Consultations

A questionnaire was designed which asked various questions about what children think about services, how they have been supported and what further support would they like. The results will be fed back to individual services and any changes/developments to these services will be relayed to the children through Brighter Futures. he results will also be fed back to the Northern Area Director for an overarching view on children’s services.

YOU SAID:

What support have you received to help you achieve?

• Help from Teachers
• Support from family and friends
• Brighter futures taking us out in the summer holidays
• Nothing
• Friends and family giving me confidence to face challenges
• From good foster carers
• Teachers, friends, family and Brighter Futures
• I have received an extremely excellent amount of support from staff at Pakefield Rd, teachers at the ‘Attic’ and LACESS”
• Specialist tutors

Is there anything that’s made it harder for you to achieve what you wanted to?

• My behaviour and anger
• Pretending not to care
• My little brother
• Illness
• Dyslexia
• Moving placements a lot

Are there any staff members that have helped you achieve?

• Teachers
• Brighter Futures staff
• My social Worker
• Foster carer
• Staff at Maridan House
• Children’s home staff
• Attic Staff
• LACESS staff
• Brighter Futures has helped me to meet other young people in care
• My key worker
• My IRO

What would you like to achieve over the next year? Who could help you with this?

• Completing and achieving GCSE’s – "the excellent staff support team at the (children’s home) will continue to help me achieve this."
• Do more activities
• To use a computer by myself- My carer
• To achieve better behaviour at school- Having teachers understand my individual behaviour and support me, continue with the help I am getting at the moment from my carer
• Loose more weight- Myself and my carer
• Achieving at school- Myself and my teachers. Family and friends
• Be a young author-encouragement from my Mum
• Be in the regular army
• Having more help in the classroom

What do you think could help young people in Suffolk achieve their full potential?

• Someone to give them confidence
• “Creative sessions that help young people to learn creatively and be interested in creative things.”
• “Being supported and given a push in the right direction.”
• “(Staff) Being kind, if they can’t do their work help them.”
• “People like LACESS and Rose Eastaugh need to speak to young people (to find out what would help them.)”
• staff need to meet young people’s needs as individuals
• being supported by carers, family and social workers.
• “Brighter Futures gives you an opportunity to meet other people and enjoy being in care because you know you are not the only one”
• More Youth Clubs.

WE DID:

(Results being put together)

We wanted your vote on the best name for the new One-Stop-Shop in Lowestoft - a facility opening soon which features a Youth and Connexions drop-in centre, as well as other agencies who all provide services for young people.

Due to an earlier vote, a shortlist had been prepared of 5 names - "Solutions", "Situations", "The Junction", "Pathways" and "Next Steps".

YOU SAID:

"Solutions" (18 votes)

"Situations" (10 votes)

"The Junction" (103 votes)

"Pathways" (27 votes)

"Next Steps" (32 votes)

WE DID:

"The Junction" was selected as the recommended choice for the name that will be going to the One-Stop-Shop steering group on 13 October 2009.

Hopefully everyone will agree that this is an appropriate choice which reflects the coming together of services for young people as well as fitting the building's location :)

The name was originally a suggestion of Ben Summersbee who is a trainee at EYS in Lowestoft.

Well done to everyone who took part - great result.

We've redesigned the front page of the Jobs4U section, to feature a new 'navigation wheel'. We'd love to know what you think of it!

YOU SAID:

"Yup that looks fine!"

"The New Jobs4U page is looking good, It's easy to navigate and simple to understand. It is also presented in an attractive way. I like it!"

"It looks great. It sems very accessible and the links are good and do what they say :P"

"It is a good layout and is easy to follow! You've done a good job there."

"It's really good! I love the wheel idea in the middle it gives it a clear look and not too bundled in together. Then you have the links to different parts of the site :)"

WE DID:

Nothing needs further improvement - at least for now - what a result!

To help everyone know what's on over the summer, all around Suffolk, we added all the summer activity information to the Free Time page on this website. But we wanted to know if the page looked appealing, and if all the info on it was easy to understand.

