On Friday 30 June, Joanne Coen, Partner and Head of Ramsdens’ Child Law department, attended the 2022 LGA Conference, where she joined the Care Leavers Covenant panel, discussing how we can help support young people leaving care, who may be facing financial and practical constraints.
The Care Leavers Covenant creates a joint approach to bringing businesses and the wider community together to support care leavers aged 16 - 25 transition into adult hood and independence, parenting young people who may be vulnerable and need extra help and support. They do this by creating meaningful opportunities in five key areas: independent living; education, employment and training; safety and security; mental and physical health and finance.
On the panel Joanne was joined by; panel chair Ashley John-Baptiste from the BBC, Councillor Beverley Momenabadi and Tim Johnson both of Wolverhampton Council, and Care Leavers Covenant Director, Mark Rodgers and Advisory Board Chair, Zahra Printer.
Joanne Coen, Head of Ramsdens’ Child Law team commented: "Our goal was to engage others in focusing on the significant needs of care leavers and what we can all do as a community to provide the support they need. My fellow speakers had such a vast amount of knowledge that the audience were left in no doubt about what can and should be achieved. Having represented so many young people who face leaving the care system, we recognise the need for much greater support, understanding and continued parenting. As a community we need to find the resources to achieve this, and we are grateful that we can create the platform to discuss the subject of assisting care leavers".
The LGA Conference, was hosted by the Local Government Association, and is the biggest event in the local government calendar, discussing the latest issues affecting local authorities.
For more information on how our Child Law department can help support care leavers, contact them on 01924 431 774 or email care@ramsdens.co.uk.