Sefton Council joins national campaign to CARE this Care Leavers Week

Sefton Council is celebrating all care experienced young people during National Care Leavers Week’. It is joining the national campaign which calls for the public, professionals, carers, decision-makers to Celebrate, Amplify, Raise and Encourage the voices and experiences of care-experienced people.

Sefton is celebrating Care Leavers week with a range of events aimed at young people’s mental wellbeing, employment prospects and education opportunities. The Council is also using the week to look back at the past year and celebrate some of the improvements made in relation to how the local authority works with and supports care-experienced young people.

The Council is celebrating, amplifying, raising awareness and encouraging care experienced young people by:

• Putting the voice of care experienced people at the heart of its decision-making by making care experienced a protected characteristic.
• Launching a survey to get young people’s views on how it can better tailor services for care experienced people.
• Working with local colleges to support care experienced people continue into further education.
• Hosting a careers fair to help care experienced people into work.

Cllr Mhairi Doyle, Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care said: “We want children and young people to have high aspirations and know that people believe in them to achieve their dreams, no matter their background.

“Care Leavers Week is a chance for us to celebrate how amazing and inspirational our care experienced young people are in Sefton and reflect on the work we do to support them and how we can do this better.

“Care experienced people face increased challenges and even discrimination across education, employment, housing and are more likely to struggle with mental health issues and that’s why we are hosting a number of sessions aimed at supporting our young people in these areas.

“I am proud of the work we are doing to support these brilliant young people but we are always striving to improve how we celebrate, amplify raise and encourage our care experienced young people in Sefton.