Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT) are looking for local businesses, organisations and educational providers to support their Local Offer event on the October 29 in Northampton and on October 31 in Corby.
The event, hosted for the first-time last year, looks to highlight on the challenges that young people leaving care face and how the support of local organisations can dramatically improve the outcomes they have.
A report commissioned by Bernardo’s in 2021 highlighted that care leavers as a group often have much poorer outcomes in adult life than their peers, with 39% of care leavers not in education, employment or training aged 19 to 21 compared to around 13% of their peers. Events such as the Local Offer event being run by NCT are part of wider national efforts to close this gap
Colin Foster, Chief Executive for Northamptonshire Children’s Trust said;
“Providing care experienced young adults with the opportunity to meet with, and speak to, organisations, businesses and educational providers in their local area is so important. Seeing that there are opportunities for them on their doorstep can be a real motivating factor and drive aspiration and attainment. Ensuring that care leavers have support and guidance in place so that they can achieve their aspirations is critical in bridging that gap between care leavers and their peers.”
The event is being run by NCT as part of the wider National Care Leavers Week celebrations organised by the Become charity, which is the national charity for children in care and care leavers. With Become announcing this year’s theme as #EndTheCareCliff, NCT are committed to supporting this ambition, recently signing up to the Care Leavers Covenant, as well as a commitment to care leavers, to whom it guarantees an interview if they meet the essential criteria, and putting on events such as the Local Offer event.
Cllr Scott Edwards, lead member for children’s services in North Northamptonshire said;
“Expanding opportunities for young people leaving care is vitally important, whether that is work experience, training, discounts, jobs or helping to develop their skills.
“I want to encourage any local businesses or organisations who can offer support to sign up to the Local Offer event in October in Corby. This event will give care experienced young people an important opportunity to find out what’s available in their local area and support them in their next steps.”
Cllr Fiona Baker, lead member for children’s services in West Northamptonshire said:
“Ensuring care-experienced young people in our local area have access to the same educational, employment and training opportunities as their peers is an essential part of our local offer.
“I want to encourage local businesses and organisations to consider what they could offer young people leaving care, whether that is apprenticeships or training and development opportunities and to then sign up to attend the Local Offer event in Northampton on October 29. These young people are our future and they deserve support and opportunities to reach their potential.”
NCT can’t run these events alone and need the support of local businesses and organisations to make events a success.
Rachel Shaw, Team Manager in the Leaving Care service said:
“We are fortunate with the great support we have from a number of local organisations who have pledged to be part of our Local Offer to care leavers but we need to keep expanding opportunities and the support available to them.
“We are always looking for new companies and organisations to partner with so that we can extend our offer. The opportunities it gives to our care experienced young people is immense. I would encourage any businesses or organisations to get in touch and discuss how we can work together to help our young people get the best outcomes.”
Any business or organisation that would like to take part should contact Matthew Tapp at matthew.tapp@nctrust.co.uk to book a place or find out more information.
