Today, I am launching applications for my first Care Experienced Advisory Board. The Board will amplify the voices of young care experienced people in my work and the work of my office.
A key part of my role is to hear directly from children in care and care leavers, as well as children living away from home, and amplify their voices. By speaking to decision makers across Government and Parliament I work to ensure your needs are met.
The Advisory Board is an exciting, voluntary opportunity for care experienced young people aged 18-25, to give you the chance to have your voice heard and share your thoughts on the current and future work of the Children’s Commissioner’s office. As well as this you will be involved in developing useful and relevant resources for children and care experienced young people.
The aims of the Board are to:
- Amplify care experienced young people’s voices in our work, learning from you and providing you the opportunity to shape the work and direction of the Children’s Commissioner’s office and affect children’s lives. We want to make sure we are putting children’s voices at the heart of everything we do.
- Make sure your voices are heard and embedded into our recommendations for policy makers, decision takers and Government, and in our work with other key stakeholders such as charities.
- Develop relevant and useful resources for children and young people, in particular sharing ideas and thoughts for IMO and Help at Hand.
As part of the Advisory Board you will:
- Meet 10 times this year: 4 times in person and 6 times online. The dates for the in-person meetings are: 15th March, 20th June, 15th September, 12th December. In-person meetings will run from 11am to 4pm and will take place in London. We will reimburse travel. Online meetings will be held in the months between these in-person meetings and we will decide the dates of these as a group.
- Share your thoughts on our work. You will give us important feedback on things we do for children and care experienced young people and making sure our work is relevant and useful for children across England.
- Share ideas. We want to hear from you and hear your ideas for topics and projects for us to take forwards and help affect change for children in England.
- Develop relevant and useful resources. These will be used for children and young people and the care experienced community specifically.
- Develop new skills. We will be invested in your development, helping you to gain new skills such as presenting, conducting your own
research, event production and creating blog posts and podcasts. - Represent children and young people’s voices. There will be opportunities to represent children’s voices at events and meet and network with key stakeholders including the Children’s Commissioner’s Advisory Board.
- Develop an event for the care experienced community. This will also act as a celebration of everything you have done over the year.
- Get support in careers and other areas of interest to you.
Apply via this survey
Deadline Sunday 19th February at 23:59.
If you have any questions please contact Scout Davies, Advisory Board Lead via email at: [email protected].
