Care records to include digital recordings of children’s voices

The app, designed by Mind Of My Own, in partnership with the Access Group software company, will give children in care the ability to insert their own notes into care records through digital voice recordings in a bid to make the records "more authentic to the young people they represent".

• Why it’s time to put a child’s voice into their own records

• Digital Innovation in Social Care: Policy context

Developers say the new initiative is designed to put young people’s own voices at the front and centre of their social are records, after children who had viewed their case records reported they were unable to recognise the person being portrayed in the text.

Jill Thorburn, co-founder of Mind Of My Own, said: “I was told about a young person who, having viewed their case records, they felt like they were ‘a ghost in their own files’.

“That summed it up perfectly for me and spurred me and my colleagues to find new ways of putting young people’s voices at the centre of their own records, and their own stories.’”

The process is also aimed at increasing efficiency for children's social workers, since no notes need to be taken or transcribed.

My Mind My Own says its apps can save an estimated eight days of administration per social worker.

Julie Tyas, Access Group spokesperson and registered social worker, described the process as “a great example of technology driving best practice to capture important information at the point of care.”

She added: “Inserting the voice of a child into their social care record empowers a young person, making them more involved in their own care, leading to better outcomes for both child and carers.”

Tyas also said the organisations were eager to see children’s voices prioritised in a similar way across other sectors, such as healthcare and youth services.

Thorburn added: “So often, we hear how people have read their own care records to find answers about their lives, only to find they don’t even recognise the person being written about or experiences as they remember them.

“Even the best reports inevitably involve interpretation and editing of a young person’s real voice and language, and many reports sadly don’t even acknowledge that the subject has a voice of their own.”

“This new integration facility will, for the first time, allow us to directly capture a young person’s voice in a way that puts them front and centre of their own story, with an authenticity that is impossible to replicate by traditional means."

For more information on its apps and services, visit Mind Of My Own.