Friends

Friends are important for everyone and can be even more important if you are living away from home.  Your new carers will help you keep in contact with your friends, as they know that this is important for you.  If you don’t think that you are being allowed enough contact with your friends you should tell your social worker, and you could complain about this (see Section on “Complaints”).

You may also make new friends whilst you are being looked after in public care.  Sometimes carers may be worried about the behaviour of some of your friends and may feel that these friends are not helping you.  They may even be getting you into trouble.  This is really difficult for everyone as your carers want to do the best thing for you and you probably just want to be with your friends.  These problems can usually be sorted out in some way if you are able to talk to your carer or your social worker about them.