YOU SAID:

"The title is big and bold and immediately attracts your attention to it. The use of pictures makes it more interesting instead of loads of writing. Really really nice :)"

"The initial design of the page is okay, and standardised - like has the same theme and feel to it like all the other pages on the site which comes across as a good thing for the viewers of the site. It has a trusting kind of look to it, which might not really be necessary considering that the initial target audience of the site is going to be people like me. The page is well set out, uses clear HTML elements and pretty basic - which is good because quicker load times, and all that stuff. I like the way you've set it out, like all the external links at the bottom - and they're clearly external links because of the little icon next to it - could there be room for improvement here? For example, you can get nifty pre built JavaScripts and other stuff, where if you hover over an external link it would bring up a small preview of the external site before you go to it- think its called "snapshots" or something."

"Here are some things about the entire site that I don't really like that much, like the menu, sorry, I just don't like vertically aligned menus. Horizontal ones are my thing, makes the site look more streamlined I guess. I also don't like the way the page is aligned to the left. And the font scheme, its kind of old? You know, like the web pages around in 2000 that all used Verdana and that. Okay, I admit that a cross-OS website can only use a certain number of fonts but there are modern alternatives?"

"In regards to the page I like it, but links to specific sections would be cool, so you do not have to scroll down ( I'm really lazy now =P )"

"Yeah I think it's OK, but maybe a bit more colour on the actual age, instead of just plain white?"

"Yeah, with those photos it makes it interesting all the way down the page."

"It's very bright and colourful which personally I think is a good idea so I think it looks fine. It's easy to find the information and where it is in your county. I think the pictures down the side are great but maybe you could have them all down the page not just at the top."

"I think it looks too primary school ish, with the title and the stars. I also think the typeface should be more exciting and not boring and something that is aimed at teenagers. The whole website needs to make sure it has that consistent layout and design which is aimed towards us as the audience."

"I think that the info should be not as doc's or pdf's - when you click on each there should either be a sliding div, or a lightbox or Facebox style appearance of at least a synopsis of the activity / more info. This would be much more appealing and easier than waiting to download a file from each one - and just using a name. Of course having the flyer or whatever as the pdf / doc then available would be fine. I also think some linkage to the explore card would be useful here, not only for discounts for various leisure pursuits but discounts for actually accessing these too."

"The page looks great! There is nothing you could do to improve it."

"I think it looks fine; simple, yet functional. Everythings clear and where you'd expect it to be, and it looks like the rest of the website, which is good."

WE DID:

We improved the page slightly with larger / more colourful headings, more pictures down the right-hand side, and a more modern font.

We added links to specific sections and redesigned the heading to remove the stars and replace them with better graphics.

The sliding div idea was introduced, to provide basic information before you choose to click on a link to find out more, and we linked to the Explore Card.

We also centre-aligned every page on the website.

We're venturing onto Facebook and Bebo and maybe a few others soon. But we'd like to get a few tips from you first.

YOU SAID:

"I think this is a really good idea but make sure you make the pages fun, interesting and colourful :) Also I think you should make like an MSN robot that people can add and ask questions. I was speaking to my connexions adviser about it today and she said that it is a really good idea. I think this is good because most teens spend their time on MSN and also would probably would find it fun to talk to a Connexions robot :)"

"Wow I think that's a really good idea! Now even more people could be able to become part of the Source and Connexions :)"

"I would say the design is important as it needs to be appealing, however a good idea."

"I think the Bebo page is brilliant and should start it up straight away."

"I didn't think I need both really which is why I think you should make one on both because I think there are a fair few people that have the same opinion about only have one OR the other so some people wouldn't see it if you only made one :)"

"Brilliant! I personally only use Bebo, so i'm not too sure whether it would be a good thing to have on Facebook as I dont know how it works, but on Bebo I certainly would think it was a good thing to have on there."

WE DID:

We've started putting together pages on Facebook, Bebo, YouTube and Flickr. We'll get them online by the end of August.

We're wondering if there's a particular issue you feel strongly about, and want to take a sample of other people's opinions? Why not suggest an idea for a poll we could run for a week?

YOU SAID:

"I think a question like: 'Do you take part in any physical activity outside of school?' would be good as it may also help to see how many don't and show how serious it is, as I feel children should."

