The Committee met today at the London Office of Simpson Millar solicitors to discuss where we were up to, and how we had progressed since the meeting with the Department of Education and Rob McPherson on 26th February 2019.

We were given the green light to draft some national standards which will apply to not only the under 25 year olds but to older care leavers as well. This was a useful concession because most of our beneficiaries are over 25.

Thanks go to Leonie Jordan and Julie Feast for drawing up some excellent draft standards, which are still a work in progress. We plan to send them to Rob McPherson at the DFE and Mathew Brazier from OFSTED, who, hopefully will approve them in outline with a view to making them National Standards. The plan is that they will become the hallmark against which any Local Authority being inspected by OFSTED will be judged against.

Once we have agreement on the Standards we will submit them to the DFE with a view to having them agreed in workshop format and translated into National Standards.

Also of interest is a plan by OFSTED to produce a PODCAST with the co-operation and involvement of Careleavers from the Care Leavers’ Association, which will be filmed in Manchester. It will include the experiences of the Adult Care Leavers of their route to access their own records, and an overview from OFSTED. This will then take the form of training and guidance for OFSTED inspectors. Watch this space.

We have achieved a lot in the last 12 months. The ACRCG moves from strength to strength thanks to the boundless energy and enthusiasm of our committee