Young People's Organising and Campaigning Group

The Young People's Organising and Campaigning (YPOC) Group is a group of young people aged 14 and over who are, or have been, looked after away from home. The group meets monthly and is open to any young person who wants to come along.

There are now six young people in the group and are always looking for more young people to take part. The group is supported by the Children’s Rights Service.

The group's purpose is to give young people the opportunity to share their views and experiences of being looked after. So that the council and partner agencies can improve their services for looked after young people and care leavers.

The young people in the YPOC group have taken part in training events for:

• designated teachers for looked after children and partner professionals
• the launch of the Corporate parenting guidelines
• the launch Aberdeenshire’s LAC Guidelines in Education

The young people in the YPOC group also look for ways to help more young people to have a voice. The group, with the support of the Children’s Rights Service, organised and led workshops at the Tell It Like It Is conference.

Tell It Like It Is

A group of 15 teenagers, who are looked after away from home, came together in March 2010 to give their views on what has helped them and what they think could have been done to support them better.

The group spent the morning identifying issues then presented their views to an invited audience, explaining what would help them to do well in their lives. This is the report of the event.

What's Next?

The young people from the YPOC group are keen to keep campaigning and highlighting the issues that affect young people who are looked after away from home. Just now they are working on a guide for meetings to help improve the many meetings that looked after young people attend.

The Children's Rights Service is also looking at how best to support the YPOC group to link in with the formal structures of the council.