CYP Now - Solutions lie in truly listening to children’s views

Gathering and considering the wishes and feelings of a child or young person, their parents and wider family before any serious decision is taken about them is commonplace in children’s services teams and a feature of much outstanding direct work with children.

Andrew Webb is chair of the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies

I base this on my recent experience of working with local authorities, and other sources such as conversations with judges, and the “soft” information in inspection reports. But as any study of serious case reviews and service evaluations reveal, all too often children were neither seen nor heard, or the use of their contribution was, at best, tokenistic.

At an individual level, ensuring consistent good practice in listening to children is one of those Sisyphean tasks practitioners must live with. However, we also clearly have much to learn in using children’s voices systemically, either to provide quality assurance or to drive strategic change.

Register Now to Continue Reading

Thank you for visiting Children & Young People Now and making use of our archive of more than 60,000 expert features, topics hubs, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's Included