Voice
Children must be listened to and meaningfully and appropriately involved in decision-making about their care, and with all those involved properly listening and responding to what they want and need. There must be a compassionate and caring decision-making culture focussed on children and those that they trust.
What we are going to do:
Language
We will not use words that children and young people have told us that they don’t like.
My Meeting/My Plan
All looked after children and young people will have an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) and a My Meeting and My Plan.
Talk to us
We will create new ways that children and young people can talk to us – using their phones, social media and apps.
Meetings in children’s houses
We will have young people’s meetings often in all of our children’s houses. The young people will decide what we need to talk about at these meetings.
Young People’s Advisory Group
There will be a Young People’s Advisory Group for our children’s houses and they will meet with managers for Children’s Residential Services every month.
Children’s houses
When we think about what we’re doing well in our children’s houses and what we need to do better, our young people will do this with us. We will do this twice a year.
Moving home
We will listen to the young people who moved from their children’s house back to their family home during the COVID pandemic. We want to understand what made it work for them so that we can make this happen for more young people.
Children’s rights
We will listen to our young people and carers in our children’s houses, and understand what they know about children’s rights. We will then help them to make sure that they know about all of their rights.
Foster families
We will listen to children and young people living in foster families, and make sure that they are involved in helping us make important decisions about foster care.
You decide
Children and young people will help us decide who we agree should be foster carers, and be involved in training them to be the best carers that they can be.
Supported carers
Young people will help us decide who we agree should be supported carers, and be involved in training them to be the best carers that they can be.
Use of words
We will stop using the words in our reports that children and young people have told us that they don’t like, and make sure that our short breaks, foster carers, and supported carers do this too.
Accessible Hearing centre
We will make our Hearing centre in Glasgow more accessible for those with sensory impairment and will create a sensory room in our Hearing centre to support children and young people with sensory impairments to participate in their Children’s Hearing.
Visual guides
We will create visual information guides for our hearing centre together with autistic young people to further support children and young people with sensory impairments to participate in their hearings.
Inclusive language
We will work to make sure that we use terms and words that children and young people prefer when describing issues relating to their lives in Hearings. Where we do need to use statutory language we will limit this and explain what is meant.
Timings of Hearings
Children’s Hearings will take place at times that suit children and young people. We will work to make the times of hearings more flexible to fit around children and young people.
Participation choice
We will increase the ways that children, young people and their families can choose to take part in Children’s Hearings and will give children and young people a choice about how they participate in their Hearing.
UNCRC rights
Children’s Hearings will respect the rights of children and promote the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Right information
We will collect the right information about the children and families that we care for, so that we can have the right people to care for them if they can’t live at home with their families.
New name
We will ask children and young people who use our service to suggest a better name for the LAC Vulnerability Health team.
Rights in schools
We will make sure that our schools promote children’s rights in everything that they do.
Decision making
Young people with care experience will be at meetings and be involved in making decisions about supported carers (Supported Carer Panels).
Goal setting
We will make sure that children and young people are involved in setting goals for their own education, and are supported to achieve these.
Better nurseries and schools
We will listen to our children and young people, and make sure that they are involved in telling us how to make our nurseries and schools the best that they can be.
Participation workers
We will employ three people with care experience in their family as Participation Workers. Their job will be to listen to and involve our children and young people in decisions that we make. They will tell us what we are doing well, and where we need to get better.