Have you ever wanted to know what the young people you work with reallythink about you? Well here at Children's Express, a programme oflearning through journalism for young people aged eight to 18, wedecided to interview 12 young people from a range of projects andagencies to find out what they have to say about the adults who workwith them.
We wanted to get the views of a variety of young people from differentbackgrounds so we found our interviewees in youth centres, mentoringschemes and outreach projects.
Most of the comments the young people made were positive. They generallyfound workers made a significant impact on their lives. This ranged fromhelping them gain confidence, to keeping them in school and giving thempractical and emotional support.
Given the current debate about confidentiality for young people under16, it's significant that most of the interviewees felt it was importantfor workers to keep things confidential. The young people who trusttheir workers seemed to be the ones who had the best relationships.
Some of the negative feedback about these professionals included youngpeople feeling they didn't have enough time with their worker, since themeetings are often slotted into weekly sessions.
A couple of other areas where workers could improve included theirlistening skills and attitude towards young people.
In general, though, we found young people thought workers should be easyto get along with, friendly, encouraging, fun, kind and caring. Butabove all they should be trustworthy, and they should be there for theyoung person when they need them.
Hopefully, after reading the interviews below, you'll have a better ideaof what to think about when engaging with the children and young peopleyou come into contact with as part of your working life.
JENNY, 14 PERSONAL TUTOR
"Sometimes my personal tutor can be set in her ways so that she's rude,and she doesn't listen as much as she could.
"But she is also open and, in general, I feel like I can talk to herabout anything. She's organised, quite friendly and down-to-earth.
The sort of things my tutor helps me with are career advice and furthereducational work for future university applications."
JAMIE, 10 SOCIAL WORKER
"The good thing about my social worker is she helps me when I'm upsetand she gives me advice. I do lots of things with her, like playinggames.
The only thing that's not good about my social worker is sometimes she'sgrumpy and she could be a bit more interesting.
"My perfect social worker would be happy, easy to talk to, and reallyhelpful.
"My worker's made a difference to my life by helping me be good. I trusther because she's good at keeping a secret and I believe she would keepconfidential any information on me."
EAWEN, 16 COUNSELLOR
"When I started secondary school I found it difficult to maintainfriendships because I was too serious and took things straight to heart.I used to get angry and upset. So from year 8 to the end of year 9, Itook part in something called circle time. This is when a group ofstudents in the same year get together to talk about their issues. Then,in year 10, my school arranged for me to meet once a week with acounsellor to talk about my problems.
"The counsellor was very calm and positive and she had a brilliantunderstanding of what I was going through. I trusted her and I thinkthat's important in these kinds of relationships. But I would have likedto spend more time with my counsellor than just once a week. I think theextra time would have given me a chance to extend my discussions andfind other ways of sorting out what I was going through."
SOPHIE, 13 PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT WORKER
"I met my participation and development worker at a youth club and shethought I'd be a good young evaluator. So we go out together andevaluate projects, which is quite a fun thing to do.
"I can't really think of anything bad to say about my worker. She's madea real difference in my life by giving me more confidence. And I trustmy worker because she's got children of her own, and she keeps things Itell her confidential. My advice for other workers is to bechild-friendly and help young people with their confidence."
PAULA, 13 GP
"I think I have the perfect GP. I can go to him about any concerns Ihave to do with my health and he's really friendly. He's never rude tome. I feel like we get along really well, but I wouldn't say we've got apersonal relationship; it's more like a friendship that we've built upover time. I trust my doctor because I know I can tell him things andhe'll keep it confidential, which is really important.
"He's given me the wrong medication in the past. But when I've told himI wasn't feeling any better, he's done his best to find out what's wrongwith me, so that he can give me the right medication. That's why I haveconfidence in him. There's nothing I'd change about my GP."
NATHAN, 13 LEARNING MENTOR
"My mentor's helped me at school by keeping me in my classes and helpingme realise when, how and why I'm messing up.
