we could have a genuine conversation and say what we thought. I do feel that some of the things we brought to the table changed his view of things, I hope so anyway. You had already been working in a role that involved young people's participation. How did this compare to your experiences working for your local authority? I learned to understand the political viewpoint more, the bigger picture. I did find it frustrating that the Government isn't able to just tell local authorities what to do, so if they aren't doing a good job the Minister can't necessarily just put that right straight away. He used to say to us in response to some of the issues we raised 'but the local authority shouldn't be doing x,y,z' and I'd just be thinking 'I know that, why do you think I am bringing it up..' In the end I think he was just as frustrated as we were that all the local authorities can behave so differently even though they have to follow the same set of laws. It does give you an idea of the barriers to change and why things can't just be made better. Tim did follow up individual cases sometimes that we would bring to his attention. It was really good that he was willing to do that and we could show the care leavers whose issues we were bringing real results. It shouldn't be like though. It shouldn't take for a Minister to get involved