A National Voice

Welcome

Feeling Supersonic?

Marilyn – Supersonic – BOOM!

What do Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon and Malcolm X have in common? Well, yes they're famous people but that's not the interesting thing. The answer is that they are people who experienced some type of Care, as were many comic book superheroes like Superman and Spiderman. This elite list also contains the names of fictional characters such as Tracy Beaker and Harry Potter as well as some mythological/religious figures. It would seem that these are individuals who are able to break through any barriers that may come with that Care experience and pursue goals and achieve success. This has become the inspiration for ANV's Supersonic campaign.

Care Matters White Paper: Time for Change

Time for change–Young person Callum talks with Alan Johnson

ANV have been involved in several stages of the new White Paper and were invited to the official launch event with the Secretary Of State Alan Johnson and Childrens Minister Beverly Hughes.

ANV's vice chair Jonny Hoyle spoke to Alan Johnson about children and young people's ideas about the government proposals to improve the care system. ANV submitted the views of 200 children and young people to government.

LILAC Event at House of Commons

The LILAC team

The 10 young people who were recruited to become the LILAC team members a year ago have now set some pilot standards to measure standards of ‘participation’ within service providers.

Recently 2 pilot LILAC inspections were carried out by these young care–experienced people in local authorities across England.

LILAC and Care Matters White Paper One Day Seminar Conference

London: 18th and 19th September 07

Manchester: 25th and 26th September 07

A National Voice, in association with the Fostering Network, LILAC and Shaftesbury Young People is delighted to offer a one day LILAC White Paper conference to examine the recent Care Matters proposals within the context of the LILAC framework. Delegates will participate in introductory workshops based on all of the 7 LILAC standards within the context of the recently published White Paper including training around the new ‘Pledge’ and ‘Children In Care Councils’.

You can download the LILAC report ( pdf 360kb)

Can you Spare Five Minutes to Carry out our Public Poll?

We are conducting a survey with a difference. We usually just survey children and young people in and from Care, but this time we would like to engage the general public. The aim of this poll is to collect public views about children in Care so as to inform our policies and those of other organisations.

Our ‘Public Attitudes To Care’ poll can be completed online here

or you can download a printable version ( pdf 152kb)

If you think you can help us by becoming a volunteer to survey your friends and family, please get in touch to let us know that you are interested.

If you would like a paper version of this poll posting/faxing or emailing to you please get in touch (you can post back to our Freepost address!)

Brothers and Sisters

We recently produced a report based on what children and young people from care have told us about their experiences of ‘contact with their siblings’. This report is based on a questionnaire we carried out about both ‘birth’ and ‘foster’ sibling contact.

Here are some key findings:

Food for Thought

We have produced an updated version of our education and learning report ‘Please Sir! Can I Have Some More?‘.

This 40 page report has been updated with feedback about education collected as part of the green paper consultation. Over 200 children and young people told us what were the main barriers to getting a good education for people in or leaving Care. They tell us what types of support has helped them and make suggestions about what support is needed from carers, social workers and schools to improve educational outcomes.

Green Paper Response

We received an amazing response to our survey on the government's ‘Care Matters’ Green Paper, with over 200 young people participating. We'd like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who took part and also to those workers and organisations that helped us in gathering this valuable information.

The importance of this green paper cannot be underestimated and we are delighted to have had such a great response to form the basis of our report and recommendations.

For a copy of ‘Care Matters: ANV Response’ please get in touch with us.

ANV Board update our Mission

ANV now have revisited our mission statement to ensure our priorities:

1. Coordinate a national network of Children and young people to come together to freely voice their views.
2. Young people participating in decision-making at ANV and across the care system.
3. Increasing children and young people's skills, knowledge and experience.
4. Promote good practice to decision makers.
5. Create opportunities for CYP to organise themselves and consult their peers.
6. Promote awareness and increase understanding of core issues to policy makers and the general public.