Dorset are changing how young people will be involved in developing the service. Moving from a model of young people telling them the priorities to change a ‘You said –We did’ model to one where solutions are developed together a ‘You said- We did this together’ model

Why?

As part of the New Belongings programme Dorset started to respond to care leavers’ priorities. Dorset felt that young people had said  what needed to change but the expectations for making the change happen had remained with the managers.

They wanted to move away from this model to one where solutions to the problems are developed together.

What?
    • As part of the New Belongings programme Dorset completed the Your Life Beyond Care (YLBC) survey in 2020. The survey told them what made life good for their care leavers and the areas that concerned their care leavers.
    • Working with their young people they identified 4 priority areas for change. Meeting were held on each of the 4 areas so managers from the relevant services could hear what young people felt needed to change.
    • All the meeting were online, so some of the ‘harder to hear’ young people could be involved – e.g. those out of area, young parents.
    • Over 18 months Dorset implemented their plan based on what young people said was important to change.
    • In 2022 Dorset care leavers completed the YLBC survey again.

This time they are looking to use their 2022 YLBC findings to work jointly with young people on plan based on a  ‘You said- Together we did this model

Impact

The action plan based on the findings from  Dorset Your Life Beyond Care survey in 2022 will be  based on what young people see as the priorities, but developed and implemented jointly between staff and young people.

Plans for co-production

Dorset are looking to embed co-production with young people across all elements of service planning. Some of the steps identified are:-

    • To review after every meeting / session the opportunities to involve young people jointly in service development.
    • These opportunities are reviewed and followed up by the Care Leavers Action Group which includes staff and young people
    • Training is planned for all children services managers on co-production – so the model can be embedded across all services