The National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum’s work on supporting care-experienced young people in custody | BASW England Criminal Justice Group

to 2:00pm
About this event

*This event is open to all*

Local authorities have faced ongoing challenges in supporting care-experienced young people in custody. They often struggle to keep track of where these young people are, how to contact them, and what to expect during visits.

The National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum (NLCBF) has been working closely with HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), the police, and probation partners to help tackle these challenges.

Darren Bishton and Kyla Chandler will discuss this work and how police, prisons and some local authorities now work together to ensure these young people receive support at every stage of their journey.

Darren Bishton

Darren qualified as a social worker in 1991 and initially worked in looked after, and child protection teams. In 2000, Darren worked as Assistant Team Manager in Warwickshire and was part of the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000 implementation group. In 2004 Darren became the Team Manager of the 16+ team in Solihull which later became the Child Asylum and 16+ team. Darren led the team through a number OFSTED inspections and developed services such as the staying put scheme, pathway planning, quality assurance and financial procedures, he was also lead officer responsible for the introduction of the local offer in Solihull. Darren has been the practice lead for the National Leaving Care Benchmarking forum for 5 years. In that time he has developed training and resources on a number of key areas such as subjects as Transitional Safeguarding, Pathway Planning, Relational Practice and supporting young people in custody.

Kyla Chandler

Kyla is a care experienced Social Worker and Practice Lead and currently works for the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum (NLCBF) at Catch22. The forum has over 135 local authorities leaving care team members and works to share best practice and improve support and services for young people leaving care.

Kyla is vice chair of the Association of Care Experienced Social Care Workers and currently sits as a Independent foster panel member at Reading Brough Council. Kyla began her career in her early 20’s in youth justice, later supporting young people in supported housing. Inspired to make a deeper impact, Kyla entered social work in her late 30s and was a senior social worker in a Local Authority before joining the forum.