The Islington Plan for Looked After Children and ... - Islington Council

f. An established Children’s Complaints Service supports children when they
wish to raise concerns or complaints or give compliments related to the
quality of care that they receive.
g. The Council uses a range of methods to engage with children looked after
and care leavers. The methods used to encourage active participation
include:
Annual surveys
Involvement by children looked after in the reorganisation of services
Delivering training to practitioners and partners and foster carers
Taking part in the recruitment of new staff in Children’s Social Care
Attending events and activities arranged by the Children In Care
Council who carry out surveys at those events.
5.2.2 Summary of outcomes
a. 93% of children communicated their views to their reviews. (The 7% who
did not communicate were young people who actively chose not to take
part in their review).
b. In a recent inspection, Ofsted found Islington’s Adoption Service to be
'good with outstanding features' in meeting children’s wishes and feelings,
and equality and diversity. The Fostering Service was judged outstanding
in helping children to achieve well and enjoy what they do, in helping
children to make a positive contribution and in promoting equality and
diversity.
c. Young people were involved at all stages of planning for the return of
leaving care services from delivery by an external provider to the Council
and were represented on the Stakeholder Development Board for Leaving
Care. The views of children and young people were given precedence in
decision making on the model for service delivery.
d. Young people have been instrumental in highlighting inconsistencies in
preparing them to leave care. This has resulted in the development of a
Preparation for Independence Strategy and Toolkit for use by Islington
foster carers, partner agencies, independent agency foster carers, and
providers of supported accommodation.
e. Young people have become more involved in taking control of the
direction of their pathway plans with support from Young Person’s
Advisors and Social Workers.
f. The pledge audit and annual reports of the Children In Care Council
demonstrate a high satisfaction rate for children looked after with the care
and support that they receive.
g. The success of participation approaches has resulted in the Council
receiving a LILAC Award (Leading Improvements for Looked After
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