Winning the Children and Young People's Charity Award was one of Become's real highlights last year. Not only did it pay tribute to the inspiring young care-experienced people we work with, who fight so hard to change the care system, but it also recognised the drive and dedication of every member of the Become team.
Become exists to improve the lives and future chances of care-experienced children and young people. In 2024, we supported nearly 1,500 young people with our services, which include help and advice, guidance into higher and further education and support into employment. That figure also includes young people who co-delivered workshops to adults and professionals who work in the sector through our training programmes.
Our flagship, accredited training course for personal advisors for children in care will be running again in the autumn and soon we'll be launching a new training resource to help teachers support care-experienced young people to achieve their potential.
The campaigning side of Become amplifies the voices of young people to improve the care system. Only by listening to those who've been in care do we know what needs to change, and it is through our participation and co-delivery work with young people that our two key campaigns were developed.
End the Care Cliff fights for a stronger safety net for young people when they leave care – many of whom will be stripped of support overnight when they turn 18. Our Gone Too Far campaign calls for children to stop being moved far away from the people and places that matter to them – which can be up to 500 miles away – largely due to a shortage of homes locally.
Young people influence change by sharing their views, telling their stories, or feeding into our policy and campaigning work. Recently this has included young people speaking at the House of Commons Education Select Committee inquiry into children's social care, which will help inform the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill currently passing through Parliament.
Our young people have also worked with the Bishop of Manchester on his private members' bill to raise the level of Universal Credit for care leavers and consulted with MP Jake Richards on his private members' bill on preventing children in care being moved far away.
Being recognised as an award-winning charity has given us all so much confidence and helped demonstrate that we are a trusted and impactful charity to those who support us.
From the great night we had at the awards ceremony to the positive results that have come from winning, we urge other charities to enter and benefit from the experience. www.becomecharity.org.uk
