Community and society with our care leavers local offer
Lifelong Links
Lifelong Links helps to find and bring together people who care about individual young people. The programme builds positive lasting support networks for children in care. Central Bedfordshire is part of a national trial which is being led by the Family Rights Group.
The Lifelong Links approach draws upon a family finding model, which originated in the United States. Research shows that these relationships can offer young people ongoing support, provide a connection to family history, reinforce their identity, provide a sense of belonging and be a positive influence for their future in to adulthood.
Young people can:
- reconnect with family members and other trusted adults in a safe way (this could be people they already know, people they haven't seen for a while, or relatives they have never met)
- learn about family history
It can provide young people with supportive, stable relationships during their time in care and beyond.
The approach uses detailed search strategies to find family members and other people who are important to the young person. These people are then contacted and with agreement, brought together through a family group conference.
Family meeting services
This is a meeting for family members, carers and close friends to talk about what is happening. This could be to find support, find out feelings and to look at how things can be changed to work better.
These meetings provide the opportunity to share what everyone knows. Everyone has the opportunity to talk and ask questions. Then the co-ordinator will leave the room to give the family time to create a plan of support and then the co-ordinator re-enters and creates a plan with the family.
Family meetings happen at any time when the family or professional feels it will be a good time to talk about what is going on and to help support the child to help things change for them.