This is an annual event where all the Children in Care Councils can work and collaborate together, have fun, and meet some of their Corporate Parents.
We sat down with young people and presented the History of the of the OCYPC, how it started, how it grew in membership, and how it ended up splitting off with two more groups; the Super Council and Young Adult Council.
We also discussed a new constitution for the meetings with all the young people, this determined what kind of rules and behaviours they expected, not only from each other but from the staff in attendance too. We’ll take away all the suggestions and use them to create the constitution.
Young people also looked at how they want to be asked questions during the various meetings they have throughout their time in care, and what is the best way to get feedback from children in care. They were asked specifically how best to answer the questions (paper, electronically), how they want it to look (form to fill, survey with multiple choices, ranking from favourite to least favourite on a list, using emojis etc) and whether it should vary for different age groups. Young people came up with their top ten tips for a successful meeting and added some ideas about how they wanted them presented. We are planning to take this away and work with the Kent County Council Communication Team to get the relevant documents designed.
To finish, we all enjoyed pizza in the garden for lunch, and in the afternoon fun team challenges were provided by the “Wise Up Team” making use of their fantastic equipment!
posted by Mark Butcher