Our pledge to children looked after and young people leaving our care

We’ve updated our pledge. These promises give ​‘looked after’ children and young people the guarantee that we’ll provide consistent support to improve their life chances and quality of life. We’ve also included our plan showing how we’re going to do this.

  1. We'll treat you as a unique individual and respect all aspects of your identity.
  2. We'll support all young people in care under the age of 18 to go on holiday and pursue hobbies, interests and talents and find opportunities for you to develop these.
  3. We promise that you'll be informed about your rights and entitlements.
  4. We'll never give up on you.
  5. We'll celebrate your achievements at a Reach for the Stars event in the best way we can, as well as contacting you by text or phone or in person to acknowledge special occasions. We'll support all children looked after and care leavers up to the age of 25 to have strong education aspirations and we will provide good opportunities to help young people have access to further and higher education, employment and training.
  6. We'll do our utmost to support you to live as independently as possible in a way that is tailored to you. This includes support with housing and accommodation.
  7. We'll make sure that you know how to contact your social worker, personal advisers, the manager and relevant councillors. We promise to actively listen to your views.
  8. We'll do everything we can to keep our children safe and look after their mental, emotional and physical health and educational needs and sustain significant relationships.
  9. We'll make sure that life story work is offered and undertaken appropriately so that you have a sense of your past and you know what the care plan is for the future.
  10. We'll ensure that our foster carers are trained by young people to treat children in care as if they were their own children.