Every Care Experienced Young Person is entitled to a Personal Adviser until their 25th birthday. Your Personal Advisers will help you create your ‘pathway plan’ and help you reach your goals by providing practical and emotional support.
We will always:
- act in your best interests, and promote your physical and mental health and well-being
- promote your identity as an individual and a part of the Bedford Borough community
- encourage you to express your views, wishes and feelings
- listen to and acknowledge your views, wishes and feelings
- help you gain access to, and make the best use of, services provided by Bedford Borough Council and our partners
- be aspirational and seek to secure the best outcomes for you
- help you to be safe and stable in your community, home life, relationships and education or work
- prepare you for adulthood and independent living
To qualify for this support, you must have been in care for a period of at least 13 weeks (or periods amounting to 13 weeks) which began after your 14th birthday and included some time after your 16th birthday.
Your Personal Advisers or Social Worker will be happy to talk to you about the support available to you.
Who's who in your life and their role
Personal Advisers
Advocate
Care experienced young people have the right to access an advocate. An advocate is someone who can represent them and help them to challenge us (Bedford Borough Council) when they disagree with decisions that are being made about them, or are concerned that their voice is not being heard.
See our Your voice webpage for more information.
Work coaches and Jobcentre Plus staff
Jobcentre Plus Work Coaches play a key role in your life. A work coach is there to support you with your career and advise you about opportunities available to help you with training etc.
See our Your finances webpage for more information.
Healthcare professionals
You will probably remember that as a child in our care you had an annual health assessment.
These annual health assessments end when you turn 18, but you will be supported to access health care providers independently to make sure you stay healthy.
See our Looking after your physical and mental health webpage for more information.
Virtual School
The Virtual School ensures that children in our care are getting the best support in their education.
It is not an actual school in a real building, but the staff are real, and their job is help create your Personal Education Plan and make sure everything you need is in place.
Our partners in the community join us through the Access to Education, Employment and Training Panel. This panel helps us all come together regularly to support children in our care and care experienced young people find education, employment and training.
If you are need support in this area you will be referred to the panel and invited to join to discuss your needs and views on opportunities available to you. You may also ask someone else to attend on your behalf such as your social worker or personal advisor.
See our Employment, education and training webpage for more information.
Housing Officers
The Housing Officers are there to give you advice on tenancy rights and responsibilities alongside lots of other support with applying for housing, managing your relationship with your landlord, supporting you with rent payment and giving advice on any arrears or debts you may have.
See our Housing and accommodation webpage for more information.
Elected members
Elected members are people who have been voted by their local communities to become Councillors.
These people represent the communities in which they live to make sure that Bedford Borough Council has the right services in place.
All Elected Members have a responsibility towards children in our care and care experienced young people. This is to ensure that the services on offer support children in our care and care experienced young people, helping them to achieve well, receive good care and keep them safe.
Jane Walker is the elected member for Corporate Parenting. Corporate parenting is a term used to describe services for children in our care and care experienced young people, foster carers and kinship carers, and adoption and special guardians.
Engagement and Development Team
The Engagement and Development Team are here to help you share your voice, views, wishes, feeling and experiences, to make sure our services are working in the best way possible.
We support the Care Leaders Forum for care experienced young people alongside activities in the school/college holidays.
As well as telling us about the issues that are most important to you, you will get chance to meet managers and decision makers. You will receive letters from us with details of our sessions; we hope to see you soon.
You can contact the Engagement and Development Team by email at voice@bedford.gov.uk.
Tell us about the support you are receiving
It is really important that you have your say about the support you get. Your comments are important to us - good or bad - and we will use it to help us improve our services.
You may wish to make a compliment (say something nice), comment (make a general statement or suggest a different way of working) or complain (tell us what you are unhappy with).
There are a number of different ways you can do this:
- Talk to your Social Worker or Personal Advisers.
- Contact the Bedford Borough Council Customer Relations Team and use the Corporate Complaints Process (more details below).
- Email the 16+ Supporting Futures Team at 16PlusSupportingFuturesTeam@bedford.gov.uk
- Join the Children in Care Council, there are more details about this in Leaflet 3 – My Voice. Find out more about this by emailing voice@bedford.gov.uk
Our complaints process
See all the information on how we handle feedback and complaints
The Customer Relations Team is impartial and will guide you throughout the process.