City NiCC

Where it is?

We have our meeting at County Hall in Norwich.

How do I get there?

Your foster parents can bring you and County hall is also easily accessible by public transport. If you do come by public transport, we will always give you back the transport cost.

If getting here is difficult for you, we can always look into getting a taxi for you.

When do we meet?

They happen every second Tuesday of the month between 5-6.30pm

Who can attend?

Anyone that is in care or has been in care.

What have we been up to?

• Making the looked after children (LAC) pack – we started a LAC pack for looked after children for when they first come into care. We have decided on some idea’s and we have started to source funding. Due to coronavirus, this has been put on hold but we hope to look at this at a later date.
• Looking at the use of language in care – we discussed the type of language that is used within Children’s Services and we came up with some alternatives such as changing 'contact' to 'family time'. Even though children services decided not to adopt this formally (because language is changing all the time), teams are now using different terms in their everyday work.
• We made poster of the 'ideal' social worker so we can then share this with teams
• Created top tips for social workers – we discussed our top tips which will be used for a video made by members of the Norfolk in Care Council (NiCC)
• Prepared a session for social workers to promote good practice – we were going to meet some new social workers to share our experiences and what we think good social workers should do. This was put on hold due to the outbreak of coronavirus
• Took part in wider county meetings – we attended a county meeting and met other young people from the Eastern region
• Being part of our 'Foster care skills to foster' training – we regularly attend this foster carer training to share our experiences
• Interview panels – we regularly interview Children's Services staff and decide with the adult panel who we think would be best for the job
• Young Inspectors – some of the NiCC members take part in other projects across the council. We are taking part in the young inspectors project. We inspect different residential homes and write to them to make recommendations
• Tenancy awareness course – the housing specialist asked for comments on a tenancy awareness course that is provided to look after young people to help prepare them for living independently. The comments made by the NiCC have been passed to the commissioning team who are now looking for a provider to run the course.
• Bright spots – every two years Norfolk County Council run the bright spots survey. We help promote the survey across the service and to all looked after children and care leavers. We can then find out what is working well for young people and what isn't. We hope to discuss the results with children services so we can help make improvements.
• Transitions from one worker to another worker – when we first went into lockdown, we discussed working on a project virtually. One topic that stuck out for us all was the amount of social workers that young people have while they are in care. We discussed that we can’t always stop people leaving jobs, but there are some things Children's Services and workers could put in place to make this transitions easier. These comments were then passed on to seniors managers to consider them when they create a policy around changes of worker.

What are we doing next?

• Film group
• Passport to independence
• Writing the website
• Newsletter

If you would like more information email us at csparticipationteam@norfolk.gov.uk.