LINX - Children in Care Council
LINX (the Children in Care Council), is a place for you and any child or young person who is looked after by Lancashire County Council and aged 8 to 16.
LINX stands for: Listen, Involve, Negotiate, Xpress.
Get involved
There are different options for how you can get involved with LINX.
You can choose to:
- come and meet us in person at our groups
- be invited to one-off events or activities near where you live
- be a digital member and you or your carer keep in touch with us through email or messaging
Or you may not want to be a member at all just now.
You can choose more than one option and you can change your mind if you want to.
To let us know how you'd like to be involved, complete the short form and we'll be in touch with you:
Let us know how you'd like to get involved
Meetings
Meetings are fortnightly, please contact us to check the date and time before attending.
- Burnley - meetings in the East of the county are being reviewed - contact Adam for details
- Walton le Dale Youth centre, Bamber Bridge, Tuesdays
- 8 to 16 years 5.30pm to 7.30pm
- Fleetwood - meetings in the East of the county are being reviewed - contact Adam for details
Contact
Contact Adam to find out more:
Email: cypparticipationteam@lancashire.gov.uk
Adam: 07977 273 904
- The FYP on Instagram (@the_fyp_Lancashire) for care experienced young people in Lancashire to keep up to date with news, events and entitlements – and a way to interact if you wish!
Why get involved with LINX
By getting involved with LINX you can:
- feel more confident
- make new friends and meet different people
- make changes for you and other children and young people
- find new things to achieve
- learn and develop new skills in working with others, speaking, listening and planning
Depending on how far you want to get involved in LINX, you can:
- get certificates to show what you have been part of
- go on trips and residentials
- sometimes receive vouchers and payment for your time
Why we have LINX
We know that working with you and listening to you helps make our services work better and make positive changes.
Expand the boxes below to find out more about what we do and why:
These are some of the activities you could take part in as a member of LINX:
- join face-to-face and online sessions, to build on your confidence, communication, presentation and public speaking skills
- train in recruitment and selection to carry out interviews for job roles within Lancashire County Council such as social workers
- take part in Lancashire County Council’s Corporate Parenting Board to raise issues that are important to children in care and care leavers
- organise and attend the PROUD Awards, celebrating the achievements of children in care
- plan and run yearly participation conferences
- create informative videos and resources for social care teams, and other care experienced children and young people, fostering residential and adoption services and beyond
- become a Young Advisor and feedback to children’s homes and other services for positive change
- meet with other children in care councils from across the North West
- take part in other activities such as life skills, cooking, art and crafts
LINX is a participation group. Participation is a name often used for getting involved. It means:
- taking part
- expressing yourself in decisions that affect you
- being listened to, and understood
- your view is taken into account
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child - Article 12 states that every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them and to have their views considered and taken seriously.
This might mean you are involved in your care plan or you might attend meetings all about you, your care, health, education and future.
But LINX is about coming together with other young people who have a similar experience to you to support changes on a bigger scale.
By listening to LINX members we can make sure:
- we create services that are better at meeting your needs
- our services are doing their best to support you and other children and young people.
It makes us:
- think about how we include different children and work hard to listen to them
- do what we say we will
- be clear about what can and cannot change
Share:
In this section
- Being in our care and leaving care
- Care Leaver Forum
- Being in Care - complaints
- Corporate Parenting Board – parental responsibility for you
- Education - young people in care
- Employment support - young people in care and care leavers
- Long term savings - Junior ISA
- Our promises to children in care and care leavers
