Partnership campaigns for better lives for young care-experienced Londoners

Name: Pan London Care Leavers Compact

Provider: Partnership for Young London, Children in Care Council and London Councils

Summary: Care-experienced young people have worked with the council to create the Pan London Care Leavers Compact, a better offer for young care leavers.

Charity Partnership for Young London has led a city-wide project to create the Pan London Care Leavers Compact, setting young care leavers up for adult life.

The city-wide offer includes council tax exemption, priority housing status, rent deposit schemes, and joint working agreements between children’s services and housing teams.

As well as free prescriptions and half price bus and tram travel, there will be training and employment opportunities in healthcare.

Care leavers via Partnership for Young London and the Pan London Children in Care Council have been fully involved in its creation, attending meetings with NHS trusts and heads of children’s services.

The idea of the compact grew after a meeting two years ago with 100 young Londoners about what they wanted to see from people in power, says Louisa Foyle, care development officer at Partnership for Young London and co-leader of the Pan London Children in Care Council.

“We’ve used our youth voice to influence our policymaking and took an approach of listening to the young people as professionals and listening to their lived experiences,” says Foyle.

“A lot of being care experienced is about having no voice and control. This is about bringing back voice, engagement and influence.

“Every month, I hold a session with the Children in Care Council, which includes 18- to 25-year-old care leavers, and we have a monthly participation network group which shares best practice across the boroughs. By word of mouth, we’re constantly expanding our groups.”

Having young people at the heart of decision making is also essential for Partnership for Young London, its strategic director Sharon Long explains. “Each borough is told to bring a young person with them to meetings so that none of the decision making happens without young people in the room,” she says. “At our launch, it was young people on the panel, hosted by even younger people. We use the opportunity to influence meetings on bigger topics such as health and mental health.”

London is home to around 16,000 18- to 25-year-olds who have been in care, and Foyle says involving young people in policy is important if they are going to be future leaders.

“It’s also an education process and allows young people to understand who makes decisions and holds power as they work with the likes of NHS England, not just local authorities,” Long adds.

Aside from the creation of the compact, additional outcomes that have arisen from increased youth voice include young people’s annual meetings with family court judges to see how their decision making with care-leavers can be more trauma-informed, and a wider initiative helping care-experienced young people with voter ID issues.

Partnership for Young London adapts language and offer support to make sure traumatic experiences are not being exploited when young people discuss them.

Victoria Odude, youth development officer at Partnership for London and co-leader of the Pan London Children in Care Council, emphasises the value of having older, care-experienced people working with the young people involved.

She says: “Because they know that we’re not just any other professional coming in and that we’ve been there, it’s easier for them to discuss difficult topics and participate in the feedback loop about our projects.”

The organisation’s forums engage young care leavers in various ways, with a Champion Group bringing together care-experienced young people to share their lived experiences, what they need help with, and tell their managers what needs to be done to support them. The organisation also brings 125 councils together through the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum.

Feedback about the work has been positive. Siroun, aged 27, says: “From meetings with heads of children’s services and NHS trusts to family court judges, it feels like a positive step toward integrating lived understanding of the system into the approach taken forward.”

Long adds: “It’s about trying to get people to look at the totality of what they can do. This work also has to be ongoing because people’s needs are constantly changing. Mapping our engagement of young people and having forums to deep dive into certain topics is key.”