The CHT Community are having a busy Care Experienced Week supporting children and young peopleÂ
On Wednesday, Nicola attended the Plan 24-30 online event alongside 400 other delegates from across Scotland. She heard more about how The Promise Scotland has created this plan to support activities that will help Scotland #keepthepromise by 2030. Speakers from Aberdeenshire, Falkirk and Renfrewshire shared initiatives that were already improving the lives of care-experienced children and young people & care leavers. These included the Northern Promise Collaborative, Promise Groups, a Promise Keeper Network, a care-experienced parent group and Breathing Space, a resource to support families in crisis. Connected professionals, reduced stigma and community awareness, empowered young people, community-led innovation and informed service development were some of the outcomes mentioned.
On Wednesday our carers popped in for one of their regular coffee mornings. Some of the Family Based Care Team joined them for a while and then carers were free to discuss whatever they liked. We were pleased to see our newest foster carer pop in to say hello too.
This week a separated child has joined one of our Host Family carers. The unaccompanied young person is from Iran and is being supported to start a new life in Scotland.
Our Support Workers are busy preparing for the CHT Community Hallowe’en party this weekend. The party has a new format this year as suggested by our young people. This will be the first CHT Community event for one of the young people who has recently joined us and his carers and we have been thinking about how to make him extra welcome joining his peers.
On Tuesday the staff team had Fire Warden training to ensure that people working and visiting our building, including our children and young people, are safe.
Nicola also met with Intandem in Fife who provide care-experienced young people aged 8-13 with mentors to explore some collaborations.
These activities are in addition to all the regular things we do to provide excellent care to children and young people. Our Support Workers were out working with our young people on their goals. Our Supervising Social Workers held supervision meetings with carers and prepared updates for the Fostering Panel who oversee the quality of care provided by foster carers. The team also attended reviews for children and young people. Our carers are helping prepare their families for Hallowe’en as well as all the other things they do so the young people they care for can achieve their potential.
The theme of Care Experienced Week 2024 is connectedness and belonging. The CHT Community is at the heart of everything we do. We also continue to make connections outside our organisation to ensure our community is included in wider conversations and movements in Scotland, especially the commitment to Keep The Promise by 2030.
We hope all our friends will be thinking in Care Experienced Week about actions they can take to ensure all children grow up loved, safe and respected.
