Debating the Act - 2

Joyce Moseley, the Chief Executive of Rainer, in her opening speech expressed her delight that people had, "come from so many places and so many agencies". Around 150 people attended the London Conference to participate in discussion and hear presentations from the DfES, Connexions and Embracing Diversity's Paula Duffy.

Organised by Rainer, a charity that supports young disadvantaged people, the event was attended by organisations including Connexions, A National Voice, Leaving Care Services, other charities and fostering organisations. People came from across the country including Northumberland, Oxford, and Dorset, and as far afield as the Isle of Wight and Northern Ireland.

The conference, the second of its kind, focussed on the education, training and employment of young people leaving care. Lesley Harrison, Team Leader of the council's 16+ service, the main partner in the Youth Transitions project also attended the event.

Paula spoke on "Embracing Diversity- Sharing Good Practice" sharing information about the project, giving details of the new Youth Transitions project and talking about employer good practice. Paula's presentation went down extremely well and enquiries came in from around the country including the manager of a Westminster project looking for advice, a development manager from Essex council, a young person leaving care and a Leaving Care Manager from Richmond.

Joyce Moseley commented, "every local authority could do with this service" and added "what came out of Paula's presentation was the need to know your employer, know what they want and what support they need and that soft outcomes for beneficiaries are most important."

Rachel Youill from Connexions, Northumberland said, "the Embracing Diversity project is an excellent example of good practice, which shows what is possible."

A conference report is being written to put to parliamentary policy makers, while next up for Paula and the 16+ Team is the Corporate Parenting Scheme, which the Council and Sainsbury's have already signed up to.

For more information about the Youth Transitions Project please contact Paula Duffy (see Contacts section).

For more information about Rainer see our Links section for a link to the organisation's website.