This website will provide you with lots of useful information that will help you understand what it means to be ‘in care’. When you are living apart from your own family the local authority have a duty to step in and make sure you are getting every opportunity to be grow up happy, healthy and feeling loved. This responsibility is called ‘corporate parenting’ and means that as well as your carer and social worker the whole council has a duty to ensure you are being the best you can be. This includes the mayor, the councillors, and other professionals that work with you such as teachers, counsellors, nurses and police officers.
Senior managers from all these agencies, come together in large meeting every three months called the ‘Corporate Parenting Board’ to discuss how we can make services better and review what is working for you and what you think could be improved. Bromley has an active Living in Care Council (LinCC) and care leavers forum (Change for Care Leavers-CFCL) who come to the meetings to represent your views. We are always open to young people joining the councils – please contact Melissa on 07970987121 if you are interested in joining.
We’d like to introduce you to some of your corporate parents, LinCC interviewed them for their first newsletter, here’s what they asked them:
Ade Adetosoye – Chief Executive Officer
What is a Corporate Parent?
A corporate parent, like any good parent, is someone who cares and aspires for the very best for their child. As a corporate parent, I am ambitious for your future, encouraging you to develop talents, hobbies, interests and friendships that will allow you to reach your full potential in life.
To make sure I don’t let them down, I attend LinCC meetings to listen and talk to children in care and young people to understand their needs and concerns.
What motivates you to work with children and young people?
I always say that I am “a social worker first and a senior leader second” and have never forgotten that my job is to ensure that our children and young people are cared for, protected and safe, and able to reach their full potential.
Tell us a secret
I am a Liveryman of the Haberdashers’ Company, an ancient merchant guild in the City of London. I am also a Freeman of the City of London, a unique historical title that dates back to 1237 and which I share with many famous people throughout history including Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Florence Nightingale. There are lots of rights that come with the Freedom of the City, including the right to walk my sheep across London Bridge!
Councillor Jonathan Andrews – Executive Councillor/Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Families
What does being a Corporate Parent mean to you?
Being a Corporate Parent is a responsibility shared by everyone across Bromley Council – both Councillors and Officers alike – and at its heart, means bringing the important duty that we hold to our borough’s looked-after children to all that we do.
As Bromley Council’s Executive Councillor for Children, Education and Families, I have a strong personal passion for enabling our children and young people throughout Bromley to reach their true potential – and I know first-hand how important ensuring the best life chances for our borough’s children and young people is to us all. I attend and chair several board meetings focused on outcomes for our children and young people, speak at committee and Council meetings about the work of our Children’s Services team, and am responsible for making key decisions about the Council’s support for children and young people across Bromley.
I became a Corporate Parent long before I took on this role, though – since I was first elected as a Councillor in 2022 – and as Vice-Chairman of the Children Education and Families PDS Committee from 2022-2025, I ensured that decisions affecting children and young people across Bromley were scrutinised and the work of our officers to support our looked after children and young people was supported.
As Mayor of Bromley from 2025-26, it was also a privilege to be able to support Bromley’s children and young people in many ways – including joining the borough’s Celebration of Achievement for our looked-after children and foster families, handing out awards to recognise our young people’s many achievements.
As I said that day, I felt extremely proud, as a Corporate Parent, of what our borough’s looked-after children and young people have been supported to do, and how each of their individual personalities really shone through – and I was delighted to award the Mayor of Bromley’s Young Persons’ Award 2026 to a looked-after young person, for their important voluntary work to support others in similar situations as themselves.
Being a Corporate Parent of course carries with it many duties and responsibilities – but it is also greatly rewarding to see our children and young people succeed and thrive.
David Dare – Assistant Director for Children Services
What is a Corporate Parent?
I believe a corporate parent means being responsible for providing the best care , support and protection for children that need to be looked after by the local authority. It also means looking after and supporting them post childhood ( 18) , up unto they are 25 .
It means to show love for them and not being afraid to do so , by the actions taken to support them. It means to champion their dreams and aspirations , celebrate their successes and support them and be there for them when things don’t go so well. It also means to ‘hear’ them , learn from them and design services with them.
Your proudest moment as a Corporate Parent?
My proudest moment – there are a few – so edit as you see fit . One was providing the Our House space (I know we are in flux currently but will be sorted) it shows the LA dedication to our children. I can think of moments of when coming to LBB meeting children on LINCC who were quite shy and nervous and a couple of years later are chairing meetings and presenting training to staff . I am proud at seeing people like Stephen grow and start working within the council . I can think of quite a few we have provided jobs for , but this is down to them as well as us. I think the biggest compliment to social work as a profession is when a child/young person says ‘ I want to be a social worker ‘ and I have heard quite a few of our children say that , and some become a social worker .
You can learn about some of your other Corporate Parents on lots of the other pages on this website.
Here is a song that our Corporate Parents and young people sang to each other at our celebration event in 2019.