Future talent

Encouraging, nurturing and stretching our future talent is important in any area of work and this is particularly important for our young care leavers who often rely on us the most.

Research shows us that children and young people who have spent some time in care are more likely to experience poorer outcomes in later life including unemployment, homelessness and spending time in prison. So when the North West Children’s Sector Led Improvement Team got the opportunity to support two young care leavers through a 12 month apprenticeship we jumped at the chance.

The two apprentices have been with the team for two months now and are getting the opportunity to learn lots of new skills. From organising events to supporting the day to day delivery of the comprehensive sector led improvement programme for children’s services. Alongside learning a wide range of practical business administration skills they are also getting the opportunity to study for an NVQ in business administration. Our hope is that at the end of the 12 months both apprentices will have gained a wealth of experience, confidence and connections to be able to take their careers forward in the direction they aspire to.

Being able to support two care leavers to start their careers would have been enough for us but we are also in the privileged position where they have direct insights into the work they are supporting and we will of course be utilising their experiences and ideas to shape and influence our work and programmes where this makes sense.

By Gerald Meehan, director of children's services at Cheshire West and Chester and Halton councils. This article first appeared on the ADCS website