Why?
The ANV AMPLIFY awards aim to champion and recognise the work of children in care councils and care leaver forums. They were held in October 2024 (Amplify – Coram Voice) – Kent’s Young Adult Council, Our Children and Young People’s Council and Our Children and Young People’s Council Extra were jointly nominated for the ‘Voice award’.
What?
- At Kent’s Children in Care Council group meetings, young people regularly speak about how workers and other adults they encounter can better support them. One of the key messages is always the same, ‘Listen to US and let US have a say in our own lives’. This was consistent message across sessions and highlighted the important role that social workers, fosters carers and teachers have in amplifying the voices of young people in Kent.
- The groups wanted this mission to be the focus of a new training session for professionals and they wanted to be involved in the planning and delivery of it.
- Seven representatives from across the three groups met to plan the training session. They also met with the Participation team individually and for one further workshop to finalise the session over the following months.
- The selected group wanted the session to make professionals really think about how they work with young people and to ensure that they have genuine opportunities to be listened to and take part in their own planning.
- They also wanted professionals to hear directly from them, even if they weren’t able to personally deliver the training every time, so it was decided that a short film would be made, featuring the young people’s images and own narration, so that workers would hear their ideas in their own words.
- The group also wanted to include some of their own experiences within the training session to help other young people.
- They helped plan an ice breaker activity, other interactive elements and wrote their own sections of the training to go alongside the film.
- The group helped create a short film, called ‘Listen Up!’ that can be shared internally within the Council as well as with trusted external parties, such as with NHS colleagues.
- They also helped develop a 30-minute training session featuring the film that focuses on the importance of listening to the voices of young people, alongside information about the Rights of Children and why Participation was created. The video was launched at Kent’s Corporate Parenting Panel in July 2024, where it was presented by the young people themselves. The audience was made up of members of Kent’s Corporate Board and Corporate Parenting Panel, senior staff within Children’s Services, Elected Members and other Members of the Children in Care Councils.
What difference did it make?
There was a lot of positive feedback from attendees at the launch event. See some selected quotes below:
“Hearing children’s experiences was emotional, but also left leaders feeling proud about the decisions we make and the way we set things going forward to improve children’s outcomes. Leaders were left inspired thinking what more can be done to improve children’s outcomes and provide opportunities.” Director Countywide Children’s Services
“I would welcome the training to be delivered by the young people to all of the Kent and Medway LAC Nurses. It was so powerful and insightful.” Chief Nurse for Looked After Children
“The training is so powerful and important for wider groups of people who also have Corporate Parenting responsibilities. Could the training be extended to be delivered to them, and to staff in schools?” KCC Elected Member
The training has been further developed, taking into account the feedback from young people in the audience at the launch event.
It will now be delivered to Services within Kent County Council by care-experienced apprentices within the Participation Team who worked with the young people throughout the project. This will ensure that the voices of care-experienced young people always remain front and centre.
In the next month alone, the training will be delivered to Kent’s Safeguarding team, Professional Standards and Quality Assurance Service, the Care Leavers 18+ Service, the Educational Psychology Service and Maidstone’s Children and Families Social Work Service. This means that young people’s views will be shared with front line practitioners who work with young people daily.
The young people were extremely proud to deliver the training to their Corporate Parents and other young people!
Final thoughts on the project from the Participation team who nominated the young people:
“The young people impressed us with their insight and maturity, reflecting not just on what they needed individually, but also what wider groups of young people may think and feel. They gave up their time willingly and were generous in sharing their experiences and ideas, challenging themselves to narrate, appear on camera and present to a large audience, which was very nerve wracking! What shone through was their desire to make everyone’s experiences of being in care or receiving services as positive as they can possibly be. We wanted to nominate them to recognise the immense contribution they made to this project and its ensuing legacy as it is shared throughout Kent’s Children’s Services.”