Our plan is built around four core pillars:
- My Health and Wellbeing
- My Family, Friends and Home
- My Learning and Skills
- My Future
Vision:
Children who come into care are better off because of it.
Expectations:
- open doors for care leavers
- be ambitious for me
- help maintain relationships that are important to young people
Our Pillars
Pillar 1: My Health and Wellbeing
Over the term of this plan, we will:
- make sure that all our care experienced young people have a health passport when they turn 18
- make sure that children in care have their health needs assessed and met on a regular basis
- make sure that children in care have easy access to appropriate emotional and mental health support, through our own bespoke commissioned services
- make sure that children in care have access to free Council leisure activities Improve pathways, services and support on substance misuse for children in our care and care leavers
Pillar 2: My Family, Friends and Home
Over the term of this plan, we will:
- make sure that children and young people are able to maintain long lasting relationships with trusted adults and professionals whilst improving their support networks
- extend our Staying Close project, increase the numbers of carers offering Staying Put and increase the use of services such as Shared Lives
- continue to provide more support for our in-house foster carers to ensure that they are able to care for our children in the communities they live in
- promote the Advocacy service to ensure that children in care and care leavers access an independent advocate when needed Reduce the number of children who are living in residential homes
- proactively support children in care to return to live with their families and, where possible, to discharge care orders
- work with local housing providers to increase and improve our bespoke care leaver accommodation offer
Pillar 3: My Learning and Skills
Over the term of this plan, we will:
- improve outcomes for care experienced young people at each key stage of their education
- improve attendance rates for care experienced young people
- enhance transitions for our care experienced young people to allow them to be successful at all stages of their education
- improve education, employment, and training rates
- increase numbers of care leavers in Higher Education
- increase apprenticeship opportunities for care experienced young people
Pillar 4: My Future
Over the term of this plan, we will ensure that:
- children and young people are helped to recover from trauma and understand their life experience
- children and young people are given support to build healthy relationships
- care leavers will be better prepared to live independently through access to life skills courses to prepare them for adulthood
- care leavers will have access to Liverpool City Region employment support programmes
- we work with local employers to increase the number of apprentice places in Wirral
- we improve the opportunities for our children in care to get part time jobs
As a result of this plan, we as Corporate Parents, will ensure that:
- care experienced children and young people’s voices will be captured, acknowledged and included
- we will always be aspirational for our care experienced young people and support them to achieve their individual goals
- we will promote relationships for care experienced children and young people with people who are important to them
- we will have a person dedicated as a Corporate Parenting Officer who will continue to drive our plan forwards and maximise our opportunities in fulfilling our roles
- we will ensure that all relevant services commit to signing our Corporate Parenting Contract annually