Introduction
In May 2025, a group of care-experienced young adults joined a workshop about refreshing Buckinghamshire’s Care Leaver Local Offer.
Care-experienced young adults who are currently receiving support from the Leaving Care team were invited to join the workshop via their Personal Advisors (PAs).
This workshop aimed to listen to their ideas, feedback, and experiences, and use this input to make sure the new version of the Care Leaver Local Offer works well.
The workshop was hosted by We Do Care and the Leaving Care Team.
About the Care Leaver Local Offer
The Local Offer shares what support is available to care leavers from the Council, such as Personal Advisors (PAs), help with where you live, and support to get a job.
View the Care Leaver Local Offer on the Buckinghamshire Council website
View the Care Leaver Local Offer as a PDF [10.5 MB]
The Care Leaver Local Offer must be kept up to date.
The workshop
Settling in, hello and welcome
On arrival, everybody was welcomed and given a copy of the plan for the session, along with name stickers, snacks and a menu to choose refreshment food.
Bukky explained what the workshop was about. We did a round of introductions.
There were 17 people at the workshop:
- Krissie and Lucy from We Do Care
- Bukky, Michelle, Amelia, Clive, Bertilla and Christine from the Leaving Care Team
- 9 care-experienced young adults, including 2 Care Ambassadors
Plan for the day
Bukky read through the plan for the day:
| Settling in 🪑 | 4.25pm |
| Hello and welcome 👋🏻 | 4.35pm |
| Plan for today 📃 | 4.40pm |
| Group agreement ✌🏻 | 4.45pm |
| Activity 1: True or false ice-breaker 🧊 | 4.50pm |
| Break 🍕 | 5.10pm |
| Activity 2: Graffiti wall 🎨 | 5.20pm |
| About We Do Care 💬 | 5.45pm |
| Next steps, thank you and goodbye 🔜 | 5.50pm |
| Home time 🏡 | 6pm |
Group agreement
We agreed to be respectful, to take part fully, and for photos and audio recordings to be taken.
Activities
The two activities helped everybody learn about the Local Offer and share their ideas. Between the two activities, we had a break with some food.
You can read more about the activities and the feedback and ideas shared below.
About We Do Care
Krissie spoke about We Do Care.
We Do Care gives care-experienced children, young people and young adults a chance to speak about issues that matter, to improve services, opportunities and experiences for young people.
Krissie confirmed that all the workshop participants would be very welcome to get involved, and encouraged them to speak to their PAs if they would like to know more.
Next steps, Thank You and Goodbye
- Each young person was given a thank you card, which included QR codes that linked to this webpage, more information on We Do Care, and the Local Offer.
- Bukky confirmed that digital thank you vouchers would be sent out the following day.
- Krissie told everyone that notes would be created, detailing all of the feedback and ideas shared at the workshop. You can see these notes below.
- Bukky confirmed that he and his team would use the feedback and ideas shared to update and improve the Local Offer.
Krissie highlighted that it might not be possible for every idea to be fulfilled, but that most will be taken forward and updates will be shared on all of the ideas. - Krissie confirmed that everyone at the workshop will be sent a copy of the updated Local Offer when it’s ready.
Activity 1: True or false ice-breaker
There were three signs displayed on a wall: True, I Don’t Know, and False.
We took it in turns to pick a card from the table and read a statement out.
We then moved towards the True / I don’t Know / False signs to indicate whether we thought that statement was true or false.
After each turn, Bukky revealed whether the statement was True or False and we discussed it.
Key messages shared by our care-experienced participants
We don’t remember having seen it before.
We are familiar with the support they provide.
We were happy to learn we may be able to get money for work interview clothing, hair cut and travel.
Activity 2: Graffiti Wall
Activity 2 involved a long sheet of paper with a white brick pattern stuck on the wall.
There were themes and questions on the wall, such as “name”, “money management”, and “design”.
In this activity, we shared our ideas by adding to the graffiti wall with pens, sticky notes and emoji stickers.
Key messages shared by our care-experienced participants:
Name and Language
It reflects that you saw something, you felt something.
“Care Leavers: Our Local Offer” and “Leaving Care Offer” work – they tell you everything you need to know.
Uni
Money Management
Linking to the national offer
Design
Please also include…
Conclusion and status updates
We had a fun and productive workshop learning about the Local Offer and sharing our ideas.
The notes from the session (as above) will now be used by Bukky and colleagues to update the Local Offer.
Status update
Thu 29 May – The session took place yesterday. The notes have been written up and shared here. The audio recording has been deleted. The link to this page has been shared with all of the staff members who came to the workshop, and they have been asked to send the link to the care-experienced young adults who they supported to attend.
Want another status update? Email WeDoCare@Buckinghamshire.gov.uk.
Feedback
[It’s been good] learning about the local offer, working with others, making a change and sharing our thoughts.
New words, fun, helpful.
[It would have been better with] an interpreter.
[It would have been better with] a few more people.
[It’s been good] writing on walls and sharing our opinions.
We met new friends.