Agenda item

To receive a report from the Director of Children and Families providing an update on the work of the Voice and Influence Team putting the voice of children and young people at the centre of the directorate’s work.

The Board considered a report from the Director of Children and Families providing an update on the work of the Voice and Influence Team putting the voice of children and young people at the centre of the directorate’s work.

In attendance for this item were:

·  Councillor Fiona Venner, Executive Member for Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships

·  Councillor Jonathan Pryor, Executive Member for Economy, Culture, and Education

·  Julie Longworth, Director of Children & Families

·  Farrah Khan, Deputy Director – Social Care

·  Hannah Lamplugh, Children’s Strategy and Influence Lead

The Executive Board Member for Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships introduced to the report noting the excellent work done by the Voice, Influence and Change Team and the recognition that they had received in being nominated for a national award. The Executive Board Member highlighted the number of children that are reached through this small team for example the 25-26,000 children that complete the My Health, My School Survey, the thousands of children that vote for the Leeds Children’s Mayor each year and the 80,000 children consulted with over a period of years to develop the 12 Child Friendly Leeds wishes.

The Executive Member also emphasised the growing feedback received through the Voice and Influence Team from children and young people that focuses on poverty and the associated worries they have linked to that issue.

The Children’s Strategy and Influence Lead also provided introductory comments covering the statutory element of the Voice and Influence role, the universal offer that is made to children and young people in the city, the role in working with social care colleagues to hear the voices of seldom heard children and young people and work with SEND children and young people.

The report recommendations also covered enhanced working between the Board, through the Principal Scrutiny Adviser, and the Voice and Influence Team to potentially include the Board being invited to an annual Youth Takeover event to enable the Board to meet directly with children and young people; more input into the Board’s work programme to look at ways in which the voice of children and young people could be heard more clearly in the work the board is planning to do and also consider whether report authors could reflect on how each report considered by the Board meets the child friendly wishes or whether reports could specifically cover the voice of the child as standard. It was agreed that the scrutiny adviser would take this away and report back to the Board following further work with the Voice and Influence Team and taking account of any wider, relevant advice about the possible approaches.

In response to questions and comments from Board Members the following issues were covered:

·  Members welcomed the report and were supportive of the wide reach of the Voice and Influence Team and the drive to ensure that the voice of children and young people is fully captured as part of the directorate’s work.

·  Members asked about formal links between the team and its work and the Executive and other bodies such as the Youth Council as well as frequency of meetings and a suggestion that the Voice and Influence Team could meet with newly elected members to set out the work that the team does and the connections they have in localities across the city. In response the Board were informed that the UK Youth Parliament are elected every two years and the Team meet with them on a monthly basis and depending on events this can be more frequent. An example of the activities of the Youth Parliament was provided through the ‘make your mark ballot” which seeks to understand the key issues being faced by children and young people and ultimately determining their top priority and feeding that back to Children’s Champions. The Leeds Youth Council meet every month on a Saturday and have expressed a desire to meet with more elected members in the future. The Youth Council has recently carried out work on mental health and exam stress which has been taken forward by the Voice and Influence Team. In respect of contact with elected members a quarterly newsletter is produced which is aimed at raising awareness on key news and key consultations. Moving forward there was a suggestion that a briefing could be provided to Children’s Champions before taking on the role. In addition, a guide has also been produced in partnership with Childrens Champions, which will be launched after the elections and shared with elected members with a local focus to provide local contacts and information to elected members and enable them to share this information with children and young people in their wards.

·  The Board sought assurance about children and young people being listened to when there are serious issues in their lives such as abuse or neglect. Assurance was provided that in Leeds that is the case, despite funding reductions the directorate is committed to maintaining the voice and influence provision that exists in the city. Central to the work of staff is listening to the voice of children, parents and carers linked to the statutory responsibility to promote the welfare of the child and to safeguard children, listening to lived experiences is absolutely central to that. Leeds has a Think Family approach which not only involves listening to the voice of the child but also to parents and carers. Quality Assurance also takes place to test and ensure that services are enabling the voice of the child to be heard through developing trusted relationships, that listening does take place and how that impacts the work of the directorate and how that is evidenced. The inspection framework also covers this, a key feature of all inspections is to determine how well the voice of the child is captured. In the last Ofsted inspection, it was highlighted that the Voice of the Child was strong in Leeds, and this was based on the inspectors meeting directly with children and young people.

·  The Board wanted to know more about impact of the work, to ensure that change is delivered through the work that is done and any examples of that. In response two examples were set out; children and young people have involvement in recruitment of the senior leadership team in Leeds with 25% of the final say meaning they have influence over senior management and leadership; and for children with SEND delivery of the Apprenticeship Fair has been impacted by feedback from that cohort through the delivery of an event SEND Next Choices specifically designed for those with SEND which has reached in the region of 2,000 young people each year, this responded to feedback that previous iterations of the event had not been fully suitable for the SEND cohort. On a related point the Board heard about a course called ‘Mind Your Language’ which focuses on language used by practitioners designed to ensure that children are not criminalised in cases involving exploitation. This has been developed in response to feedback from children and families. In addition, culture and identity was noted as an area where engagement with young people has led to a better understanding of culture and identity and what it means to children and young people in the city.

·  The Board suggested that report summaries could be provided to children and young people in ‘child friendly language’ or a child friendly summary of the minutes from Board meetings.

·  Members also commented on the ongoing ‘Knife Angel’ Project in Leeds. The Board felt that it was an excellent project that has had a real impact in terms of events for children and young people. However, the events designed for parents have struggled with low attendance and it was suggested that this should be reviewed and new approaches developed. In response the Board heard that this will form part of the evaluation of the work, and it was recognised that some events had been successful but others less so. In addition, the evaluation will also feature direct contact with parents and carers to understand what has worked and what hasn’t in terms of engagement.

·  The Board asked about how the team reaches out to children and young people who are not in school regularly. The Board heard that as part of this work there is a focus on parent and carer voice and influence and this is done through working with support groups for parents and carers with children and young people with SEND, which provides access to parents and carers of children who are not regularly attending school, this allows the work of the Voice and Influence Team to be shared amongst these groups. There is also work done in partnership with colleagues working with families who have chosen to educate their child at home (elective home education) and the Third Sector to ensure that the work of the team is shared as far as possible and that the team picks up issues through those channels.

·  There was interest in whether the impact of the voice of children and young people is shared more widely across the city with other children through schools. The Board heard about ‘You Said, We Did’ approaches which shows to those raising issues that their voices have been heard and this has been done both through written communication and through social media. The main approach to feeding back to schools is through Leeds for Learning which is more staff focussed rather than directly with children and young people. It was noted that there might be more that can be done through schools and the PHSE curriculum that could assist in spreading the word on what difference the voice of children and young people has, it was agreed that this would be taken away with a view to developing a new approach in this area, perhaps an annual update to schools that can be shared with students.

·  In response to a query on coverage on social media it was acknowledged that the team should aim to further increase the number of young people following and engaging with Leeds Youth Voice on Instagram and the team updated they are working on strategies to increase the number of followers.

Resolved

The Board:

a)  Noted and welcomed the work of the Voice and Influence Team in the city.

b)  Agreed that the Children and Families Scrutiny Board, through the Principal Scrutiny Adviser, should explore ways in which work with the Voice Influence and Change team can be enhanced to enable board members to stay updated on key issues and priorities of children and young people and have more opportunities to hear from and respond to the voices of children and young people.

c)  Noted that further engagement with schools would be a positive way to publicise the work of the Voice, Influence and Change Team with children and young people and could highlight the impact that the voices of children and young people is having in Leeds.