What happens when young people takeover a Council board meeting?

What is the Corporate Parenting Board?

The Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) is a group of elected member, service leaders and service providers who are responsible for overseeing that the Council, as a ‘corporate parent’, fulfils its duty of care for young people in the local authority’s care.

The ‘take over’ of the board

The Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) work closely with the ‘Children in Care Council’ and the ‘Care Leavers Council’ which are groups of care-experienced young people. These young people ‘takeover’ the CPB annually and 2024’s takeover took place back in November. For a ‘takeover’, the young people set the agenda for the meeting and attend/lead the meeting.

Who took over?

8 care-experienced young people took over the event, which 19 members of the CPB attended including 5 Councillors and 1 member of senior leadership from the Children and Families directorate.

What happened?

The young people led the introduction of the meeting with some games to allow everyone to get to know each other a little. They place Ice Breaker Jenga where CPB members took turns in coming up to the front, taking a Jenga block and sharing their names and job roles. The young people also split CPB members into small groups and asked them to match the picture and quirky fact to the correct board member.

Then, different topics were discussed:

Care Leavers Offer

This is an online resource for Care Leavers to let them know what support is on offer, and what is ‘out there’. The young people are giving their valuable input into what should be on this offer, helping to turn it into an online booklet, and to update the leaving care webpage.

Proudest achievements

Young people who took over the board meeting had the opportunity to share their best moments from the year. One young person spoke about delivering a speech to full council which led to ‘care experience’ being seen as a protected characteristic (find out more here). Another highlighted creating a film aimed at designated teachers. For plenty of the young people, attending and hosting the STARS awards was a stand-out moment. Finally, one young person has been part of the ‘Total Respect’ training, helping staff learn about issues that young people face.

Co-design work at Archway Hub

Archway Hub is a location use by the Care Leavers service. This service has recently been co-designed with young people so that the layout of the space is improved, as well as the activities on offer.

Care experience as a protected characteristic

Leeds City Council now views being care experienced as a protected characteristic, alongside the other protected characteristics, such as race, gender and age. The group discussed how this can help care experienced young people. Young people suggested the protected characteristic could support care experienced adults into jobs where they then work with care experienced young people and can act as role models. Conversations around the ‘importance’, ‘barriers’ and ‘next steps’ were had.

How did it go?

There was lots of positive feedback from young people and board members after the takeover:

I have learnt how brilliant young people are at public speaking

Can we do this more often?

I enjoyed the sharing of good ideas that will make a difference