A message from our CEO January 2022

Posted 14th January 2022

Whilst many will have welcomed in the New Year with resolutions bound by optimism that are invariably short lived, we are nearing the end of the business year and have much to celebrate and look forward to in 2022/23 and beyond.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic the Charity has achieved great success this past year. The number of projects is increasing and arrangements are progressing with Greater Manchester and West Midlands ADCS, we have launched the Care Leaver Support Portal, our House Project community is growing, more young people are moving in to their first homes and we are developing relationships with Madlug, Suited and Booted and Valpak.

In order to support the expansion of our work we were joined in September by Marshall Rowlands in the role of Business Apprentice and are currently recruiting to three additional roles. At Christmas two of our Trustees stood down and we thank them greatly for their support and guidance over the past three years. Both were founder Trustees and were appointed in August 2018 when there was only two of us working out of our respective kitchens with budget until March 2020. We have travelled a long way with an exciting journey ahead of us. Thank you, David and David.

Whilst the voice of young people from CLNM remains loud and clear, their Peer Evaluation amplifies the voice of the House Project Community and the findings are clear – the House Project approach makes a difference to young people leaving care. Partnership for Young London who supported the young people’s work have joined other evaluation teams in a ‘community of research’ to share their insights so as to better inform our approach as a learning organisation and more importantly support us to further develop practice.

Young people hosted their annual conference in October and presented their Evaluation findings. Their work was picked up by Mark Riddell, National Implementation Adviser for Care Leavers and as a result CLNM will be going to London in February to present their work to Will Quince, Minister of Children's and Families. The Care Review team attended the conference and have since recognised that the House Project approach will inform the Care Review recommendations, and the Charity has been invited to join other long-established organisations at a roundtable event to discuss new and positive ways of supporting young people. Whilst a relatively new charity we are increasingly being recognised for the difference that we are making to the lives of care leavers.

‘Changing the Narrative’ is the title of our forthcoming NHP conference in Manchester in March. The conference will hear from evaluation partners including young people, researchers and academics on what works well, why it works well and how this helps young people to succeed. NHP will celebrate the successes and whilst resolutions don’t accompany new business years, we will reaffirm our commitments to supporting young people leaving care to lead connected and fulfilling lives and use academic and peer research to be a catalyst for sector wide transformation.