CHILDREN S SERVICES Service User and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy SECTION 1: STATEMENT OF INTENT 1. Introduction The Service User and Stakeholder Engagement Strategy is based on the principles laid out in: The Worcestershire Children and Young People s Strategic Partnership Engagement Strategy (2006). Hear By Rights: Standards for the active involvement of children and young people (2005) Ofsted s User and Stakeholder Strategy (2009) This strategy aims to set a framework for meaningful dialogue between Safeguarding and Services to Children & Young People and Service Users and Stakeholders that will lead to service improvement and deliver better outcomes for children and young people in Worcestershire. 2. Definitions A Service User or Stakeholder is any individual or group who could affect or be affected by the work of Children s Services A Service User is any child or young person or their family who receive a service of whatever kind from Children s Services A stakeholder is any person or organisation who works with or alongside Children s Services to deliver services to Service Users. Stakeholders can be strategic or local, voluntary, public or private sector partners. 3. Who are our Service Users and Stakeholders? Our Service Users are: Children, young people and their families Those who care for children & young people, for example Kinship Carers, Private Foster Carers, etc. Our Stakeholders are: Foster Carers 1
Partner agencies (e.g. schools, health, housing, police, probation, CAFCASS, Safeguarding Board) Voluntary Sector partners Private Sector providers Managers in Children s Social Care and colleagues in other parts of Children s Services and across the Council Elected Members Children s Trust Board Corporate Parenting Board Local communities District Councils Wider community and media Government agencies 4. What is Engagement? Engagement involves a dialogue and active participation of service users and stakeholders in a process of continuing service improvement and development. Participation can be formal or informal, structured or ad hoc consultations involving service users and stakeholders. Consultation involves seeking views, opinions or advice on which to base decisions about service improvement and development. 5. Purpose of Engagement The overall aims of this strategy are: 1. To ensure that children, young people and their families are engaged and able to influence any decisions that affect them. (C&YP Strategic Partnership Engagement Strategy) 2. To ensure that there is a 'golden thread' of engagement and involvement from individual participation of service users in their own assessments and care planning right through to their involvement in strategic reviews and development of service provision. 3. To ensure the engagement and involvement of service users in all aspects of service delivery and development so that Safeguarding and Services to Children and Young People can ensure that services are fit for purpose and provide value for money through a 2
better understanding of what kinds of services and interventions are effective, and why. 4. To ensure that service user and stakeholder engagement contributes to more effective safeguarding of children and young people and improved lifelong learning. 5. To ensure that engagement occurs systematically, routinely and at service user, service-wide and strategic levels within Children s Services 6. Principles Engagement must be: Inclusive and open to all Transparent and flexible in approach Based on mutual respect Based on valuing equality and diversity User friendly and use language and other communication methods appropriate to the age and understanding of the service user or stakeholder Ensure that the voices of the hard to reach are heard Purposeful: service users and stakeholders views and opinions must be seen to make a difference to service delivery Sufficiently well resourced to enable service users and stakeholders to contribute meaningfully Embedded within the whole service so that feedback is routinely and consistently collected and used Sustainable Accountable by giving service users and stakeholders opportunities to speak directly with Children s Services about the effectiveness of service delivery Have a positive impact on outcomes for children and young people and their parents and carers. 7. Commitment and Ownership The engagement of service users and stakeholders needs to be seen as the responsibility of the whole service rather than solely being the responsibility of specialist participation or engagement workers. 8. Why engagement is important Service Users and Stakeholders are often best placed to comment on the effectiveness of what is being delivered and whether it is targeted effectively. 3
They are well-placed to advise on what types and kinds of services and interventions work and what do not. Therefore their contributions are an essential part of the development of more effective service provision. Similarly Service Users and Stakeholders are well-placed to comment on and contribute to the continued improvement of services. Through closer joint and collaborative working this will lead to more opportunities to pool resources and knowledge and so develop more innovative and inclusive services. 9. Benefits of Engagement Hear by Right identifies a range of benefits of engagement for all parties: 'Children and Young People: - are provided with an opportunity to build on existing skills and develop new ones, increasing confidence and selfesteem - get to increase their understanding of particular organisations and how they are able to influence them - will gain from having new and better services that have changed and improved in response to their needs Organisations and Partners: - are able to gain information from children and young people as consumers of services, for example on barriers to accessing these - are presented with fresh perspectives and new ideas for services, policies and decision-making processes - are able to design, deliver and evaluate services and policies on the basis of actual rather than perceived need The Wider Community: - gains a more vibrant local democracy through the active involvement of children and young people - is able to include children and young people in local decision making, helping to strengthen community cohesion - develops an empowering environment that raises aspirations among children, young people and others' 10. Framework for Engagement Engagement can be formal or informal, structured or ad hoc. Any opportunities for consultation and involvement of service users and stakeholders can be used to gain valuable feedback about how services are delivered and their impact. Children s Services already has a wide range of means for consulting with service users and stakeholders. Appendix A lists current activities. Broadly there are three main ways consultations can take place: 4
