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CHRISTMAS can be hard if you are on your own. It could be even harder for children in children's homes. So Lancashire County Council's staff pull out all the stops to give them a happy Christmas...
Could you describe the home you work in?
Many people have an old-fashioned idea about children's homes - these days all our residential homes are as close as we can make them to normal homes.
Ours, for example, is a normal house with six bedrooms for young people. It's not at all institutional - we've got all the things you'd expect to see in any house with teenagers - TV in the living room, games consoles and so on. We do our best to make sure young people have as normal a life as possible.
Christmas must be a difficult time for young people in care?
Christmas should be a special time for young people and looked-after children are no different. There are over 1,200 looked-after children in Lancashire. The vast bulk of those are in foster care, where their Christmas will be the same as anyone else's - apart from not being in their own home.
Our young people aren't concerned about the materialistic things - what presents they get and so on - they are much more worried about who they will be able to see at Christmas.
So do young people get to see their families at Christmas?
Yes, wherever possible we do all we can to make sure that our young people get to see their immediate or extended family. That may mean taking them to spend Christmas Day at home and ensuring that transport and their key worker is available so that all goes well. Sometimes, for safeguarding issues, it may not be possible for a young person to go home. For example, last Christmas we had one young man left in the unit who couldn't go home so we arranged for his mum to come and spend Christmas Day with him - opening presents around the tree, the full Christmas dinner and so on.
How else can you make Christmas special?
We make sure everything is as normal as possible - we go to a Christmas show every year and have a Christmas party which the young people can bring friends and family to. We're really sensitive about making sure that everyone has someone to bring to the party.
We’re careful to include everyone in a way they’re happy with, regardless of religious or cultural background. Other than that we do all the traditional things - we have decorations up and dates and chocolate around the house. Our young people deserve a special Christmas as much as anyone else and we work extremely hard to make sure they get one.
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