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Blog by Victoria Odude, YPBMF Steering Group representative & Artwork by Daisy, YPBMF Champion

In February, we kicked off the first YPBMF and Practitioner events of the year, and what a strong start it has been! As a YPBMF representative, part of my role is to gather the views, experiences, and ideas shared at these events and make sure they are fed back to decision-makers and used to help shape improvements for care-experienced young people.

Our theme for this event was People, Place, Purpose and Community:

Place: Focused on accommodation and safe homes.
Purpose: Explored jobs, training, education, employment and volunteering.
People: Focused on relationships and support networks.
Community: Explored connection and creating supportive spaces.

We were delighted to be joined by a new group of Champions making their YPBMF debut. Seeing more young people getting involved and sharing their unique voices always brings such a positive energy to the room.

Powerful Conversations: The YPBMF Panels and Ledge Talks

Some of the most impactful sessions were our YPBMF panel’s on People, Place, and Purpose and Ledge Talks.

Sharing Experiences

“Hearing YPBMF Legend Jamyl speak is always moving for me.” Victoria, YPBMF Steering Group Rep

In this session he spoke openly and honestly, sharing his experiences around accommodation and the importance of having somewhere safe and suitable to live. He spoke about the impact that unsuitable housing can have on care experienced young people and why having the right support and living environment matters.

As always, he was brave in sharing his experiences and did a fantastic job.

Wednesday’s panel explored Education, Employment and Moving into a first home answering questions like: How have your experiences shaped the way you think about education or work?

Key things that stood out to me included:

The stigma many young people still experience in education and employment because of their care experience

The importance of spaces where care experienced young people can build relationships and support networks

The need for accessible community spaces that connect with young people’s interests and hobbies

These are important themes that will continue to feed into future YPBMF discussions and feedback with professionals and managers. Victoria, YPBMF Steering Group Rep

“What stood out to me was the young person panel, the amount of times I have wanted to be up there and represent young people in Durham and across the country and I finally got the chance and loved it! Jamyl one of our legends was amazing support and all of us new champions spoke so well and challenged practitioners thinking which I hope they take into their own and others practice to help us be the best me” Luke, YPBMF Champion

As part of Wednesday’s panel young people in the audience shared the best piece of advice they’d been given around education & employment. These included,

Go for what suits you, rather than what others tell you to do. No one knows you better than you.

To have an end goal but to not have to rush to that end goal, many people have many many jobs before they find the right one for them. Try new things as you never know what you might love.

When you make a decision about something sit comfortable and embrace its challenges you will learn so much from it.

Even during your lowest periods, when that assessment just isn’t coming together and you don’t know what to do, there is always help available. It can be difficult to ask for help, but always try.

“I was part of the panel at the PA event and one of my key messages was getting young people engaged in different things, whether it be Care leaver events or things outside of that, like football, badminton, or something else that they enjoy. But don’t force them into it because they might be like very quiet at first so give them time to settle in and find their voice. Also don’t assume that because they liked something before, they are going to like it again because people can change so give them a chance to express what they want to engage with” Sean, YPBMF Champion

Practitioners shared the best ways they’ve found to encourage new young people to join groups. These included:

Meet them beforehand and talk though what might happen, and get to know them. Share with them a bit about me and learn a bit about them.
Finding out their interests and keeping this in mind when events come up not only within service but also in the local area. Be available to go along with them.
Promotion from other YP ‘s whom have been and felt welcomed, often easier if they know someone who is going and their PA can support the first visit. Exploring new creative ideas with YP’s.

Fireside Chats: University and Home

Our fireside chats provided a space for honest, casual conversation about the real hurdles care leavers face.

Going to University

Leigh, YPBMF Legend and Aisha, YPBMF Sessional Worker, reflected on their joint experiences as care-experienced students. Leigh shared:

“I wanted to inform people that it’s never too late to go to uni, because I never thought I could. I kind of thought that once I was living on my own and there’s so much to think about, like your accommodation, whether you’re going to be able to pay rent and all your bills I just never thought I’d be able to. I had no qualifications and I know that a lot of care experienced people, especially ones who go in a bit later in life like me, they do struggle with getting qualifications and that can be a massive setback. That’s also part of the reason I never thought I could go, I never knew that actually there’s a lot of other ways around it.

