What we DO/HAVE DONE!

Over the past few years we have been involved in lots of pieces of work that have come from suggestions by Looked After Children and Young People. Below is some examples of our work. For more information please contact Ellie: Eleanor.seed@investinginchildren.net

LAC Guide

Members of the CiCC have been involved in designing the new Looked After Children's guide that will be available to anyone in care.

interviews

CICC members have been involved in interviewing and selecting social workers, Heads of Service, residential staff and Young People's Advisors.

child FRIENDLY CARE PLAN

We have worked with the IRO's to develop some child friendly care plans. They are now well used by everyone and the feedback we have received is very positive.

CELEBRATION EVENTs

Members of the CICC have been involved in planning the Celebration of Achievement Events for Looked After Children and Young People. There are two events in Durham now: 

One called the EPIC Awards (Exceptional People in Care) for young people school year 10 upwards and care leavers. The other award is called 'Celebrate Me' for children up to year 10. 

Both award names were decided by children and young people along with the planning, organising, delivery and hosting of each events. 

Last years theme which was chosen by the young people was 'Circus'. "We met several times to discuss what should be provided.  All our ideas were passed onto the Marketing Team wand the Young People's Service who helped organise the event. This year we have been involved to, choosing the entertainment, food and music"

Several members attend the events this year and helping out and promoting our CICC.

CICC wEBSITE

The CICC decided that we needed to have a new website as the old one we had wasn't suitable. 

We had several meetings looking at other websites and deciding what we would want our new CICC website to look like and have on it.

"We are really pleased we have a new website!"

​Keep watching this space for more information!

SURVEY'S

We decided we want to get a lot more children and young peoples views on topics we are currently discussing as a CICC.

Our current survey is about clothing and toiletry budgets as this seems to be an issue.

To complete our survey please visit: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J375BNW

Our next survey is going to be about pocket money and social workers.

AGENDA DAY™ - HAVE YOUR SAY!

Throughout the year we run agenda days for looked after children and care leavers who do not want to attend the CiCC meetings.

(An 'AGENDA DAY™ ' is an Adult Free event run by young people for children and young people. The events are a safe space for both children and young people to talk freely about a certain topic and give their views)

Staff development training

Young People have delivered training to social workers, IRO's, trainee social workers, foster carers, potential foster carers and corporate parents.

For more information on our training packages please contact Investing in Children on 0191 307 7030.

Corporate Parenting PANEL

We work closely with the Corporate Parenting Panel (CPP) to make sure children and young people's views and ideas are fed into the panel. 2 Young people from the CiCC sit on the panel and attend the monthly CPP meetings. For the past 3 years the CiCC has been a standard item on the CPP agenda. Every six months members of CPP attend our CiCC meeting and take part in discussions and activities. 

There have been lots of changes made due to having a strong relationship with the panel. 

Every year the CiCC produce a child friendly annual report for the Corporate Parent Panel. 

​This is available upon request.

speed dating event

In May last year we held a speed dating event with members of the Corporate Parenting Panel (CPP) and DCC Staff to discuss some of the issues looked after children and young people have raised and want to change.

We had several tables set up and on each table there was a topic/issue to discuss. We talked about each one for 3 minutes then moved on to a different table.

The event was a huge success and lots of changes have started to happen.

Following the event Ellie (our worker) now meets regularly with managers and members of the CPP.

For more information on what we discussed get in touch with Ellie. 

SCHOOL NURSE REVIEW

Members of the CICC have taken part in the County wide review of the School Nursing Service.

FREEDOM CARD

The CICC have had several discussions about how to improve the Freedom Card and made suggestions on how it could be monitored and stay within budget.

We would really like to hear your views on what you like about the Freedom Card. So please get in touch with your comments.

CHILDREN'S cOMMISSIONER

We took part in a review about the Children's Commissioner and the advice and assistance her and her team provide to children and young people who live away from home or who receive social services.

The review was run by Indigo part of the University of Cumbria. "During the review we got asked if we knew who the Children's Commissioner was and what she does. We also got the chance to suggest what we thought she could be doing to raise her profile and work more closely with ourselves and other CICC''s"

aPPRENTICESHIP'S

Young People said that the Council need to be offering more traineeships and apprenticeships to Looked After Young People.

Durham County Council have been working extremely hard over the past few months to ensure that this happens.

​Several different departments in the council have agreed to take on an apprenticeship. Check out the council website to see what apprenticeships are available.