Introduction
Involving care-experienced young people and the voluntary sector in the inspections of local authority children's services has been a unique and innovative project. For the first time children and young people who are recipients of those services have had the opportunity to have their views heard by people who can empathise with their experiences and communicate using methods specifically designed for this purpose.
This report outlines the learning from this project and identifies the added value of the approach and methods used. A consortium of voluntary agencies has worked closely with the Social Services Inspectorate (551) to develop a process for gathering better information directly from children, young people and their carers which enables them to give their views and opinions on how well local authorities listen and respond to them.
In 19 inspections of local authority children's services, a Listening and Responding team of one voluntary agency representative and two care-experienced young people specifically met with children and young people and other significant adults to discover how they felt they were listened to and their views and opinions taken account of.
The young inspectors were aged between 18 and 25, and all had experience of social services provision, including care experience. Some of the young people held substantive posts in the consortium agencies, for example those from the Barnardo's Voice Initiative, while others were employed on a sessional basis specifically for each inspection.
From the beginning it was acknowledged that the learning from this initiative needed to be recorded and disseminated thereby providing valuable evidence of 'what works' to enable the 551 to take decisions about future work. The consortium also feels that the learning is of immense value to anyone wishing to develop more effective ways of measuring the impact of policies and practice by listening to and involving children and young people.
The consortium would like to acknowledge the support of all the 551 lead inspectors and to thank the Listening and Responding inspectors for their hard work and their contributions to the review of the initiative; their views and opinions have been represented in this report.
