Why?
Whilst Aberdeenshire found that taking part in the Bright Spots Programme was an effective way of hearing the voices of their care-experienced children and young people – including those as young as 4 years old – they wanted to broaden their participation work with this youngest group even further.
What?
Aberdeenshire embarked on a multi-agency infant voices project, aiming to hear the voices of the very youngest babies, infants and children in their care.
To help to understand the levels of confidence and knowledge in this area that their practitioners had, Aberdeenshire sent out a survey to colleagues from health, social work, education, police and the third sector, which asked them to consider their practice in relation to children pre-birth to 4 years 11 months. The survey was based on the Scottish Government produced ‘Voice of the Infant Best Practice Guidelines and Infant Pledge (2023)’.
What difference did it make?
The results of the survey suggested that many practitioners did not have the relevant tools, training or resources to support them to really listen to infants.
As a result, ‘See Me Hear Me – Support for Record Keeping and Report Writing’ developed by the Specialist Nurse for Child Protection in Aberdeenshire, is currently being trialled in social work teams and early years settings and work is ongoing to provide additional support to practitioners.
This tool has been very successful within health and has seen an average of 53% increase in infants’ voices being recorded in health visitor and school nurse records.
The voice of the infant work inspired a Voice of the Child GIRFEC event which was held in May 2025. This was a whole day event for multi-agency practitioners across Aberdeenshire focused on the voice of all of our children and young people.
