Corporate Parenting Strategy 2025 to 2030

Having a sense of belonging and a strong identity are essential for our children and young people’s wellbeing. We recognise

the need to support our care experienced children and young people to develop strong and positive identities, including

an understanding of their care story. We want to help our children understand who they are, where they come from and

all that they can achieve. It is essential that children and young people understand their history to make sense of their experiences and identity.

We are committed to preventing stigma and discrimination on account of care experience by promoting understanding

and awareness in Buckinghamshire.

Race and identity, including gender, sexuality, religion and disability, are fundamental considerations in every aspect of

our children and young people’s development, health and wellbeing. We aim to ensure that all our care experienced children

and young people can voice their concerns, be their best selves and feel confident in who they are. Every child must be able

to be successful regardless of their personal characteristics.

Being happy and confident in one’s identity is a key factor in looking after our emotional wellbeing, particularly when it comes

to race, sexuality, disability and gender. It is therefore crucial that we encourage our care experienced children and young people to be comfortable in who they are, celebrate differences and demonstrate sensitivity and inclusivity for our young people to thrive. We will consider this in reviews and pathway planning and will be explicit about issues young people may be facing in relation to bullying and discrimination.

Training is available for staff to support our young people who identify as LGBTQ+ so every child feels comfortable and assured in who they are.

Some of our care experienced young people have become looked after through the unaccompanied asylum-seeking child (UASC) route. This cohort of young people have frequently experienced considerable trauma, have had to navigate the care system without speaking or writing in English, and can have restricted access to education or employment until a decision is reached on their asylum application.

• Deliver training to staff working with care experienced children to promote understanding of our children’s needs and enable them to be good advocates for them in their services and organisations.
• Promote our offer of support and opportunities in ways that are accessible to our children, including our app for young people leaving care.
• Increase our capacity for life story work to help our children understand their history and experiences.
• Engage our wider council and key partners in celebrating our children’s achievements via our celebration events.
• Ensure our children and young people understand their rights and entitlements.
• Address children and young people’s citizenship needs at the earliest opportunity, ensuring that they have access to rights and opportunities to fully participate in society. Ensure all children in our care have had any unresolved immigration or nationality issues addressed.
• Strengthen the membership and remit of the Corporate Parenting Panel and the structure that supports it to drive the strategy and maintain momentum for improvement.
• Improve our data collection and analysis to increase our understanding of the experiences of our children in areas such as health, education and youth justice, and address any inequalities in experiences on the basis of protected characteristics.
• Work to ensure that care experienced children and young people are supported to express their views, wishes and feelings and that these are taken into account when decisions are made about their lives.
• Develop a robust framework to ensure that children and young people’s feedback is sought, prioritised and responded to at all levels of decision-making across the council and amongst our key partners. We will also need to ensure that children and young people have child-friendly and accessible ways of challenging decisions and hearing the result of that challenge.

• Annual survey shows an increased understanding of care history.
• Increased evidence of life story work on children and young people’s files.
• Children report higher satisfaction.
• Data collection highlights more effectively where there is inequality in both short and long-term outcomes for care experienced children.
• Over representation across child exploitation, rates of children going missing, school exclusions, and involvement in the criminal justice system is reduced to match those of the general population.