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Services for Looked After Children in Bradford

VoiceAbility provide an Independent Visitor, Return to Care Interview and Advocacy service to Looked After Children in Bradford. 

There are currently 882 Looked After Children in Bradford and a further 163 who live away from the region. We expect around 150 referrals a year for advocacy and Return to Care interviews and are aim to increase the number of Looked After Children who have an Independent Visitor.

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Advocacy Free Phone for Children & Young People

0800 012 4314

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Advocacy

VoiceAbility provides a confidential advocacy service that is open to any Looked After Children in Bradford.

The service is independent, so Looked After Children do not need to feel worried if they need to talk to someone about a problem that regards their home or a service from an organisation such as the Local Authority.

VoiceAbility will work with the young person to put forward their views and wishes in the way they want.

Return to Care Interviews

45 Looked After Children under the care of Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council go missing every year. ‘Missing From Care’ is defined as either being missing for over 24 hours or being missing and being at risk of significant harm.

Social Care staff offer Return to Care interviews to all Looked After Children who go missing. Those who take the offer are referred to VoiceAbility. We try to interview the service users as soon as possible after they return, but definitely within 72 hours.

By talking to each young person when they return to care, we hope to find out what led them to leaving in the first instance and work with them to improve their situations.

If the young person does go missing again, VoiceAbility will continue to work with partner agencies to support the young person, help keep them safe and contribute to measures aimed at stabilising them.

Independent Visitors

VoiceAbility also provides Independent Visitors in Bradford.

Independent Visitors visit and befriend the Looked After Children they have been paired with. The relationship usually lasts for a long time so that the Looked After Children comes to trust the Independent Visitor. Independent Visitors spend time with their partner, encouraging them to reach their full potential, helping them work through difficult problems they may have at home, or supporting them to exercise their rights.

The wider picture

We collate information about the issues that Looked After Children bring to us and report to the Council (the confidentiality of the service users is maintained at all times). We hope that this will enable the Council and Social Care staff to learn more about the issues affecting Looked After Children so that they can change the way they work and improve the service provided to Looked After Children in the future.

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Referrals

We can take referrals from:

• Looked After Children themselves
• Social Care staff on behalf of the Looked After Children, but with the consent of the child being referred.
• Carers

The new service will be based at the community-led Carlisle Business Centre on Carlisle Road, Bradford and will be delivered across the district.

We are committed to acknowledging referrals within two working days, and to organising an initial meeting with the service user within five working days.