"I think that the next poll should be 'Do you know what UK Youth Parliament is?' as UK Youth Parlaimet has now re-established itself in Suffolk."

"Do you find exams stressful?"

"Here's a poll: How many people are driven to School?"

"As I'm counting down the months until the sequel to Twilight comes out on the cinema (New Moon, and there's 6 months to go!), how about the question: Which is better werewolves or vampires?????"

"Possibly something relating to current affairs such as do you see recycling as a big issue. Not a very good 1 but I'm jet-lagged:P"

WE DID:

We've chosen to run all of these polls, one each week. Thanks very much for the great ideas everyone!

We've created a new page for Young Carers - http://www.thesource.me.uk/youngcarers/ What do you think of it?

YOU SAID:

"It's clearly laid out."

"I wouldn't use it but it looks good. I like the clear headings."

"The forum thing uses PHPBB right? What about using Facebook instead?"

"Too many words on the page."

WE DID:

We've reduced the amount of text on the page and we're looking at using Facebook in future.

We've put together a new Free Time section for this website - and would like to know what you think of it. Does it have everything you expect? What about the look of it? Is it appealing to you?

YOU SAID:

"Awesome!"

"It was long overdue for a makeover. Now it looks fresh and up to date. Nice one."

"I think you should add something for disabled people."

"More pics down the right!"

"The headings should be bolder or something."

"Good but I wouldn't think I could find it if you didn't give me the link. Where do I get to this from the homepage?"

"The Web links need explaining what they are for."

WE DID:

We've added links to Activities Unlimited and Aiming High for Short Breaks (both for disabled young people).

More pictures appear down the right-hand side and headings are bolder.

We've made sure there's a clear link through from the home page and that the web links (on the right of the page) have a bit of explanation under them in the form of text.

There's been a lot in the news about young people skipping school. Obviously there might be lots of different reasons why they skip school, but in your experience what do you think is the main reason?

YOU SAID:

"The main thing is that lessons are boring."

"Maybe home life is creating other problems."

"Boring classes."

"Some people don't see that lessons are useful for future life but it is not clever to think like that."

"Mostly it's because exams have come around again :)"

"On some days there are all the boring lessons together - like triple chemistry and then double history. This is enough to make anyone skip school."

"I think there should be more interesting lessons, this would solve the problem."

WE DID:

We shared this information among colleagues in Suffolk County Council to encourage them to look more at the issues involved.

The previous design of this page was a bit dull and confusing. More than 50 young people were asked by email to submit their thoughts on how to improve the page.

YOU SAID:

"We're not sure what this page is all about."

"It's ok but it should look more interesting and colourful."

"The page should tell us what exactly was said by the people involved in the consultation"

WE DID:

You're looking at it! The current design of this page is directly as a result of the consultation. Thanks to everyone involved - great job!

The purpose is to follow up on a national survey by the Children’s Rights Director for England of the views of children living away from home. This survey covers views on bullying, safeguarding, consultation, care planning and complaints and representation.

YOU SAID:

Feeling safe and being bullied

Placement

Education

However

Making a complaint or suggestion

WE DID:

This is the first national survey carried out by the Children’s Rights Director and making contact with children and young people was done through their carers, residential placement or school and social work and leaving care teams. As all the responses (bar one, dealt with as a complaint) were anonymous, we cannot know how many young people were actually reached by the survey letter. The next survey is due to run in late February/March and greater publicity and promotion of the survey will need to take place, particularly targeting groups of young people in residential care and the leaving care services who did not respond.

We need to share the findings of last year’s Suffolk survey with children and young people, their carers and workers. A young people’s version is in preparation.

Young people identified the need for extra help at school and 25% had a limited or poor sense of achievement even though they thought their education was good. We will continue to develop ways of celebrating achievements of looked after children in and out of school.

There is work to be done on improving children and young people’s involvement in making suggestions (service development and delivery) and knowing how to address concerns (complaints and advocacy services). It is hoped that the increasing investment in consultation and participation around service development and delivery, in the 12 months since the first survey, will result in both greater take-up of the survey and improved results in the area of Having My Say. We will continue to promote participation activity and increase young people’s awareness of the complaints and advocacy process – Children’s Rights and participation team, area teams and units.

