Here are a selection of case studies highlighting work completed by A National Voice and Coram Voice’s Care-Experienced Consultants.
To hear more about how we can support you with co-production and participation with children and young people, email us on ANV@coramvoice.org.uk
A National Voice case studies
Stable Homes, Built on Love – creation of activity pack
In order to help children in care, care leavers and participation groups to have their voice heard by the Department for Education’s plans for children’s social care in ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, A National Voice created this activity pack.
It includes activities to help children and young people to talk about the Government’s missions and enable children and young people to feed into the DfE’s plans.
ANV are also running a series of online sessions to talk to children in care councils and care leaver forums about the different areas of ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’. Everything discussed will feed into the work the Department for Education are doing to improve things for care-experienced children and young people.
Read young people’s reports from the 4 individual sessions here.
A National Voice supported the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care by ensuring the voices of as many children and young people in care and leaving care were heard during this important piece of work.
A National Voice Ambassadors developed a Participation Menu which included a number of ideas for workshops and activities to help young people to have their say. These resources were sent to Children in Care Councils across England, supporting them to run sessions locally to gather children and young people’s feedback on the review.
ANV Ambassadors then gathered together over two days to review all the responses from across the county and prepare presentations on the themes to share with members of the Independent Review Team.
Their report shares care-experienced young people’s thoughts, feelings and hopes for the future. It heard from 309 children and young people from 31 different local authorities across England. The respondents also represented a broad range in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and Special Educational Needs status.
Watch this online session run by ANV ambassadors with Josh McAllister, Chair of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
Home is Not a Placement is a campaign developed by a National Voice Ambassadors that aims to support children in care and care leavers to be empowered to ask for the things that make a house a home.
Through this campaign ANV will encouraged local authorities, foster carers and residential providers to really think about how they support young people to feel at home. Read more about the campaign here.
Care-Experienced Consultant’s case studies
Ten CEC’s were involved in four online sessions as part of the ongoing Health Inequalities Programme, a collaboration between Coram Voice and the Association for Young People’s Health. Young people were asked to share their views and experiences about the barriers they face to leading healthy lives and accessing healthcare services. Two reports were created documenting findings from the Programme. One of the CEC’s, Ace, facilitated the group and created the artwork for the report’s cover.
CEC’s gave feedback on a draft report created from this programme of work aiming to develop an ambitious, evidence-based view of the future of children’s social care and understand what actions can be taken to optimise the delivery of this. CEC’s met online to discuss what they thought the future of social care is, attended the webinar hosted by the County Councils Network. Laura, a CEC, spoke about her own experiences as part of the webinar.
CEC’s were involved in a youth advisory panel for a ReThink research project run by NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West. The project explores the reasons behind why young people who have been in care are five times more likely to suffer with mental health difficulties than other young people.
CEC’s meet 4 times a year online as part of the panel. They are consulted on different aspects of the research including research questions and methods, how to communicate with children and young people, and advertisement of the project. They also meet with the chair of the professional advisory board.
We have found Coram Voice to be responsive, professional and young person centred, and would not hesitate to recommend them as a project partner. They demonstrate a depth of knowledge and understanding of children in care and care leavers and work flexibility to meet the evolving needs of the project.
Dr Rachel Hiller and Professor Lisa Holmes - ReThink
