Our pledge
We pledge to work together to provide you the best possible care and support to help you be the best you can be in your life - now and in the future. To do this we will:
- Provide you with a safe home to live where you feel happy and taken care of. This means that wherever possible you will have a choice about where you live and that you will not be moved from a settled home unless absolutely necessary, or if it is deemed to be in your best interests.
- Provide you with the support you need to do well in education. This means that we will make sure you have the opportunity to go to a school where you can flourish, get the support outside of school to do well in exams and have access to college and university.
- Listen to you about things in your own life and about the care that you receive from us. This means that we will always make sure that you are involved in decisions that are made about your own life and that we find ways to help you tell us your views if you find this difficult. We will also make sure that there are opportunities to tell us what you think about the care that you receive and that if you have a complaint you get the help to get heard.
- Be honest with you about things that have happened in your life and the decisions that are made about your care. We know that are at times it is difficult to understand what has happened to you and why certain decisions are made about your care. We can't promise that you will always agree with these decisions. But, we will always be honest with you about the reasons for these decisions and, where possible, what has happened in your life.
- Help you to develop good relationships with the people that you care for and the people in your life that are most important to you. This means that, as far as possible, we will provide you with opportunities to see those people that are important to you in your life. We will help you to develop and maintain relationships and friendships with the people that provide care and support for you and other children and young people.
- Provide you with support and opportunities to enjoy your life and have interests and hobbies of your own. This means that we will make sure you have information and access to opportunities and activities outside of education that you enjoy.
- Provide you with the support you need when you leave care to become independent and be the best you can be in adult life. This means that we will make sure that you have choices about how and when you leave care and that we will make sure we support you to be prepared for independence and have the help you will need to make independence work when you leave care.
We make these pledges to you and will do our best to always fulfil each one. There are many teams involved in helping make these pledges happen - from Children's Services to Housing and Health. We will make sure that we work together to do this.
Harrow Council - Corporate Parenting Panel
Harrow's pledge for children in care is endorsed by the Corporate Parenting panel on behalf of the council.
All policy and procedures relating to children looked after are overseen by the Corporate Parenting panel.
Elected councillors and senior officers from the council meet to discuss the performance, service delivery and aspirations for the council in respect of Children Looked After and young people leaving care. Beyond Limits representatives also attend the Corporate Parenting panel.
This panel is lead by elected councillors to challenge, scrutinise and support the services for children looked after.