Voice of the child and young person
Engagement of children and young people is well established in Coventry across Children’s Services and in particular for children who are looked after and care leavers. The Coventry Participation strategy seeks to actively involve within decision making all children and young people receiving services who are CLA, care leavers, children in need or on child protection plans. Children and young people are viewed as experts through their lived experience and uniquely placed, as equal partners, to help Coventry City Council provide services which are fit for purpose.
Coventry uses a variety of methods to gain the views of children and young people, which include:
- Mind of My Own App
- Service user feedback forms
- Consultations
Children and young people are actively involved in:
- Recruitment and selection of staff
- Workforce training/development
- Commissioning of services
- Corporate parenting board
The Children in Care Council, known locally as Voices of Care, is a young person led group made up of CLA and Care Leavers who contribute directly on the development of policy, practice, and services. Voices of Care have been noted both locally and nationally for the quality of their work.
Findings from the 2022 annual Pledge Survey, which is a list of promises made by the Council as Corporate Parent to all of Coventry’s children looked after and care leaver population include:
- 97% feel their current placement is right for them
- 88% feel listened to by staff
- 100% feel safe in their placement
- 98% feel healthy
Voice of the child / young person about their placement
As part of the Commissioning Team’s Quality Assurance visits to both Residential and Supported Accommodation provision, Commissioning Officers ask providers to undertake “6 quick questions” with the young people to highlight their thoughts and feelings about their home; if the young people are home during the visits the Officers may speak to the young people to ask them directly.
Below are some examples of the responses Officers have received from children and young people:
Residential Special School, voice of young person:
They felt safe, listened to and they could tell staff if they were not happy. They enjoy going on the bus, going for walks and the Dragon class
Supported Accommodation, voice of young person:
The young person was present during the QA visit. The young person said “they liked the flat, there were no issues with the other tenants in the building and the location of the flat was good as it was close to local shops and it easy to travel to town”.
Standard of low support accommodation very good
young people like the independence that low support gives. They feel less “babied”, be good if they had more single flats, to give to 18-year-olds to practice more independence skills.