Children's charter launched in Carmarthenshire

Carmarthenshire's Children’s Services department has taken an innovative approach to its responsibility as a corporate parent.
Children who are looked after by the local authority have been supported to develop their own charter which highlights many of the rights and respects they should be afforded.
The charter, KICC IT! (Kids In Care Count), was developed by children in care to help looked after children, and the adults who support them, better understand their needs.
It was launched recently by Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Keith Towler, and includes key themes, such as family, respect, free-time and choice.
The charter is used at all times whilst a child is under local authority care to ensure their rights as an individual are respected and supported.
Where a child is placed in local authority care in Carmarthenshire, the county council acts as the child’s corporate parent, and as such, elected members, managers, governors, employees and partner agencies have corporate parenting responsibilities for these children.
These legal and moral responsibilities include providing the kind of loyal support that any good parent would provide - for example safeguarding and promoting the welfare of looked after children, championing their causes, and making decisions based on the principle ‘if this were my child…’.
Cllr Gwynne Wooldridge, executive board member of education and children’s services, said: “This charter proves that Carmarthenshire is taking an innovate approach to its responsibilities as a corporate parent. Our Corporate Parenting Panel meets regularly to monitor the services provided and to ensure that the council is meeting the needs of the children in its care. Using this charter we will have a more complete view of the needs of each child - needs that’s have been identified by the children themselves.”