Young people from a variety of backgrounds, both in care and living with family, shared their positive and negative experiences of attending meetings with a range of professionals and produced a list of top tips for workers. These included advice for before, during and after meetings which they felt would help young people feel genuinely and meaningfully included in these and their own plans. Tips included involving young people in the planning and organisation of meetings, helping them to prepare for what was likely to be discussed and about the kind of language they would like to be used with them. They were keen for workers to really speak to them and listen to them during meetings and discussed how they would like to receive reports and plans. These tips have now been shared with a number of staff throughout Children’s Services to help them think about their own work with young people.
It was a really positive focus group with lots of insightful opinions shared by the young people!
posted by Mark Butcher