Our Children and Young People’s Forum Group, and the By the Bridge team, held a charity bake sale during the half term holiday. We had loads of brilliant ideas of ways we could raise money for Children in Need, but we decided that a bake sale would be the best idea for all of the children and their foster families.

Each family who came to the bake sale made a cake… or two! Our creative cooks baked some really unique cakes and cupcakes. People made sticky toffee pudding, lemon drizzle, fairy cakes, flap jacks, kitten cupcakes and many more. Pretty much all of the cakes made by us were sold!

The money that we collected went to Children in Need. In total we raised £165.

Following his success during a Get-a-LifeStyle music development project, further one on one lyric writing sessions, and two performances at KICA ceremonies, one By the Bridge young person has taken the National Children and Adult Services Conference by storm.

Performing two self composed tracks, to a large audience at the London ExCel Centre, the 14 year old wowed the audience with his stunning performance of rap songs based on his life experiences. During his interview afterwards he says how he hopes his music and lyrics will inspire other young people to achieve.

To watch the interview and live performance, please click on the below link.

 http://blogs.idea.gov.uk/2011/10/aspiring-teenage-rap-star-inspires-conference-audience/

On Monday 6^th June at 8pm, By the Bridge took an excited group of foster children to see one of the Earls Court Graduate Fashion Week shows. The Rochester fashion graduates were able to show off their creative talent to a very eager audience.

There were 7 people that were able to attend the fantastic opportunity that By the Bridge offered. It was the perfect amount – which basically means no one else would have fit in the car!

First, we all went for a nice meal at Nandos and got to know each other. Then we set off and although it took a while, Tracey and Annabelle were able to get all us inside with only minutes to spare till the doors closed. 

The 24 different designers all had amazing talent and entertained all viewers.

In my opinion, some of the outfits looked a bit too flamboyant,  it was unbelievable, from cages and balls on people’s heads…to really long waistcoats, it was all simply…fashion! Although most people wouldn’t go out in half the garments! 

It was interesting to watch real life models and how they really walk on a catwalk.

All in all it was a great opportunity that might not come again so we have to make the most of it and see some pretty unique ideas about the future of fashion…what will it bring next?

A National Voice’s innovative project LILAC (Leading Improvements for Looked After Children) recently carried out a comprehensive assessment of By the Bridge.

LILAC aims to denote a quality participation service, and focuses on ensuring that looked after children and young people are involved in decisions relating to both their individual care and the practices and policies of the services that look after them. LILAC’s standards have been developed with care-experienced young people to reflect what is truly important to them.

By the Bridge is pleased to announce our success in achieving LILAC Awards for; Shared Values, Care Planning and Review, and Complaints and Advocacy.

LILAC says of By the Bridge ‘All staff and foster parents show outstanding commitment to developing each child to his/her full potential and providing them with a real family life, full of fun and affection.’ 

LILAC’s assessors are care-experienced young people, trained to assess the performance of Fostering Organisations and Local Authorities, and how well their services involve and consult with children and young people.

During the assessment process, LILAC’s team ‘looked at a wide variety of documentary evidence, but it was through several visits and a number of meetings with staff, foster parents and, of course, children and young people, that it became apparent that behind By the Bridge’s success in negating any potential barriers that could hinder involvement by children and young people in its services, is a real sense of feeling that By the Bridge listens to its families’. 

We would like to thank all the young people, families and staff who took part in the assessment process, the feedback given has been invaluable to LILAC’s team.  

By the Bridge strives for innovation in leading improvements for looked after children and are working towards achieving further accreditation by LILAC.

The first Eastern Region Children and Young People’s Forum Group met on 21st April 2011, at The Water Tower. A fantastic group of young people took part, ranging in age from 8 to 17 years. 

Young people chaired the meeting, kept the time, and took their own minutes. As a group they decided on rules for the forum, and all actively participated in each of the discussions and the decisions made. The group worked well together to discuss the agenda items, giving valuable feedback on how they feel about each of the topics raised. Some impressive ideas were generated for overhauling the By the Bridge care review form.

This first C&YP Forum Group was successful, and all of the young people involved should be very proud of themselves to be making such a positive contribution to the wellbeing of their peers.

It was great to have the opportunity to attend the young people’s fishing competition on the 18^th April at a picturesque Kent lake.

The competition began at 9am, the venue and the weather were great. I have never been to a fishing competition before and was amazed by the amount of fish caught. 10, 20, 30 , 40 pounds plus!

An exciting weigh-in took place at 3pm, the young person who won caught an astonishing 42 pounds of fish over the course of the day! And more amazingly this was his very first time fishing which was acknowledged when he was presented with his winners trophy.

A big thank you to Kent foster parents Phil and Dawn Eagle and also the other adults that took the time to assist the young people in what was a fantastic day.

On a warm and sunny spring day in April a large group of By the Bridge Eastern Region families met at an Essex nature reserve for a morning of Easter-filled fun and games. The families arrived amongst the stunning scenery and the children began the day by making Easter chicks and decorating them with Easter stickers and sparkly bits!  After this it was off to the woods for a spot of bug collecting – the children examined all sorts of the native creatures  in the woods, and studied what they had found.

From the woods we went on a walk to a natural pond where the families gathered into  groups for a pond dipping session. We caught all sorts of bugs and pond insects and one group even caught a Great Crested Newt.

Once we had admired our findings at the pond (and put all the creatures back where we had found them!) we set off on an Easter Trail through the nature reserve, finding clues to solve a cryptic puzzle. Eventually this lead us all to our prize for the day….Chocolate!

The children got back to the hut and all had Easter cakes and a much needed refreshing drink before collecting the Easter Eggs that the Easter Bunny had left for them whilst they had been out on the reserve! Home time came and an Eggcellent time had been had by all!

After many months of preparation the team in the North-West received the go-ahead to move into their brand-new building, The Barn at Beechcroft Farm. We had very much been looking forward to the move since first setting eyes on The Barn in its idyllic setting surrounded by farmland with its variety of natural flora and fauna as well as a field of spring lambs. The new premises is designed to be child and family-friendly and we hope that the surrounding countryside will provide opportunities to hold memorable family events.

For the two weeks preceding the move a team of staff and foster parents worked incredibly hard to ensure that much of the hard work, such as assembling new furniture, had been completed in time for the office-based staff to move straight to their new desks.

 On 31 March 2011, The Barn and the team in the North-West hosted the By the Bridge board meeting which gave our foster parents and directors the opportunity to visit and explore the new premises. They were as impressed with the offices as the staff team and, together, we are now planning how best to use the potential of The Barn to add value to what By the Bridge North West can offer.

Independent Panel member for By the Bridge North West, Enid Welford, also travelled to Canada to take examinations at the same time. She, like Mica,  is now a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst.

Many significant changes have already been implemented, such as the introduction of a comprehensive training programme for foster parents that includes a university-accredited Certificate in Therapeutic Fostering.

Examples of our commitment to high quality services include our innovative Get-a-Lifestyle independence programme for 14-19 year olds (accredited by Duke of Edinburgh Award, Arts Award and Young Enterprise), our Knowledge Transfer Partnership research with the University of Kent and our bespoke Microsoft Dynamics electronic records system which will shortly be able to provide comprehensive data on progress and outcomes for CIC reviews. All of these illustrate how we are committed to providing excellent care for the children placed with us and opportunities for the professional development of their foster parents.

To contact our North West team please call 0845 894 8092 or email info@bythebridge.co.uk