Significant numbers of young people did not know what was in their care plan. Social Workers will discuss the care plan with young people. Independent Reviewing Service to check young people’s understanding of their care plan.

'11 MILLION' is the Children's Commission for England. They've surveyed more than 1700 children and young people over the past year about gun and knife crime.

YOU SAID:

"I'd like to listen to someone, like another young person, who's been through it."

"I think the children who use knives are not to blame, it's their parents and the way they were brought up."

"I don't think stop and search is a bad thing, it's just the way it's done."

"My mum won't let me go on my bike to my friend's house, just 20 minutes away, because she's afraid of the violence."

"The media publish that we're all knife-wielding maniacs and that's just not true. We are just people. The media always focus on the bad."

"I don't think young people who carry knives have got any hopes. If you know you've got a chance of doing something with your life then you would really want to make sure you behave and keep out of trouble."

"If there's nothing to do, you just hang about doing nothing and get into trouble."

"Knowing you would be locked up for a long time would stop people carrying knives."

WE DID:

11 MILLION has produced a report on gun and knife crime and hopefully this will influence policy decisions in future.

Young people designed a new welcome booklet for children coming into foster care.

YOU SAID:

The old booklet was not very attractive or welcoming.

WE DID:

The booklet is more appealing and welcoming and the young people involved have had a direct impact on a document that affected their lives.

Workers and young people talked together about what would help everyone to work better together, across the county.

YOU SAID:

Information and communication were mentioned a lot, and making use of technology.

There should be more adults (other than teachers) in schools to offer a listening ear and help provide services.

WE DID:

As a result, some core value statements were agreed by the Suffolk Children’s Trust Partnership Board. These are:

• We involve children, young people and families, recognising and valuing their contribution.
• We take action to ensure the needs of a child or young person are met.
• We learn together so as to work better together.
• We build effective communication through understanding, respect and trust.
• We reflect on, and learn from, our experiences.
• We plan and work in partnership to improve the lives of all children, young people and their families.

The message about better communication has been given a high priority.

Young people were asked about services they access in rural areas.

YOU SAID:

Better transport is needed, and more fun things to do, such as clubs.

Places which offer advice should be better advertised.

WE DID:

These issues are currently being looked at.

Young people were to be involved to the recruitment of staff who provide child protection services.

YOU SAID:

What makes a good foster carer...

WE DID:

The views given have been included in foster carer training sessions. The views included taking contributions seriously, and being friendly.Young people will also be invited to take part in recruitment panels in future.

The "Children in Care" (CIC) leaflet needed redesigning.

YOU SAID:

The current booklet wasn't child-friendly or accessible.

Young people felt it would be good to have an email facility for them to pass on their views, as well as the booklet.

WE DID:

Young people helped redesign the CIC Consultation Leaflet to make it shorter and easier to read.

An electronic version is also being looked at. An email facility is being prepared too.

Young people were asked what they thought about education provided for those with special needs.

YOU SAID:

Thomas Wolsey and Beacon Hill Special Schools should become hub schools and deliver countywide services for physical disabilities and autism.

More provision should be made for those with autism, and those with the most challenging behaviour.

Early Years provision should be developed for children aged 3-5 with special needs in mainstream schools and in children's centres.

WE DID:

Further consultation will take part in the near future, and more thought is needed about the cost of providing these services.

The following areas were explored: domestic abuse, bullying, pregnancy and early child care, homelessness, legal advice, drug and alcohol misuse, internet safety, sexual health, contraception and mental health.

YOU SAID:

A survey was carried out with young people aged 13-17 asking them if they knew where to get help for the topics above.

663 answers were obtained!

The survey results show there is no conclusive evidence to demonstrate that pupils who live in the country are less likely to know how to access services.

However, knowledge about homelessness, legal advice and mental health is lower than that of most other services, in many cases significantly.

WE DID:

Recommendations have been made to the Northern Area Safeguarding Board that action needs to be taken by schools and support services to improve specific areas of knowledge and conduct further research work.

The old anti-bullying policy for a children's home was looked at and a new one created, giving staff practical solutions on how to tackle bullying and to engage young people with the issues.

YOU SAID:

There were several problems identified with the old policy, for example bullying was not being dealt with effectively.

