Like many of you, I had the pleasure of attending the Compass Conference in Leeds this week and it was fantastic to see such a good turnout from all parts of the Compass Community. Part of the conference saw a Keynote speech from Lads Like Us,   I’m sure everyone who attended was just as moved and inspired as I was and hopefully everyone took something away from listening to both Danny and Mike’s stories. When reflecting afterwards, I felt a big sense of pride for what we do as an organisation and the successful outcomes we continue to achieve for the young people in our care. Listening to Lads Like Us showed us how the system can go horribly wrong at times but being at the Compass Conference also showcased just how well we get it right at Compass.

A big part of the keynote speech was about early intervention and professional curiosity – something we speak about lots at Compass and the importance of this. A big part of the speech that resonated with myself was a comment from Danny where he stated adults regularly said to him “You’ll either end up dead or in prison by the age of 18”. Many of my colleagues and people I have worked with directly at Compass know my own personal story of growing up in care – having lived in Residential Care for 6 years of my life – that phrase was something I often heard as a youngster. However, early intervention and support from carers and in particular my keyworker had a huge impact on my life.

This kindly leads onto the amazing feature we were running on the Residential Stand called Compass Hero where everyone at the Conference could nominate someone from the Compass Community as their Compass Hero. Loads of you took part in this and it was amazing to hear some of the stories and reasons behind for your nominations. It really did go to show what an amazing group of people work at Compass and the amazing impact so many of you are having on the young people in our care.