A National Voice

Welcome

East Midlands Regional Consultation Event

We are holding a special Amplify consultation event for the East Midlands region in Leicester on the 28th March.

Members from the Children In Care Councils (CICC’s) from all 9 Local Authorities will be speaking about their experiences of the care system and how Social Services can make improvements.

If you are from the East Midlands and are interested in attending you can reserve a place by registering online at anationalvoice.net/amplify/event or you can contact Imraan Patel on 07599 511102 or send an email to Imraan.p@anationalvoice.org

Refreshments will be provided.

Pam Hibbert ANV Professional Advisor Gets OBE

We are really pleased that our friend and mentor Pam was recognized in the Queens Birthday Honours recently. The inimitable Pam is a real asset to our charity; she is affectionately known to us as 'Super Pam' as her skills and abilities are out of this world.

Here at ANV we have long recognized her many talents and her very many years of hard work helping influence positive change is seen as inspirational, congratulations Pam.

Care Less Lives

A book by Mike Stein about the rights movement of young people in care has been published.

The book, published by Catch22, relates how, from 1973 young people came together to talk about their care, support each other and campaign to improve their lives in care. From the small beginnings of the Leeds Ad-lib group, the story tells how the word was spread by Who Cares?, the National Association of Young People in Care, Black and In Care, and currently by the campaigns of A National Voice. The story describes how young people during these years experienced their care, including their feelings of stigma and control, as well as, for some young people, abuse at the hands of those who were meant to care for them. But it is also a story of altruism and collective resilience, of how young people came together to improve the lives of other young people, to make their lives, less care less.

The Big (Royal Wedding) Day
"...we know that they care"

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their wonderful wedding day. We asked some of our young people what they thought about it all and here's what they had to say:

“I’m really happy for Catherine and William. They look really in love. When they have children I think they’ll be very good parents and it’s nice to know that they want the same for other children who aren’t so lucky” - 16yrs, Bradford

“To be a chosen charity for the RWCGF is amazing. I am honoured that the Royal couple chose ANV as children in Care really do need more recognition and understanding” - 22yrs, Manchester

Royal Couple Offer Support to Children in Care

We are delighted to announce that on the occasion of their marriage, Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton have selected A National Voice as one of their chosen charities to benefit from the Royal Wedding Charitable Gift Fund.

St James’ Palace has informed us that the Royal couple have been touched by the good will shown them since the announcement of their engagement and are inviting anyone wishing to send them a gift to do so in the form of a charitable donation.

Only 26 charities from across the world have been nominated by Prince William and Miss Middleton to reflect the issues in which they have a particular interest.

Tim Tells Us to Tell You…

Children's Minister, Tim Loughton, wants young people to tell him what they think about the Care system. A web page called Tell Tim has been set up where young people can leave their comments.

Tim tells us "Your views about the care system are incredibly important to me. I'd like to hear from people in care and those who have recently left…I want you to let me and my officials know your thoughts about what works and what doesn’t, and the ideas you might have about changes that would make a difference, to you and others. I want to be able to find out what matters to you and people like you, so that I can make sure I'm putting all my efforts into the things that will make the most difference."

So if you are a young person with care experience you can head over to the Tell Tim web page and let the government know what you think.

ANV Invited to Help Department for Education Run Several CiCC Regional Meetings

Along with Dr Roger Morgan, the Childrens Rights Director, ANV are helping the Department for Education run several Children in Care Council (CiCC) regional meetings in late 2010 through to Spring 2011. These meetings are a real chance for CiC councils chairs to share their experience about what they find works to get things done and provoke positive changes in their local authorities. The new Minister Tim Loughton is on board and is keen to hear from young people about CiCCs.

At ANV we are excited about these plans as we really want to help develop a forum for council chairs to discuss amongst themselves the services and support they receive in their respective LAs, what they value most etc. Please get in touch for more info about these exciting new opportunities to make CiC councils really work.

2010: The Year Care in England Goes Bin Bag Free?

Young people have told us how humiliating it is when their belongings are transported between placement moves in bin bags.

'THIS IS NOT A SUITCASE' is ANV’s campaign to abolish this poor practice and encourage local authorities to provide suitable luggage. So far, around two thirds of all local authorities in England have signed the ‘No Bin Bag Charter’, showing their commitment to this important issue.

Help us to make to make 2010 the year England goes ‘bin bag free’. Visit www.thisisnotasuitcase.org.uk to see if your local authority has signed up.

'The REFUSE Collection' Bin Bag Fashion Show took place at the swanky Midland Hotel, in sunny Manchester during the annual conference for all England’s Directors of Children’s Services and we were really pleased that both the Children’s Commissioner and the Children’s Minister came to watch our ‘REFUSE Collection’ show.

LILAC Blossoming

Well done to Wigan and Wakefield who have engaged LILAC. Wigan showed real commitment by being the first to ask us for a LILAC assessment.

We are realy pleased to announce that Wakefield has met all our LILAC standards, the first local authority in England to do this.

LILAC stands for ‘Leading Improvements for Looked After Children’.

LILAC allows young people from Care to assess the standard of participation across children’s services against a strict set of criteria designed by other young people from Care. It uses a set of quality standards which have been developed by care–experienced young people with the aim of improving the lives of looked after children and how well service providers consult with children in care and care leavers.

A young person who is a professional LILAC Assessors said “I was very impressed, the bosses I interviewed were really understanding and funny. I think Wakefield is brill and doing stuff I want my authority to do too. I really enjoyed meeting lots of people and finding out their views.”

Training, Learning and Consultancy—New from ANV

We have designed four toolkits to assist service providers with involving young people in service delivery. Each toolkit tackles a specific theme, designed to improve the Care system and develop services through the participation of young people and support the implementation of Care Matters.

The toolkits are delivered by ANV’s skilled staff, who are Care experienced themselves. They aim to inspire young people to get involved and the following themes can be tailored to individual needs.

Emotional Wellbeing?

ANV consulted 106 children and young people to find out their views on their own emotional wellbeing and service provision. We found a high proportion of emotional wellbeing ‘need’, and a low proportion of ‘needs being met’.

We found that there were many barriers to getting the right kind of support, including negative perceptions of emotional wellbeing/mental health services.

Recommendations from the report included a call for educational interventions to prevent stigma and increase understanding for young people as well as professionals.

Contact us for a full copy of this research report via publications@anationalvoice.org or download it now.

A Better Way to Show Off Your Creative Side

The ANV site is being revamped so we will be changing a few things over the next few months. We want to have a 'blog' type area in our site as well as a special place where the creative contributions from members can live. So if you are under 25 and have care experience, send us your pictures, artwork poems etc.

Please email creative@anationalvoice.org and we will let you know how best to send us your stuff.

A massive thank you to Cassie, ANV member for submitting the following poem.

Say it Loud

Feelings lost, emotions found,
Your mouth kept shut,
You make no sound.
Without a pen you write your words,
And all your thoughts
Are left unheard.
You feel like no one’s on your side,
You want to run away
And hide.
But all you need to do is say it loud,
And you will feel much better,
And maybe even proud