Harrow Council has made significant progress on its plan to enhance support for care leavers, with updates presented on the refreshed Local Offer and participation activities.
The updated Care Leaver Local Offer has been rewritten to be clearer, more accessible, and meaningful, developed in collaboration with care-experienced young people. The offer now uses young person friendly language
, shorter sentences
, clear headings and sections
, and direct language
such as 'We will support you with…'. Content is organised around key areas including accommodation, money, education, employment, training, emotional and mental health, support for parents, support for those in custody, and participation. Each section clearly outlines available support, who provides it, how to access it, and what young people can expect. The offer is designed to be easy to read
and flexible for different learning needs
, with consideration for those with English as an additional language, allowing for translation into alternative languages. It clearly reflects the Council's role as a Corporate Parent
, aiming to provide support beyond statutory minimums and reflect ambition for young people's independence and well-being.
Specific sections have been included for care leavers who are parents and those leaving custody, to clearly outline the support available to them as their corporate parents. Future plans for the Local Offer include developing short videos for each section, easy-read versions, translations, and a relaunch to services and partner agencies
. The videos are intended to be a maximum of 90 seconds
and will talk through what the local offer is
.
Discussions at a recent meeting also highlighted the success of the Participation Service. Consultations with children in care and care leavers have informed future engagement, with young people expressing a desire to be more involved in decisions pertinent to their care. The report detailed the recruitment of five paid ambassador roles from fourteen interviewed experts by experience. These ambassadors are intended to act as ambassadors
and represent the wishes and feelings and views of children in our care and care leavers
. The roles are seen as a game changer for how we work
and will absolutely be a game changer for, for how we work
. The aim is for these ambassadors to present these reports
and for the role to be coming from young people to our young people so I think it's much more, hopefully much more powerful
.
Additionally, 23 learners had completed the Money Ready
training, which delivers two days of training around financial education, financial literacy, for our care leavers
. A projected 73 learners are expected to complete it by the end of the year, representing a 284% increase on last year in terms of attendance
.
The rewritten Local Offer was developed in collaboration with care-experienced young people
and informed by the Ofsted inspection
. Feedback from young people was gathered through a care leavers forum
where they consulted on the new look of the local offer as well as the content
. The feedback helped us to refine this draft of the local offer
and included helpful suggestions around the accessibility
. The report also states that the feedback is something that we're constantly going to make sure that we touch basically the young people so that we get this right
. The updated Local Offer is expected to improve young people's understanding of their rights and entitlements
, increase engagement with services
, and support smoother transitions to independence
.
Further details on the Corporate Parenting Panel can be found in the Public reports pack.
