As everyone gathered in their own homes for the virtual baking session, all ingredients and utensils supplied, the ‘Bake Off’ music played as ingredients and equipment was being prepared. Elise (OVOS Worker) lead the way, she guided and demonstrated baking skills, step by step.

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Four young people joined in and learned how to bake and decorate a chocolate fudge cake. Lots of fun and laughter too! The young people fully joined in and helped each other out during the session. Disaster nearly struck as the cake tins were leaking, but luckily with a backup idea quickly applied and the night was filled with joy whilst the young people baked the night away!

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One young person said afterwards “I really enjoyed doing something I haven’t done in years” and “will definitely be baking more”.

During the session, the young people also talked about doing another virtual session, next time to cook meal ideas.
 

For the OVOS 16+ group meeting during Care Leavers Week, the young people wanted to interact in a relaxed way and sharing pizza was their idea. 

 

As our meetings are being held virtually due to Covid-19 restrictions, OVOS staff were able to organise pizzas (everyone selecting their favourite toppings) to be delivered to each young person at 6.45pm, that way they were sharing pizza, albeit virtually.

The group chatted about the virtual cooking experience the night before and NLCBF involvement and getting inspiration form care experienced young people from around the country. We also had a mini quiz for some fun. 

One pizza did go astray, but in the grand scheme of this logistical endeavour, the night was a great success.

If you would like to join in future meeting, contact the OVOS team -  ovos@solihull.gov.uk 
 

Over £700 was raised on the day itself last year, with those monies making a huge difference to children and families, providing subsidised trips and enjoyable events arranged by the OVOS team.
 
This year, holding fundraising events is either challenging or simply not possible. So, on Wednesday 14th we asked every one to  'sparkle up' by wearing some sparkle, simple or grand. It enabled us all to keep in mind the needs of our children and young people, and the important role we all hold as Corporate Parents.

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We had an amazing  and diverse response from across  Solihull, sparkly meetings, pics and videos. Some people have pledged to raise funds for OVOS when they are able to in the future - Thank You all.

Each year, Solihull MBC organises a celebration event through the OVOS Team, to recognise the achievements of all young people in our care.

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Our planned event in March this year had to be cancelled due to Covid-19  and the necessary government lockdown. 

We feel it is important that children and young people still receive recognition, and that achievements are an important thing to acknowledge. 

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Recently, we issued the 304 Certificate of Achievement, as well as presenting 12 sponsored trophy awards to young people that we were unable to back in March. Head of service - Anna - created individual presentation video messages for each our award winners, and received acceptance video/ photo from young people.

We ran our first virtual training session on how to chair your own review during half term week, although we only had one participant, it was a good session. 

The training covered:
•    What reviews are and why you have them
•    Good and bad reviews
•    What makes a good chair person?
•    What qualities do you need to chair a meeting?
•    Ideas on how to plan for your review

 

The training included a few interactive activities and the young person rated the training ‘4 out of 5’ being the top score. They now want to get involved in chairing their next review, which is an excellent outcome. 

Since the start of the national lockdown, we have been sending our newsletter out to Foster Carers. This has also included getting our children to take part in art and photography competitions. Where we were able to, there have been some phone calls to keep in touch. 
 

We held our first virtual under 10’s meeting during half term. This was lovely as we had not seen the group in many months. We had 4 Young people attend, including one new member.

The session started off with some Halloween jokes, played the memory game, completed a short quiz, discussed the Christmas card competition and how they can get involved.  

Time was taken to gather their ideas ready for our Christmas meeting.

They want to look at some Christmas crafts, so we will busy planning for this and encouraging some of the others to get on board too.