YOUNG people leaving care from across North Yorkshire have been sharing Christmas dinners with councillors and frontline staff over the last week.

The festive lunches were for youngsters who have been looked after by North Yorkshire County Council, and who are now taking their first steps to start living independently.

Following a successful pilot in Scarborough last year, the Christmas lunches were arranged in Northallerton, Scarborough, Harrogate and Selby.

Cllr Janet Sanderson, North Yorkshire’s executive member for children, said: “We felt it was important to offer this opportunity to all our care leavers who are living independently and for them to know that our support is always on hand. This is especially important for those who may not be spending much time with family or friends over the Christmas period.

“We hope our care leavers enjoyed this chance to socialise with other young people who like themselves are starting to live independently.

“We also wanted to give them the chance to socialise with their workers and the leaving care teams, who play an important role in helping them to grow in confidence as they move to the next stage of their lives.”

Cllr David Chance, who attended the lunch in Northallerton, said: “We want young people who have been in our care to know that we are still here for them as their corporate parents – the Christmas dinners are a great opportunity for everyone to meet up and enjoy themselves.”

North Yorkshire is recognised nationally for the support it gives to care leavers, which is judged outstanding by Ofsted. Young people who are starting to live independently have a leaving care worker, and the support of a wider team with specialist roles. There are speech and language therapists, clinical psychologists, and opportunity brokers, who liaise with business and other organisations to set up work experience and other opportunities.

“We want the support we offer to our care leavers to be as flexible as possible depending on the needs of the young person,” added Cllr Sanderson. “The Christmas dinners offer a great opportunity for the young people to chat to the support team in relaxed surroundings, and share experiences with their peers.”

Stuart Carlton, Corporate Director of Children and Young Peoples Service, said: “Following the success of our first ever conference for care leavers in October, we wanted to set up what we hope will be a meaningful annual event for care leavers. Christmas can be an isolating time of year for our most vulnerable young people, so we want to remind them that support is available 24/7 if they need it.”

The Christmas lunches were paid for by contributions from locality budgets made by councillors for each local area – each county councillor has a budget of £5,000 per year to allow them to respond to local needs and activities which promote the social, economic, or environmental wellbeing of the communities they represent.