Agenda item

The Panel viewed a presentation and video which provided details as to how young people scrutinise various parts of the service and make recommendations for improvements (for copy of presentation, see file of minutes).

Cory explained how the young people discuss subjects that they would like to investigate, with managers and critical friends and the coproduction aspect of the investigations relied on gaining a consensus. The Panel heard that the next enquiry would investigate hearing the voices of young people living in our children’s homes, in order to learn more about their lived experiences.  

Luke recited a poem entitled ‘Celebrating Every Journey’ which reflected the importance of recognising that all young people have different perceptions of their experiences. He explained the work of the Experts group sought to gather as much of that lived experience as possible, to inform services of the future. Luke spoke of the value in young people discussing their feelings, informally, with other young people who have had similar experiences.

Cory referred to the mutual respect that was shown during the discussions, with questions being asked sensitively to ensure that the young people felt comfortable sharing their views. Rachel Harris, Service Improvement Manager, commented that she was one of the supporting officers present at the discussions and she observed how well the young people understood each other, having shared similar experiences. She added that even experienced practitioners could benefit from observing the discussions between the young people. 

The Chair asked how the Experts dealt with situations when there were differences of opinion. 

Cory responded that the young people had learnt to empathise and respect each other. He highlighted that they consider alternative viewpoints to be opportunities to look deeper into why a person feels a particular way and they work to develop solutions, to reach agreement on the way forward.

Laura Armstrong, Professional Practice Manager, commended the young people and she spoke of how the practitioners ensure the investigations are coproduced safely.  She also thanked the Lee Peacock,Participation and Engagement Officer and Darryl Samuels, Workforce Development Lead, who helped to train the young people. Cory, on behalf of the Experts, paid tribute to the practitioners and critical friends who had empowered the young people and provided the platform to enable the young people to share their voices.  Mason commented that he would like to see an investigation into how to better support young people’s emotional and physical health and more opportunities for young people to explore as many activities as possible to help them identify what makes them happy.  He added that he would be interested in joining the Experts Through Experience group, to investigate the support systems currently in place. 

The Service Improvement Manager referred to work carried out by Children’s Social Care and a Community Interest Company on research into the benefits gained from creative arts for care experienced young people and the service had linked with Cultural Services, with a view to developing a creative arts project in the future.