WE DID:

A new policy has been created for all residential homes in Suffolk.

Funding needed to be attracted to create a hard court for Morton Road.

YOU SAID:

Pupils from Pakefield Primary and Middle Schools, Morton Road Youth Club and Pakefield Church Youth Club returned 150 questionnaire responses, asking for a new open access hard court play area.

WE DID:

Play Builder funding of £50,000 has been awarded, and the play area should be ready by April 2009.

Children and young people in Lowestoft schools were asked what the barriers are for taking part in activities.

YOU SAID:

It's too expensive to go along.

Lack of transport is a big issue.

No information :(

WE DID:

£100,000 has been allocated to fund activities identified by the children and young people. This spending was focussed on sustainable activities and communication is ongoing with parents and schools, as well as the children and young people.

The purpose is to seek input from a group of 3 Year 9 pupils in school to design a form that will evaluate group work that is delivered to pupils in high schools by personal advisers and recruitment advisers.

YOU SAID:

It was really useful in understanding the purpose of evaluation feedback and it will make staff more aware on what pupils enjoyed/disliked about sessions, which should make group work more interesting.

WE DID:

The form will be used at schools wherever the group work is run, normally to all Year 9 pupils in the autumn term each year.

The form will be used as good practice throughout the county too.

Want to see the form? Here it is: Evaluation Questionnaire

The Time2Change service needed to be improved.

YOU SAID:

Your experience with Time2Change was "awesome" (53%) and the same for your one-to-one sessions with a practitioner (58%), but the panel meeting was "boring" (41%) and the personal plan wasn't particularly useful in helping you make changes (41%).

You'd like more activities (68%).

WE DID:

As a result, young people are being encouraged to be more involved in panel meetings, personal plans have been improved by focussing them on positive goals and writing them in a better language, and more activities are being created to carry on after Time2Change finishes.

Young people were asked to give feedback on the service given by Personal Advisers (PAs) and Recruitment Advisers (RAs).

YOU SAID:

They thought the interview feedback questionnaire should be shorter, allow for tick box answers, better worded, should include the name of the person filling in the form and should include questions on what young people thought were important parts of a meeting with a PA.

WE DID:

These things have been put into practice.

Young people were asked about counselling services sponsored by Connexions.

YOU SAID:

It needs to be better explained, promoted more effectively, information leaflets made easier to understand, and aimed at a wider audience.

WE DID:

As a result, a simplified leaflet has been produced, and young people are being asked for more feedback in future.

Young people were involved in the recruitment of 2 new Independent Reviewing Officers, together with an adult recruiting panel.

YOU SAID:

The young people wanted to ensure that Reviewing Officers conducted future reviews in a child-friendly way and in a way that encourages young people to have their say.

All the views and scores given by the young people were fed to the adult panel and an overall decision was reached.

WE DID:

3 people were selected for the post of Independent Reviewing Officer.

3 young people and their families were interviewed to better understand how the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) panel is working. All 3 were coping with a parent who was absent for different reasons.

YOU SAID:

The 3 families interviewed thought of the CAF process as very useful.

Input from primary mental health workers was seen as helpful.

WE DID:

The young people were involved in designing information to go into leaflets for the role of the lead professional.

Proposals were considered for school organisation in the Forest Heath area to raise standards.

YOU SAID:

There was strong support for keeping middle schools, but more specialist facilities, varied sports and use of ICT were asked for.

WE DID:

All the views will be summarised and presented to the Cabinet. Outcomes will be know after mid-2009.

Young people were asked what they thought about Time to Change (T2C) services, to help make the services better.

YOU SAID:

Everyone enjoyed working with the project and trusted their workers.

82% of young people said they were clear about the aims of the project.

73% of young people said the project has helped their behaviour and improved their life.

60% of young people said group work in particular was boring!

54% of young people said they didn't have an Individual Support Plan, or couldn't remember what was on it.

WE DID:

Workers are going to try harder to ensure everyone is clear about the project and knows about their Individual Support Plans. These Plans could even be re-designed to make them more interesting.

Group work is going to be looked at again, to see if it can be improved, and young people's views taken into account to make sure group work is relevant and interesting.