Your Personal Adviser and support available to you
What is a Personal Adviser (PA)?
- Someone to help you move from living in care, to enjoying independence as an adult
- They are part of the Corporate Parenting Team at Milton Keynes Council
- They can help you access housing, education, employment and training and health services
- Here to support you to make the most of leaving care.
- Support and help you to plan for your future
- You are entitled under law to have a PA until you are 25 years old, the support you get will depend on your needs
Your relationship with your PA:
- This is important
- The better the relationship, the more beneficial having a PA will be to you
- You can discuss the future which they are trained to help you with
- Don’t forget to keep in touch, your PA will be happy to agree the best way to keep in touch, and how much contact you’d like
What does a Personal Adviser do?
PAs are experienced at working with and helping young people. Your Personal Adviser will do the following:
From age 17 and a half
- attend your Child Care Review and give advice about what support you will have
- work with your social worker and independent reviewing officer (IRO) to get to know you
- help prepare your Pathway Plan so that you can get good idea of what you want to do in your life and how to achieve it
From age 18,
- start supporting you
- review your Pathway Plan with you and help make sure it is carried out
- keep in touch, visit you on a regular basis, and make sure you get access to all the services and support described in this booklet
These services are designed to help you and you are entitled to make use of them to plan for your future. Under the law you are entitled to them until you are 25 years old.
Our aims:
- Finding somewhere suitable for you to live
- Keep you safe and support your independence
- Get you into education, employment or training
- Get you financial support and advice about managing your money
- Keep you healthy and get you access to good health advice
- Point you in the right direction if you run into problems
With your Person Adviser and through your Pathway Plan, we will provide you with a good service that meets your needs.
Contacting your personal adviser
If you can’t get through to your PA call the Duty line on 01908 253740
If you need to speak to someone urgently but it's outside of office hours (usually 9am - 5pm) you can call the Out of hours emergency number: 01908 265545
Complaints and compliments
- Please tell us if you think we have or haven’t done a good job
- If you are unhappy about something we will try and help you fix it
- You also can ask your family, personal adviser, carers or friends to help you
- You can also talk to us by phone on 01908 253817.
There are also national organisations who can give you support as well:
Children’s Commissioner for England
- promotes and protects children’s rights
- They offer you free support, advice and information.
- You can call on 0800 528 0731 or visit ‘help at hand’ website
Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. They inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people, and services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. They can be contacted on: 0300 123 3155
They are a charity for children in care and young care leavers. They can offer help and advice online or by calling 0800 023 2033
I want to change my PA
- Try talking to your PA about the issue
- If you have tried, or can’t, speak to the PAs supervisor or an advocate
- If the issue cannot be resolved we will look to change your PA
Accessing your records
You are able to access your records by sending us a subject access request. Your PA can help you to complete this form.
Advocacy
An advocate is someone independent. Their job is to help make sure your views are heard. They can represent you at meetings or raise any concerns you have.
If you would like to speak to someone from the advocacy service, please contact your social worker or PA.