1. Service User level Service Users are routinely involved in planning services and interventions they are personally involved with. All reports and other documents that relate to them must include their views and wishes and these must be taken into account when decisions are made that directly affect them. Any common themes or unmet needs arising from service users' views and wishes should be systematically collated, as already happens with the learning from Compliments and Complaints, to enable Children s Services to make improvements to service delivery. 2. Service level Formal consultations should regularly take place with groups of relevant service users. For example, the Parent s Voice group represents the views of parents and carers in Worcestershire and acts as a consultative group for Children s Services. 3. Strategic level The County Council uses a range of formal consultation groups. Examples are the Worcestershire Youth Cabinet and the Who Cares, We Care council. There are a number of mechanisms for consulting with service users and stakeholders: 1. Formal Structures groups meeting regularly. An example is Who Cares, We Care, which is comprised of looked after children and young people. 2. Reference Groups less formal groups that meet in order to inform and advise on specific pieces of work. A recent example is of a consultation event with Kinship Carers. 3. Projects and Initiatives service users and stakeholders are engaged in a set task based on achieving certain goals or objectives. An example is the Thresholds work undertaken by the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board with partners in 2010 / 11. 4. Events and Activities run either as one-offs or as a series, to capture and utilise the views of service users and stakeholders. An example is a presentation to all Safeguarding Services managers in February 2011 by Who Cares, We Care about their experiences of being looked after. 5. Questionnaires and On-line Forms an example is the Big Questionnaire sent out to all Looked After Children in 2011. These approaches are all used by Children s Services. 5
11. What will effective engagement look like? To achieve this there must be regular and comprehensive mechanisms for the engagement, participation and consultation of Service Users and Stakeholders. To ensure that engagement is meaningful the following will be done: A Matrix of all Service Users and Stakeholder engagement activities will be kept. This record will be used to monitor the number, frequency, inclusiveness and diversity of engagement opportunities to ensure these are open and accessible to all. Participants will be asked to evaluate their involvement in engagement activities in order to assess whether this has been meaningful and purposeful. Changes to services must explicitly state how Service Users and Stakeholders have been consulted. Service Reviews will be undertaken in consultation with Service Users and Stakeholders. Feedback from these engagement activities will highlight what is (or isn t) working and so aid decision making and ensure that any changes made are more likely to impact positively on future service delivery. Service Users and Stakeholders will contribute to the review of the Engagement Strategy. 12. Measuring Success The most important measure of success is that as a result of effective and meaningful engagement with Service Users and Stakeholders there is a demonstrable improvement in outcomes for the children and young people of Worcestershire. We will know things have improved when we are able to demonstrate that: The quality of life for all children and young people has improved and they tell us that services have improved Policy and service developments are driven by the views of Service Users and Stakeholders There is evidence that Service Users are directly engaged in decisions that impact on their lives Service Users and Stakeholders are able to recognise the impact and outcome of their contributions (e.g. you said, we did ) 6
13. Timescales What will achieve by when? An Equality Impact Assessment will be completed The Engagement Strategy will go out for Consultation with Service Users and Stakeholders in January 2012. The final version of the strategy will be launched in March 2012 A programme of consultation groups, events and surveys will be in place by 31 March 2012 References: Hear by Right standards for involvement of children and young people B Badham & H Wade, National Youth Agency, 2005 The Worcestershire Children and Young People s Strategic Partnership Engagement Strategy (2006). User and Stakeholder Strategy (2009) - Ofsted 7
SECTION 2: MATRIX OF CURRENT SERVICE USER AND STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS 1. SERVICE LEVEL Service Area Access Centre Completed by Lucy Spencer, Team Manager Date 1 14/11/11 Activity Details Frequency (timescale and if regular, periodic or ad hoc) Series of Stakeholder Events Meetings with stakeholders initially headteachers but more planned with midwives/ Health Visitors / school pyramids in areas. 2 Headteacher events held others to be arranged How is information collated and used to inform practice? Written and verbal feedback given at events What is impact on Outcomes for C&YP? Impact on professionals feeling more confident in referring and therefore accessing appropriate service for child. Quality assurance meetings with Duty Teams / EDT / CAF Coordinators Meetings across county Fortnightly Referral Meetings Any issues or concerns regarding thresholds and quality of referrals discussed The most relevant and appropriate services identified for C&YP, Referrals passed to duty teams more effectively and efficiently. Reduction of inappropriate referrals to duty teams and therefore less delay in 8
