Listening to our Looked After Children (LAC)
We feel passionately that children and young people who are in the care of the Rotherham Local Authority deserve the very best support to enable them to be healthy, safe and achieve their full potential in life. By listening to our children and young people in care, we can make sure that they get the greatest possible start to life in their hometown of Rotherham. The Looked After Children's Council and Lil' LAC Club were set up to do just that.
The Looked After Children's Council and Lil' LAC Club enable children and young people to meet up in a safe and welcoming environment where they can talk about the issues that affect them whilst they are in the care of Rotherham Council. This gives the young people the chance to share their experiences, and gives our looked after children a voice, which also helps Rotherham Council to make important decisions that help improve the lives of young people in care.
A great example of this is when the LAC Council took part in a project to discuss the words that they didn’t like, and the words that they are okay with, when talking about being in care or fostered.
Some of the changes that were made included changing ‘care plan’ to ‘my plan’, and ‘contact time’ to ‘family time’; also using the young person’s name instead of saying ‘LAC or foster child.’ This has also helped teachers to stop using phrases like PEP (personal education plan), which exposes the young person’s care status in school. As one young person explained: “I don’t want everyone to know I’m in care. It makes me feel different to everyone else in school so when the teacher says I have a PEP she is telling them I am different, and I am looked after. It’s embarrassing having to explain when I didn’t want them to know in the first place.”
Do you know a child or young person who might like to get involved? Get in touch with Lisa Du-Valle, LAC Participation Worker, on 01709 822130 or email lisa.duvalle@rotherham.gov.uk
You can also visit the LACC Rotherham Facebook page.