I think a lot of young people shut off when professionals speak so having me and Aisha, two people who are also care experienced speaking about stuff is just a better way of receiving the information. It doesn’t feel like, here’s all the information, now go do with it what you want. We’re just kind of having a casual chat and people could pick up on whatever bits they wanted.” – Leigh, YPBMF Legend

From Homelessness to Home

Chloe delivered a brilliant fireside chat with Harlie, YPBMF Sessional Worker, where she bravely shared her experiences of moving from homelessness into her first home and spoke about the challenges and learning that came with that journey.

“My key message is – if I can do it you can! You can do anything you put your mind too!! YPBMF events are a great place to network with other care leavers and professionals- they inspired me to do better and create my workshop to help other care leavers! You never know what they might inspire you to do if you come along” – Chloe

Chloe also runs independent living workshops and shares tips and advice for care experienced young people through her growing TikTok platform. She is a great example of someone using their experiences to support other care experienced young people and help improve outcomes.

Poster Session and Networking

Before and during each YPBMF event, local authorities and young people create posters showing:

Best practice in their area
Improvements they have made
Challenges they are still working on

During networking sessions, practitioners and young people explore the posters and speak to the people who created them. Key points and contacts are recorded in the Big Book of Ideas so connections can continue after the event.

As the YPBMF representative, I gather feedback from the room including:

Best practice examples
Key takeaways
Ideas people want to develop locally
Questions for Personal Advisers and managers

“There were 2 key ideas that really stood out to us from the posters, so we took them back to our local forum meeting and the head of service was really intrigued to hear about them. One of them was an awards night to recognise different people, what they’re doing well, and to give positive messages to somebody that isn’t doing as well at the moment. We thought something small like that actually does seem quite big. For me, even getting into college or completing college work, I don’t really have someone who I can celebrate that with. I know a few care leavers that have been accepted into universities and stuff so it would be nice to recognise that. And then another one was more support groups for young parents to be around other young parents. It was on quite a few posters, so we were like, okay, a lot of places are doing this” Sean, YPBMF Champion

The Feedback Loop & The Big Book of Ideas

One of the key parts of YPBMF is our feedback loop. At these events, we introduced an updated version alongside our Big Book of Ideas, used by young people and professionals to record best practice and plan what they will take back to their local authorities.

New additions included:

Project Idea Pages: Using “Somewhereshire” as an example to show what authorities are doing well, what they are struggling with, what they want to improve and space for names and contact details.

This example page helps guide local authorities and young people on what they can record and collect during the networking and poster sessions, making it easier to share best practice and stay connected after the event.

Reflections Page: Where attendees could doodle, reflect or write down how they felt about the event
Stay Connected Page: For care experienced individuals to share their name, where they are from or local authority, and contact details or social media.

A key addition was the section on making change in your local authority.

This includes the YPBMF/NLCBF feedback loop, showing step by step in a loop how the views, experiences and questions of care experienced young people move between young people and professionals and are shared with decision-makers within local authorities and beyond.

This is followed by space for attendees to plan how they will create change locally and feedback on their progress. There is space to think about how things could be improved locally, for example:

Increasing representation of care experienced young people in meetings
Including the YPBMF feedback loop on local agendas

The final section focuses on “What Next”, including:

What change you want to achieve
What you will do next week, next month and next year
Who and what you will need to make this happen

As part of her role, Victoria also presents the feedback loop at events, sharing previous questions from young people along with responses from managers and personal advisors at the last managers and PA event, and collecting new questions and responses from the room.

These views, experiences and updates gathered from the event will also be shared by her with the NLCBF Steering Group during our manager’s event. The loop then repeats with collecting the new responses, discussions and feedback from managers and decision-makers, which are then brought back and shared with young people at the next YPBMF event.

