The Voice of the Child Participation Co-Ordinator will provide an update to the Board in relation to the work to expand the voice of the child. The Support officer for the Member of Youth Parliament for Middlesbrough (MYP) will provide a verbal update from the representatives.
Minutes:
The
Chair welcomed the Voice of the Child Coordinator to provide an update to the
Board on work surrounding participation and work of our member of Youth
Parliament for Middlesbrough. The Coordinator firstly thanked the Board for
making Participation a standard item
The Board were shown a video blog produced by the Member of Youth Parliament
for Middlesbrough, Muskaan which provided an update on progress since the last
meeting. The key messages were as follows:
• The Member of Youth Parliament - Muskaan (MYP) and Deputy Member of Youth
Parliament - Batool (DMYP) were sad to see their Participation Officer Beth
leave for University, however they were thrilled to meet Laurie who will
support them. Laurie is up to date with their priorities and they are meeting
regularly.
• Muskaan and Batool worked with Abi Tang and other MYPs in the North to
organise and plan a Recycling convention. Then helped and worked as a
facilitator for the convention, gathered ideas and knowledge to use in our own
area.
• The representatives tried to meet with Councillor Antony High to discuss our
ideas for Middlesbrough but the meeting wasn’t the most successful due to
technical issues so they will try to reorganise a date to re meet.
• ReuseRefill campaign- they are trying to battle during more lockdown
restrictions to be able to start our reusable bottle campaign around
Middlesbrough. They have collected contact information and ways for them to
take part however Covid is a massive issue and has impacted.
• The representatives are still trying to organise development of the Youth
Council, however they have decided to wait till after the New Year to take it
to schools as there’s still too much uncertainty and schools are bust with
COVID.
The
Panel were pleased to hear of their progress and looked forward to future
updates.
In terms of wider participation, the Voice of the Child Coordinator provided a
presentation on work underway.
Participation
• Developing the Tell Us More Survey - a process to allow children, young
people, parents and carers to give honest feedback on the service that they
receive. The tell us more survey had over 100 responses and in terms of care
leavers, the service engaged with 89 young people. The Board requested that a
breakdown of responses be brought back to the next meeting of the Board.
• Reviewing the Nation Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) contract and the usage in
Middlesbrough. The number of young people engaging are quite low so the
Participation team is working to address this.
• Reviewing the communications with young people, parents, carers and the
workforce.
• Developing the Middlesbrough Children Matter website -This website will be
the hub of information for children, young people, parents and carers. The
service hope to launch the website on 13 November 2020. The Coordinator advised
that she is hopeful that now there is one central point for information
sharing, more young people will become interested in joining groups. There has
always been difficulty with this, however it is not just in Middlesbrough. The
Coordination and Support worker recently attended a Regional Participation
Network and workers all shared the same view. Young people are tired of virtual
meetings and cannot wait to meet.
• Finalising plans for a virtual Youth Council network- Working with Members of
Youth Parliament and Councillor Antony High to plan a virtual launch due to
COVID.
How have we been supporting/ encouraging participation through
COVID?
Whilst Covid-19 has changed the way we live and run our lives, the Coordinator
outlined that in one way, it has helped the Participation team rethink the way
they engage with young people. The team has:
• Launched the GovNotify text service for Care Leavers- allows the service to
send text messages directly to the young persons phone with updates,
opportunities and information.
• Launched the GovNotify text service for Children's Care staff- allows the
service to send information to our workers, for example: NYAS information to
promote with children and young people.
• Promoting the use of Youth Voice Middlesbrough social media platforms- Using
young person friendly platforms to engage with our young people and promote
opportunities and information.
• The use of Webex; Zoom; Skype; Facetime and GoogleMeets- The service offer
the use of all these platforms to engage with our young people to run social
groups.
In
terms of communication, the Director of Children's Care advised the Board that
all Children Looked after now have a laptop and all foster carers were issued
with mobile phones to aid communication with social workers and birth parents.
Mini Children in Care Council (mini CICC), Children in Care Council (CICC) and
Care Leavers forum
In terms of groups, the Coordination advised that Board of the current numbers
and activities underway:
Mini CICC - Currently 3 members of the
group, who live within the same placement. The boys meet every 3 weeks for a
virtual games night. They find the night fun, but are looking forward to
meeting properly for pizza and sweets!
Children in Care Council - There is currently only
have one member of the Children in Care Council , however has recently said
they do not want to engage with the virtual meetings but wants to attend the
meetings when CICC is able to meet. The young person in question, however is
part of the Young Commissioners Group and therefore does have a say in how we
shape Council services.
Care Leavers forum- The group meet fortnightly and
speak regularly via the Care Leavers forum whatsapp group. There are 4 members
of the group. Recent tasks of the group have included the recruitment of the
Director of Children's Care, the recruitment of the Participation Officer, the
development of the Tell Us More Survey and they have been heavily involved in
the plans for Care Leavers week.
A Board member praised the Coordinator for her work, however mirrored her
comments by saying further methods of engagement need to be explored to get
more young people on these groups. The Coordinator in response outlined that it
is hard, as quite often young people just want to be seen as everyone else, and
with Covid it is impossible for visit schools, the virtual school or groups and
therefore when it is safe to do so, it is hoped this can resume.
Care Leavers Week- 26 October 2020- 1 November 2020- Plans
The Coordinator advised that Care Leavers week ran from 28 October 2020 - 1
November 2020 and the Participation team were busy engaging with Care leavers.
• through Twitter, there had been key messages from the Director of Children's
Services, Director of Children's Care and Interim Head of Looked After Children
and Corporate Parenting, expressing how proud Middlesbrough is of their young
people.
• Text service- competition a day e.g. favourite sing, favourite joke ,
Favourite films and series. These texts go to the Personal advisors for the
young people and then directly to the young people.
• social media campaigns
• useful links and support e.g. mental health
The Chair thanked the Coordinator for her presentation.
AGREED-
·
That the information be noted
·
That a breakdown of responses from the Tell me
more survey, be brought back to the next meeting