use the theme of what makes Kent special. We chose Dover welcoming refugees and how we work to support them. We also had to do a speech around a question set by the judges, and we chose “what would happen if animals could talk?” and wrote a humorous speech about Charmaine’s anti-social cat, his rights and his wishes to find a new home, which got lots of laughs. The final speech was on a topic of our own choosing. We decided to speak about equality for those with protected characteristics, particularly race, gender and LGBTQ+ rights, which left the crowd pondering this topic afterwards.

As apprentices we gained a great deal from the event. It led us to come out of our comfort zone, speaking in front of a large audience, as well as doing a lot of networking and meeting new people. We learnt about other parts of the UK and how their councils work and the diverse workforce amongst them. We also developed our own knowledge by listening to other people’s speeches about social media, women’s health and the impact of pets on the environment. These were really interesting, and made us think about our own point of view. We think it is so important to help young people get their voices heard, give them a chance to speak up and gain opportunities. We are really glad we got a chance to attend this competition and we really enjoyed ourselves.

By Charmaine Chapman and Shyanne Ali

Hi, my name is Shyanne and I am an Apprentice Participation Worker in the VSK Participation Team.

On Tuesday the 28th of February, I had the opportunity to shadow Sarah Hammond who is the Director of Integrated Children’s Social Work Services. Sarah’s role is to continually develop the service and make decisions that ensure all staff have the tools and training to deliver an exceptional service for young people and their families. She told me that her main priority is to create an environment and set of strategies that enable Kent County Council staff to be the very best that they can be. A normal work week/day of Sarah Hammond consists of a variety of meetings including Cabinet committee meetings, leadership meetings and many more.

On the Tuesday, I arrived at Canterbury Christchurch University in the morning where I attended a business support hub consultation with Sarah. This meeting was all about making changes to improve ways of working across different business support services in Kent County Council.

After this meeting, we went to County Hall in Maidstone where I attended a Divisional Management Team meeting. These meetings are made up of Directors and Service Managers from across Kent; they come together to discuss what is going on in their area, what good practice is taking place and where there are differences between areas.

In the afternoon, I got to see Sarah’s office, which is also based at County Hall.  Sarah told me all about Kent’s Social Care Academy.  This is a teaching training partnership; together with Kent County Council, they will be delivering the first roll out of Social Worker Apprenticeships starting in September. This meeting was interesting for me as I’ve always wanted to be a Social Worker but didn’t want to attend university so instead chose the apprenticeship route. I think this is a fantastic chance for people who want to take this path to be a Social Worker, so look out for amazing opportunities in the future.

Throughout the course of the day, it was a pleasure to get to know Sarah. She told me that she enjoys working with her colleagues to improve the lives of vulnerable young people and those who have additional needs. However, the only downside is that she doesn’t get to see our children as much as she would like to as she is always in and out of meetings and making things happen from behind the scenes.

To wrap up my day of shadowing, I had a 1 to 1 chat with Sarah in which I asked if she has any words of encouragement for her colleagues and young people in Kent County Council.  She said her mantra is, “It is never too late to do something you want to do, so never give up.” As Director of Integrated Children’s Social Work Services, Sarah advised that there are lots of exciting opportunities across the county and that we should all use this to our advantage and grasp these when we can.

This year, the VSK Apprentices got the amazing opportunity to be part of the judging panel for these awards.  Rob and I looked at all 125 nominations, many written by Children In Care themselves.  There were so many examples of fantastic foster carers who are really making a difference for Children and Young People in Care!  It was very difficult to narrow the nominations down and pick the winners for each category.  This year, the panel decided to invite us to present some VSK Apprentice Awards recognising Carers who help their Young People participate in our activity days and Children in Care Councils with the 3 winners chosen entirely by us.  It was great honour! 

So, on 14th November, we got the train to Folkestone to attend the Awards Ceremony which was been held at the Leas Cliff Hotel.  When we arrived, we were given a script so we could present the Apprentice Awards.  While waiting for everyone to arrive, we ate some homemade cake which was really yummy!  

At 10am, the Awards Ceremony started.  It was opened by Caroline Smith, Assistant Director for Corporate Parenting.   We watched excitedly as the awards were presented and finally, it was our turn to hand our Awards out.  It was really scary as we had to talk in front of over 100 people!  At the end of the ceremony, it was photo time and of course us Apprentices jumped at the photo opportunity!  After the photos it was time to go home.  Hearing the nominations and meeting the foster carers was such a lovely experience.  We had a great time!

by Tia Pires-Higgins