NLCBF members can find a video of February’s feedback loop on the members website and YouTube channel. The video shows part of the feedback loop in action, including sharing previous questions and manager’s responses and collecting new questions and responses from young people.

As Victoria explains, “I really enjoy seeing how the feedback loop continues to evolve. It is powerful to see young people’s voices and experiences move between young people and professionals in real time and be used to improve services and outcomes.“

National Apprenticeship Week & The Marketplace

As the event took place during National Apprenticeship Week, Abbie and Aisha, YPBMF Sessional Worker spoke about the Care X Apprenticeship Network.

“We wanted this session to help influence the next generation of care experienced people to find alternative routes into education, training, and employment.”

“The key message that I focused on was around financial support. Some local authorities provide a top up to the apprenticeship wage and that can help a lot and take a lot of pressures off. Ultimately, it pushes the young people for success rather than failure of their apprenticeship.” Aisha, YPBMF Sessional Worker

The Care X Network supports care experienced young people who are thinking about, currently completing or have previously completed apprenticeships through:

Four online meetings a year
Advice and peer support
Resources and updates

They also spoke about the Moving On Up event at the BBC during National Leaving Care Month last year, and their recently published article promoting examples of positive practice around Care X’s 5 Key Messages which features apprentices experiences of support.

The NLCBF Marketplace also featured partner organisations, including Become, Drive Forward Foundation, Rees Foundation, Smart Works, Moving On Up, and Skills2Thrive.

Together these organisations support care experienced young people to thrive in different areas of their lives, including education, employment, wellbeing, independent living and personal development.

They provided information, advice and resources and spoke with young people about how they can access support and opportunities.

A Performance: “The New You”

The event featured a moving performance by Leigh, YPBMF Legend. The song, “The New You,” is a letter to their 15-year-old self.

“The song that I performed is called “The New You” and it’s a letter to my 15 year old self, but in the version of a song. I thought it would work really well for the People, Place and Purpose theme. Especially the line – I couldn’t be who I am now without who you are. That was such a strong line when I wrote it because I was like, you know what, I actually couldn’t be who I am now if I wasn’t the person that I was at 15 and if I didn’t kind of go through all that. It’s all about saying things will actually get better, you’ve got to give it a bit of time. It was really lovely being able to write that and be able to play it at this event. It’s always really nice playing at the forum events, it almost feels like a homecoming gig sometimes because they’re just great. It’s really nice because like I have a lot of young people after the events reach out and tell me how much I’ve inspired them or how much they really want to keep hearing my music” Leigh, YPBMF Legend

Closing Reflections

From the posters showing best practice to the networking in the room, the passion was clear.

“I think practitioners and young people should definitely go to NLCBF events it gives them a chance to network with each other and hear about the positive things that are happening and seek good practice that maybe they would have never thought of. The feedback loop is really good too so young people are aware of all the different things going on from like a PA’s perspective, because I don’t think young people and PA’s sit down a lot to discuss things like that, which can be quite beneficial.”Sean, YPBMF Legend.

‘This was my first event as Champion and I felt like one. Like always when I attend these events my hands were cramping and voice was dry from all the note taking and networking and definitely a lot of food for thought. Just like the theme, the work we do isn’t just about policy and procedures but about people and there is always so much care and passion in the room and I hope we can share more positive stories of our amazing young people so the wider communities start to see we don’t fit the stereotypes.My personal highlight though was getting Nat, Kyla and Jamyl to join in with my PressForBetterChallenge and helped me tick off 60/140 press ups I had to do that day, Thanks guys” Luke, YPBMF Champion

“This event was a great start to the year. It was especially positive to see:

New champions getting involved

Honest and powerful fireside chats and panels

Performances including music from Leigh (YPBMF Legend)

A beautiful poem from Ash

Contributions from guest speakers and partner organisations

Young people and practitioners engaging both in person and online

As the YPBMF representative, it is always rewarding to see how the conversations and ideas from these events continue beyond the day itself and feed into discussions with practitioners, managers and decision-makers.

I am already looking forward to the next event and hope to see even more people there.” Luke, YPBMF Champion