Open Forum Events is a major producer of national conferences focusing on improving the lives of children and young people. We are pleased to announce the 6th Children Looked After 2024 conference which aims to address the needs and challenges faced by children in care.
This highly regarded conference provides a platform for professionals, policymakers, and stakeholders to come together and discuss strategies for improving the lives of looked after children and care leavers. With a focus on promoting positive outcomes and ensuring well-being, this event has an important role in shaping policies and upholding child welfare.
Compared to their counterparts, children in care face a plethora of added issues. This vulnerable group are more likely to suffer abuse, become homeless, be teenage parents, not go on to access further and higher education, be a young person not in employment or training, have mental health issues and be victims of exploitation. The challenge, regardless of the added risks and possible problems, is that these children and young people are offered the same opportunities to succeed in life as their peers.
This meeting will serve as a forum for sharing knowledge and expertise, enabling participants to gain valuable insights into the issues faced by children in care. By bringing together both professional and personal experience, the conference content encourages collaboration and the exchange of best practices to create a more positive approach towards supporting looked after children and enabling improved outcomes.
If you have a role in advocating for the rights and well-being of children in care and care leavers book your place today at the Children Looked After 2024 conference as numbers are limited.
This conference is designed to induce change with knowledge, innovation, and inspiration.
Any transformation of a process or service requires the input of products and services devised to make improvements such as digital technologies; training provision; workforce planning; outsourced services; data and analytics etc.
If your organisation supports change through your products and services, our delegates and conference participants will be ready to engage with you.
Olivia Wilson, Care Experienced Speaker (confirmed)
From tackling mental health issues to forging paths towards
independence, we explore the resilience and strength cultivated
in the face of adversity. Practical insights and strategies for
professionals and caregivers are shared, emphasising the
importance of support networks in shaping positive outcomes
During this session, Ygam will explore why children might game and/or gamble. We will look at the additional vulnerabilities faced by care-experienced children and highlight the blurred lines between gaming and gambling. Professionals will gain insights on how to upskill their knowledge, to better support the well-being of the children in their care.
Grandmentors is an innovative project that sees older volunteers use their lifetime of skills and experience to support young people leaving the care system.
John Lewis Partnership, Speaker TBC (confirmed)
Allocated planned time for speakers to receive questions from the audience and induce further discussion.
Speaker TBC, Booktrust (confirmed)
Care experienced children are disproportionately likely to be reported missing and can face a range of serious harms while they are away. This session will be centred around the voice of the child, looking at why children go missing from care, what good practice looks like in reporting, and how professionals can best provide support to children upon their return.
Become is the national charity for care experienced children and young people.
Every year thousands of 18-year-olds face a care cliff where important support and relationships disappear and they are expected to leave care and become independent overnight, often before they feel ready. Drawing on insights from service delivery, and from participation projects and campaigns with young people, we will outline the policy and practical interventions needed to end the care cliff for children in care at 18, and discuss what the impact of new regulations for 16 and 17 year olds in Supported Accommodation coming into force in April might be. With a general election on the horizon, this is a critical moment to look at whats needed to end the care cliff so young people are supported into adulthood at a pace that is right for them.
A hot, two-course lunch consisting of multiple options will be provided for delegates. We cater for all dietary requirements, including vegetarian, vegan and gluten/dairy-free; just notify us ahead of time should you have any allergens or requirements.
With greater recognition of and support for kinship families than ever before and the publication of the first ever National Kinship Care Strategy for England in December 2023, this session will explore what’s next for kinship care policy and practice and its place in the wider children’s social care system.
A2U is a progressive programme specifically targeting children in care to make informed choices about HE as their educational pathway. Working in partnership with 5 local authorities, it supports young people from KS3 to KS5 to view university as a viable route to achieve their potential and increase life chances.
This presentation will explore:
• Why effective partnership working is considered to be one of the key strengths of A2U.
• The four strands of the A2U programme and how they support the young people holistically throughout the key stages.
• How A2U is endeavouring to address removing potential barriers to learning and progression.
In this session Denise will draw on the NNECL quality mark and share tested strategies for;
• Providing with access to specialist services and professional advice on education, training and employment
• Upskilling staff in local schools, colleges and universities to better support care experienced children during their education
• Supporting carers with skills and confidence to inspire and support the vocational aspirations of care experienced young people so they can transition successfully into further and higher education
Mockingbird, led by The Fostering Network in the UK, delivers sustainable foster care. It is an evidence-based model structured around the support and relationships an extended family provides. In this presentation Freya Burley, Head of Mockingbird Programme, will provide an overview of the model and share learning around the impact is offering for fostering service and the fostering families they support.
The presentation will bring together cutting edge findings about the important but under-researched topic of Black care-experienced young people in the criminal justice system. It will bring together insights from analyses of linked Ministry of Justice and Department for Education administrative data (ADR UK Fellowship project at Manchester Metropolitan University) and in-depth qualitative research on the lived-experience of justice system involvement (led by Barnardo’s). By bringing together quantitative (ADR UK Fellowship project) and qualitative (Barnardo’s Project) data, the audience will gain a more comprehensive understanding of the issues facing Black care-experienced young people in justice systems in general, and in the prison system in particular. The goal of this presentation is to raise awareness of disproportionalities, with a view to reducing over-representation and improving support for those already involved with justice systems.
Having difficulty paying through Eventbrite? If you would like assistance registering your place please contact me on 0161 376 9007 and i'll be happy to assist. If you are awaiting funding you can request us to hold your place today to ensure you do not miss out.
Discounts for 3 or more delegates are available.Want to pay by invoice? If you select your tickets and click on the green Register button. Once you’re through to the registration page, you can switch payment method from Credit/ Debit Card to Pay by Invoice
Pendulum Hotel & Manchester Conference Centre is the ideal solution when searching for conference venues in Manchester. Top-of-the-range conference suites, 3 star value hotel accommodation, delicious dining and friendly service are the ideal components for a successful conference or event in the heart of the city centre.
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From the get-go we strive for excellence in everything we do and our dedicated team of conference professionals go all out to make sure your conference, event or exhibition runs like clockwork.
