Children in Care Councils Consortium First Report

Friday 24 July 2009

The Children in Care Councils Consortium, a collaboration initiated by the National Centre for Excellence in Residential Child Care (NCERCC), based at NCB, and Children's Rights Officers and Advocates (CROA), has released a report revealing great progress in establishing Children in Care Councils across the country. The councils, first announced as part of the Care Matters white paper, provide a forum for young people in care to express their views, share experiences and influence services that affect them.

The report, which comprises the vision and experience of 43 local authorities in developing their children's councils, is the first step towards developing a nationwide network in order to share experiences and develop best practice among authorities. Varying levels of activity to date were reported, from early planning stages to highly effective councils already up and running. 

Jonathan Stanley, director of NCERRC, said 'The responses we have received so far indicate that in a large number of local authorities young people are engaging with their care workers and feeding back on how to improve the services they receive. This is a very positive development and we hope that the responses we have received will encourage other authorities to join the Consortium.'

To build on and advance the children's councils initiative, the Consortium plans a network, website, conference and accredited training.