Author: Nottinghamshire County Council

Children In Care Council (CICC)

Young People’s Voices are groups for Young People in Care and Care Leavers
Juniors (8-12 years)
Seniors (13-16 years)
16+ and Care Leavers (16-21 yrs)
Joining a group means you will meet other young people in care and make friends and you will also have an important role within the group, your voice and feedback helps to make services child
friendly and listens to
Your Point of View!

In these groups we do many different
activities and talk about many important
issues and influence change within the foster/residential care system. We help train new foster carers and get involved in lots of projects (e.g. we made a film about what's important to us, artwork to express our views, team building,
adventure and lots more….. We also enjoy social time in the group session and enjoy having pizza or making our own paninis and baking

We also tackle some important things such as Anti-Bullying, getting things right for you and our rights. Your Views are listened too and taken forward at our
No Labels Meeting where some of us choose to meet with Professionals and
Decision Makers

Do you want to make a difference for young people in care?. Please come forward if you have anything you wish to Discuss or Debate

In the Children in Care Council, we have different roles to help make the meetings run well. We vote for who we want to do these jobs so that they
represent what the whole group wants.

The roles are:
Chairperson
Vice Chairperson
Secretary

A Chairperson is the person who leads the meeting. They make sure that the group makes decisions together. They make sure that everyone in the group gets a chance to say what they think. The Chairperson attends the No Labels meetings to share the views of the group. Professionals attend the No Labels so that we can give your views direct to the decision makers and get feedback

A Good Chairperson:
Makes sure the meetings goes well
Makes everybody in the group feel welcome
Listens to others

A good chairperson doesn't:
Make all the decisions by themselves
Let anyone take over the meeting
Ignore anybody

A Vice-Chairperson helps the chairperson with what they need to do and they work together. They also make sure that everyone gets a say. If the chairperson can’t attend a meeting, the Vice-Chair takes over and runs the meeting. The Vice-Chair attends the No Labels meetings to share the views of the group.

A good Vice-Chair:
Makes sure the chair is okay
Helps with anything the chairperson needs help with
Is ready to take over if the chairperson can’t come to the meeting

A good Vice-Chair doesn't:
Try and take over from the chairperson
Leave the chairperson to run the meeting by themselves
Think that they’re not important!

A Secretary helps keep the meetings organised. They hand out paperwork and information in the meetings and follows up on the action plan with the group. They make notes/minutes of the meetings with the Youth Worker to keep a record of what happened. The secretary helps to publicise the group to get the word out! Everyone is welcome!

A good secretary:
Stays organised
Makes good notes in the meeting
Lets people know about the groups

A good secretary doesn't:
Show up late to meetings
Ignore what people are saying
Sort things out last minute

There is also a role for being the Chairperson at our No Labels Meetings. You can only apply for this role if you are not a Chair or Vice Chair person currently for a group. The No Labels and Children in Care Council gives young people a voice within the care system and enables them to get feedback

Where and When?
During term time we meet every 4/6 weeks
Myplace Youth Centre in Mansfield
Mill Adventure Base in Sutton in Ashfield
(Support with transport is available - contact Emma to discuss)
If you would like to join one of the groups or would like any more information, please contact:
Emma Betteridge Youth Worker
07833295870
emma.betteridge@nottscc.gov.uk