"If I was to design my perfect mentor they'd be someone who's there forme and someone I can trust and talk to. I wouldn't mind if the mentorwas male or female.
"When I tell my mentor stuff, he keeps it discreet and he tells me stuffas well. He's sent me on a course with Arsenal and a course for theNational College for Young People.
"My mentor is doing all he can and I trust him because whatever I tellhim, I know he'll keep it private."
MICA, 12 SOCIAL WORKER
"I don't trust my social worker because she tells other people mybusiness. For example, if I have a fight she might tell my school or thepolice. My perfect worker would keep my problems to herself and help meout more.
"But, sometimes she does talk to me and helps me sort things out. Oncewhen I had a fight she helped me with the situation. If she hadn'tstepped in, things would have gotten worse."
KELSEY, 17 CLASSROOM ASSISTANT
"I'm registered blind, but I was educated in mainstream schools. So Ihad a classroom assistant from year 4 to year 11. She supported me bycopying things down from the board and enlarging maps and charts, whichwere sometimes hard for me to see. She also assisted me during PEclasses, because I couldn't play contact sports.
"But when I moved to secondary school, the classroom assistant startedcausing problems for me and my peers. She used to tell them off whenthey were messing around and they resented this. So sometimes they'd getannoyed at me. As I grew older, I wanted more independence and I didn'treally want or need my classroom assistant anymore."
FAYE, 17 PERSONAL TUTOR
"My personal tutor is good because she does one-to-one tuition and helpsme when I'm stuck on something like my applications. If I want helpoutside school she can help me with that too. Like if I want to discusssomething then she's there for me.
"Generally, there's nothing bad about her and I trust my tutor becauseshe's professional and friendly. She has made a difference in my life byhelping me discuss issues and she's encouraged me and brought out myconfidence. My perfect tutor would be fun and friendly, someone who ismore like a friend than authority figure."
MONIQUE, 14 DANCE COACH
"My dance coach and I get along really well. I think it's because she'syoung and different from your usual dance teacher as she experimentswith different styles like break dancing and MCing. I trust her because,a year ago, she said: 'If you've got any problems, come and talk to me.'So I know she'll keep things confidential.
"She's made a difference in my life by encouraging me to join in theend-of-year acting and singing performances at our youth club. And she'shelped me get higher grades in dance at school. The one thing I wish shecould do better is have longer sessions because we only get one perweek."
CLAUDY, 10 VOLUNTEER MENTOR
"I wanted a mentor because I wasn't very confident. One of the learningmentors at school recognised this so she called Chance UK and got meone.
I was really excited and happy when we met. She's very kind andcaring.
We go to the cinema, play in the park and we're going to be going onbike rides and roller-skating.
"My behaviour and attitude towards other people have changed since wemet. Even my mum's noticed.
Nowadays, when someone's talking to me and I don't like what they'resaying, I don't go up to them and start screaming and saying rude stuff.And when I'm angry I don't go up to people and start punching them. NowI just say 'can you leave me alone?' and walk away."
ALEM, 17 SOCIAL WORKER
"I came to London as an unaccompanied asylum seeker from Eritrea when Iwas 15 and that's how I got a social worker. Before we met, I used tostay home after college because I didn't know how to use the bus andcommunicate with young people. I used to stay home and cry, but now I goeverywhere.
I know how to catch the bus and I don't feel alone. I'm more confidentnow.
"My social worker is like my mum and my sister. She's so nice and lovelyand treats everyone equally. When you're cold she'll take her top offand give it to you. She looks after me and gives me advice, like tellingme to go to the doctor or sorting out a solicitor. My social workermeans everything to me."
Further information
This article was produced by Lathaniel Dyer, 15, and contributed to byChisom Edomobi, 12, for Children's Express, a programme of learningthrough journalism for young people aged eight to 18.www.childrens-express.org.
