Five young people in care demanded that councillors listen to their needs when it comes to the support they receive.
Milton Keynes Council was criticised by Ofsted in 2016 for having ‘limited’ engagement with the young people in its care.
So, on Tuesday (March 19) at a meeting of the council’s Corporate Parenting Panel, five members of the Our Voice, Children in Care Council, took it in turns to call upon politicians to uphold a series of promises to young people.
Called the Children in Care Pledge, it calls on the council to: “Let our voice be heard, listen to what children and young people want and involve us in decisions about our lives. Be honest when something can’t happen and tell us about change in plenty of time.”
Councillors and their professional officers agreed to sign the pledge, and Cllr Norman Miles, who chairs the committee, says,: “I have always tried to keep my promises to my children. If you say you are going to do something, do it.”
The council currently looks after 381 children in care, with 259 of them in Milton Keynes, 89 with a neighbouring authority, and another 58 who are more than 20 miles away. The council is looking at ways to better involve the children it has responsibility for who are cared for outside of the city.
