CHESHIRE West and Chester Council’s revolutionary ‘Our Children Matter: the 39 Steps to Bring Normality into their Lives’ scrutiny report has won a national Innovation Award.
Judges at The Centre for Public Scrutiny’s Good Scrutiny Awards deemed that the authority was doing scrutiny ‘quite differently’, positively noting the degree and depth of young people’s involvement.
The authority had shown that ‘scrutiny can be fun’ with young people, councillors and officers engaging in team-building exercises and working together in a way which built the youngsters confidence and made them want to contribute further.
Judges were also moved by one of youngsters’ comments: “What they told us would happen at the start of the review, has happened.”
The scrutiny investigation was prompted by Every Child Matters Select Committee chairwoman Cllr Eleanor Johnson, following a conference at which a youngster in care had told her: “There are too many experts looking after me. I don’t know whether I am coming or going.”
Cllr Johnson said: “We really wanted to rewrite the rule book for how the authority cares for looked after children with this initiative.”