Threshold sharing events Launch of new threshold document 2 x in year Advising stakeholders of service thresholds and receiving feedback about service improvements providing appropriate services for child/yp. Referrals to the service are appropriate and provide sufficient information for prompt service responses. Complaints Complaints from Stakeholders or Service Users Ad hoc Learning used in team meetings Practice improvement. Service Area Emergency Duty Team Completed by Lucy Spencer, Team Manager Date 14/11/11 Activity Details Frequency (timescale and if regular, periodic or ad hoc) Stakeholder Meetings with Hereford Children's Services Meetings with managers 4 x year managers meetings or as and when needed How is information collated and used to inform practice? Mostly regarding changes to systems / communication What is impact on Outcomes for C&YP? Smoother handover from EDT involvement to Hereford CS Stakeholder Meetings with local Hospitals. Service Manager meeting with hospital around service delivery Ad hoc Service Manager meets with hospital / health colleagues More effective working relationship 9
Complaints Complaints from stakeholders or Service Users Ad hoc Learning used in team meetings Practice improvement. Quality assurance meetings Meeting with Access centre, duty TM, CAF and EDT to discuss quality and appropriateness of responses to referrals fortnightly Assists TMs with thresholds Appropriate and timely responses for C&YP Service Area Safeguarding Services Completed by Stuart Watkins, Service Manager Date 15/11/11 Activity Details Frequency (timescale and if regular, periodic or ad hoc) Post Qualification Training observations and service user feedback Newly Qualified Social Worker service user Part of PQ 1 and full award NQSW are to obtain service user feedback Ad hoc (whenever staff are on PQ) in the last two years this would have been 4 social workers Once in the NQSW 1 st year of practice How is information collated and used to inform practice? Collated via practice supervisor/team manager completing feedback questionnaire with service user directly. Is discussed in supervision and is analysed in PQ Collated via NQSW in a format or template from What is impact on Outcomes for C&YP? Improves practice and ensures social workers are working at a higher level thus improving service Improves practice highlights area's of 10
feedback for portfolio as evidence for portfolio the portfolio. Discussed in supervision and SRD contributes to decision for progression. Not collated in any formal process development for Social worker. Parent and young persons views on Initial assessments/core assessments/cin plans/ CP plans/icpc reports/lac reports Parents and children/young people are asked to give feedback about each report /process they are subjected to in children s services Daily Discussed in supervision read by a manager to inform decision making process. Team manager gets to see the child s views before a decision is made regarding that child, along with parents views. Complaints process Learning from Serious Case Reviews and Internal Management Reviews Management Improvement Events Formal complaints made to Consumer Relations Whenever a SCR or IMR takes place the learning from these are disseminated throughout the service Feedback from Service Users and Stakeholders monthly Following SCR or IMR Monthly meetings By Consumer Relations Officer Discussed in Management Meetings, Team Meetings, Management Improvement Events Meetings are for all Safeguarding and CSO regularly attends management meetings to discuss learning from complaints. This has informed our last team meeting and our away day To ensure all staff learn from these and where necessary changes are made to practice. To ensure all managers understand priorities 11
Participation of LAC in their plans and meetings is one of regular themes at these events. Audited sample of 26 recently looked after children focussing on their participation in CIN plans prior to LAC and then Care Plans and attendance at reviews post LAC. Also undertook a number of questionnaires with various stakeholder groups LAC young people, IROs, Team Managers and Social Workers and Engagement Officers. CMI project undertaken by Team Manager of the Looked After Permanency Team Services to C&YP managers. Service User feedback is regularly used in these meetings Linked the feedback to the Team "top ten targets". Findings presented to the Director, Head of Service and line managers. and importance of learning from Service Users and Stakeholders Learning used to evaluate current performance and lead to service improvement. Service User Feedback Questionnaire Whenever a Team ceases involvement with a C&YP and their family they will be invited to complete a feedback questionnaire. A Pilot in South Worcestershire Safeguarding Service between January and March 2012 Feedback is collated by teams and will be used to inform Team Plans and Service Development, Feedback will also help to refine process. Service Users will be able to give direct feedback about their experiences and this information will be used to drive service improvements 12
Specialist Family Support Evaluation Process At the beginning of SFS involvement families are asked to score the severity of their problems. At the end of SFS involvement families are invited to repeat the exercise. The difference between the 2 scores indicates the degree to which the intervention has been effective or not. Whenever SFS become involved with C&YP and their families Feedback is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention and measures how this has impacted on outcomes for the family. The information is collated and used to drive service improvements 13
