Children in public care (CIPC)

Stepping Stones
Mentoring Programmes
for
Looked After Children and Young People

Looked after children have a right to expect the outcomes we want for every child – that they should healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution to society and achieve economic well-being. To achieve these five outcomes, local authorities as their ‘corporate carers’ should demonstrate the strongest commitment to helping every child they look after, wherever the child is placed, to achieve the highest educational standards he or she possible can. This includes their aspirations to achieve in further and higher education.

Stepping Stones is a programme designed to contribute to the corporate effort of Leeds City Council to promote the educational achievements of young people looked after, to raise aspirations, to widen participation in further and higher education and to contribute to the corporate culture of achievement.

Through Stepping Stones, Leeds Mentoring, in partnership with social services, has expanded its programme to focus specifically on the needs of these young people.

The following programmes have been in place since 2005 and are the baseline from which the project is expanding :

• Undergraduate mentors from Leeds University support GCSE groups in partnership with Derek Fatchett CLC ( 8 mentors + 10 young people)
• Mentors from Leeds Girls High School and Leeds Boys Grammar School support GCSE groups in partnership with Derek Fatchett CLC and also work in children’s homes and foster homes (20 mentors + 20 young people)
• ‘Knowing me, knowing you’ attracting mentors from Leeds City Council employees (15 mentors + 15 young people)
• Generic mentoring programme via Leeds mentoring using specialist undergraduate mentors (5 mentors + 40 young people)

For further details, please contact Stepping Stones :

Julie Pocklington, Stepping Stones, Social Services
Tel : 0113 395 0929 email : julie.pocklington@leeds.gov.uk

Ken Campbell, Stepping Stones, Education Leeds
Tel : 0113 214 4493 email : ken.campbell@educationleeds.co.uk