Home Local News Awards hat-trick for Lancashire County Council

Awards hat-trick for Lancashire County Council

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Lancashire County Council has won three of the four awards on offer at the national British Youth Council Youth on Board Awards, announced on Saturday 3 December.

The awards recognise the county council’s innovative approach to ensuring that the views of children and young people (up to the age of 19, or 25 if they have a disability) help shape its services, and for outstanding individual contributions. In the Inspiring Project category, two county council projects were named joint winners.

The Youth on Board Awards are led by young people, and recognise and celebrate innovative and exciting participation, both from young people and the projects and organisations that support them.

The award-winning young people are part of Lancashire’s Children in Care Council (LINX) and the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Council (POWAR). Both groups work to ensure that the needs, views and experiences of all children in care and care leavers are considered when important decisions, that can profoundly affect their lives, are made. The groups are run by Barnardo’s on behalf of Lancashire County Council.

The county council won the following three categories:

• The Inspiring Project Award – won jointly by the Fostering and Adoption team and the Children with Disabilities Council, known as POWAR (Participate, Opportunities, Winners, Achieve and Respect).

The Fostering and Adoption team won for ensuring that young people’s views are included in many important functions of the service. For the past year, young people’s involvement has included the recruitment and training of foster carers and adoptive parents, reviewing the success of placements, and the training of staff in the team.

The POWAR team has taken an active role in planning, developing and reviewing the services they use, including inspecting residential homes, fostering agencies and other services provided for young people. Their participation ensures that vital services are influenced by the people who actually use them.

• The Make a Difference Award – won by Will Rainford, 10 years-old from Chorley. Will takes an active role campaigning locally and nationally for the rights of all children and young people with special educational needs or a disability. Will has become a vocal campaigner for children’s rights and is a member of the Children’s Rights Alliance of England (CRAE).

• Youth-led Award – won by LINX, the Children in Care Council, for their involvement and participation in services for children in care and those leaving care. Their work has included planning and organising meetings with senior officers and county councillors and being on the interview panel for the recruitment of new social workers. They have also played an active role in the work of the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield.

County Councillor Matthew Tomlinson, cabinet member for children, young people, and schools, said: “Congratulations to everyone involved with this success. It is a real achievement and fantastic recognition of very important work.

“We value the participation of children and young people so much that it is now central to our approach.

“We’ve made some significant changes to our processes based on their opinions and ideas. Some of the most vulnerable children and young people have the opportunity to make a real and lasting difference to services which have a considerable impact on their lives.

“What all the projects have in common is that they demonstrate innovative approaches which provide great results for children and young people in Lancashire.”

The Youth on Board scheme was created in 2012 by the British Youth Council, a charity that aims to empower young people up to the age of 25 to get involved in their communities on a local, regional, national and international level.

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