What is the Corporate Parenting Panel?
The Corporate Parenting Panel is a large meeting which happens around every six weeks. The Panel is made up of important, senior managers, professionals and Elected Councillors. Two members of the Children in Care Council also get the opportunity to sit on the Corporate Parenting Panel.
What does the Corporate Parenting Panel do?
The aim of the Corporate Parenting Panel is to make sure the needs of all Bury Looked After Children are being met. The Corporate Parenting Panel makes sure that all services involving Looked After Children are providing the right services and are well supported.
Young person's message to our Corporate Parents
We only get one chance at life and so we need guidance, support and an extra boost to help us achieve the aspirations we all aim for individually. We need all professionals to be consistent and reliable when building a trustworthy relationship with us.
We want a safe, fun and co-operative place to live with people who really care about us. However it is important to emphasis that we do not get the live with our own families, they are still part of us and are loved dearly. Therefore, we tend to worry and wonder what they are doing or what may happen to them.
We are all unique so when it comes to school or college sometimes it may be difficult to concentrate, motivate and progress. This may be due to multiple factors such as not being academically strong, we have a lot of things happening in our lives compared to some of the other peers in our community we may simply just not want to go.
We need to be understood and we need help dealing with this. It is vital that you look from our perspectives as much as your own and place yourselves in to the positions that we have been placed into, sometimes unwillingly. This will help you to understand that yes we do want to be treated differently and want to be considered "normal" but certain circumstances our behaviour may be due to reasons why we aren't like other kids.
We worry about what may happen in our futures and fear that we may not be as successful as those around us. We need support in finding jobs, finding accommodation and the ability to become completely independent if need be. More than anything we need to be cared for, respected and appreciated no matter what. If you don't, then who else will?
We are not just stats on a piece of paper, we aren't lacking in opportunities and we aren't considered as much as we should be. Every complaint, every promise and every aspiration should be taken seriously because it is what we deserve and what we should be getting from every corporate parent.
Thank you.