Leader's Corner

18 October 2024 – Southampton, a city of compassion

In the last few days Southampton’s Children’s Mayor, Freya Orendecki, welcomed Paddington Bear to the city. Many of us have a soft spot for this lovable, accident-prone bear who makes us laugh and cry, and can make us think about how we treat others. We can thank the Brown family, one of the most famous foster families in children’s literature for giving him a home and embracing him as their own. Paddington Bear is a wonderful children’s story, and the message of caring for someone in need is very relevant in real life.

Last weekend, we honoured our own foster carers at a Foster Carers’ Ball. The event, sponsored by Seatech Commercial Diving Services Limited, was a fantastic opportunity for our very own ‘local heroes’ to network and celebrate long service achievements. One of our newest MPs, Darren Paffey, joined the celebrations and remarked how our foster carers help to ‘break down barriers to opportunity’ for so many vulnerable children and young people. Councillor Alex Winning addressed the 200+ audience, thanking them for their care, compassion and true dedication to the City’s most vulnerable children. This week we launched ‘Everything’ the new fostering film together with an appeal to ask more people to join our community of foster carers.

As a city, we continually aim to become more child friendly. How we talk with, for and about our children and young people, especially those who are more vulnerable, is something we are actively working to change. And it starts with listening. We have worked with young people across the city to plan an event focused on their voices. Partners from education, health and the Police attended a safeguarding event hosted by the Southampton Safeguarding Children’s Partnership. The event, entitled ‘Let Our Voices Be Heard’, challenged the language we use, the agencies we connect with, and why our children and young people’s voices are so important in everything we do to protect and keep them safe.

In recent weeks, we launched the new Family Safeguarding approach to help keep families together when this is in their best interests. This included the planting of an apple tree at Itchen College. This tree symbolizes our commitment to our children and young people. It was planted with young people, was dedicated by our Children’s Mayor and will serve as a lasting reminder for decades to come.