Service Area Joint Commissioning Unit Completed by Vicki Hylan Date N Nov 2011 Activity Details Frequency (timescale and if regular, periodic or ad hoc) Feedback from Who Cares, We Care about assessment tool currently used to obtain Looked After Children's views about where they are placed LAC to develop C&YP feedback form for use upon inspections of agency placements by Social Care Quality Assurance Development Officer (SCQADO) One off activity subject to periodic review How is information collated and used to inform practice? Feedback to be shared with Provider as appropriate with expectation it is used to inform their service development through tasks identified within subsequent Action Plan What is impact on Outcomes for C&YP? LAC involvement in shaping service delivery and continuous improvement Provides WCC with C&YP's perception of placement. Reviewing information available from LILAC Longer term plan to enable WCC C&YP to be involved in inspection of agency placements LAC to be involved in percentage of agency placements inspections over specified time period SCQADO to look at training/support/buddying options for WCC C&YP. As above plus Skills development and training for C&YP Young Carers Contract - Consultation with C&YP Face to face / groups One off activity as contract coming to end in March 2012 Evidence demand for service renew contract? Direct input into decision regarding renewal of contract 14
YP involved in interviewing potential providers to deliver independent visitors & advocacy for LAC Involved in tendering process One off activity Scoring criteria within selection process Direct input into selection of provider Reg 33 visitor in WCCs own residential homes and respite units Children's Centres required to obtain feedback on quality of service C&YP involved in interviews to select Reg 33 visitor Young parents One off activity As part of annual conversation Monthly reports to WCC regarding each individual home and respite unit (sent to OM) Monitor, evaluate and review whether service is providing what the local community wants Enabling WCC to meet legislative responsibilities with regards to residential and respite units Shape service delivery and continuous improvement Homestart Provide case studies to demonstrate outcomes of children/families they are working with Quarterly Collated and used to monitor contract against outcomes specified within contract by contracts officer As above plus for example Reduce likelihood of child being referred to CS. Facilitate step down to CAF from CP Improved speech & language development Mum bonding with her baby. 15
Service Area Joint Commissioning Unit Children with Disabilities (Short Breaks) Completed by E Ezekiel Obileye Date 03.11.2011 Activity Details Frequency (timescale and if regular, periodic or ad hoc) Contract monitoring for quality service delivery, user satisfaction and value for money Parents and carers contribution to strategic direction Consultation events Users involvement in the design and delivery of services, and feedback on services received Representation at strategic groups Disability Subgroup of the Joint Commissioning Executive, Transition Steering Group, Parents Participation Development Group Stakeholders (CYP, families, practitioners, providers) consultation for service development Quarterly, regularly over the life of contracts. Once a year Regularly at scheduled meetings Ad hoc, as and when necessary e.g. Transition Stakeholders event in March 2011, AHDC service development in 2009 and 2010 How is information collated and used to inform practice? Returns to monitoring officer in accordance with contract terms. Visits to schemes and provider sites Attendance and contributions at meetings Contributions at events, survey questionnaires What is impact on Outcomes for C&YP? Improved outcomes, quality of services and information for future service development Evidenced based services, meeting the needs of children and their families Quality services to meet children's needs 16
2. STRATEGIC Service Area Completed by Date Activity Details Frequency (timescale and if regular, periodic or ad hoc) Corporate Parenting Board Cross-Party Member Meeting Monthly How is information collated and used to inform practice? Members receive information about the Looked After Service. Members undertake visits to LAC in residential homes and have periodic meetings with C&YP What is impact on Outcomes for C&YP? Members take their corporate parenting responsibilities seriously and want to ensure that hte service is providing that best possible service to C&YP. Who Cares, We Care Group of current LAC and Care Leavers Monthly Group provides training, challenge and contributes to service development Ensures that the voices of LAC and Care Leavers are listened to and that services better meet their needs 17
Service Area Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board Completed by S Sue Haddon, WSCB Manager Date Activity Details Frequency (timescale and if regular, periodic or ad hoc) WSCB Young People's Panel Group of young people aged 12+ who have all had direct experience of child protection processes In the past has been monthly but currently looking at options appraisal re future resourcing of this group between WSCB officers and Engagement and Participation service How is information collated and used to inform practice? DVD for practitioners DVD for other young people who are invited to child protection conferences Direct feedback to CP Coordinators re experiences of CP Conferences Putting together toy boxes for waiting areas for CP Conferences Involvement in formal consultation processes, e.g. Munro Review WSCB consultation on website information for What is impact on Outcomes for C&YP? More meaningful engagement in CP processes by C&YP Increased focus on C&YPs' needs during professional interventions Influence on policy making at national and local levels Access to relevant and understandable information for C&YP about safeguarding and child protection information More user friendly waiting areas for C&YP attending CP Conferences 18
C&YP, wording of leaflet for C&YP about CP Conferences 19