VOICE OF THE CHILD

1. VOICE OF THE CHILD

2. Voice of the Child Aims of the session: • To develop skills and knowledge in Voice of the Child Work • To understand the need for VOTC work to be undertaken • To share good practice and positive approaches with children and young people including those with additional needs. • To develop an understanding of the barriers to obtaining and recording VOTC and strategies to manage these. • To develop an understanding of tools and approaches used to capture the voice of the child. By the end of the session you will: • Have developed greater understanding why the child’s voice must be recorded and how this can be evidenced throughout daily practice. • Describe the barriers and inhibitors to effective communication and have shared ideas about overcoming these with an addition focus on children with additional needs • Develop/share skills in creative communication techniques

3. What is Voice of the Child? The “Voice of the Child” is a way of referring to the wishes/ feelings/ experiences of children about their lives. Forms that this can take include: • Written records of conversations, worksheets or tasks. • Observations of the behaviour/ presentation/ interactions of children with others. • Evidence from other agencies about the presentation of children, their routines, whether their needs are met. • EVERY child has an experience that can be recorded in some way – including new born babies and the youngest children

4. Why is obtaining the Voice of the Child so important? 1 The requirement to obtain and record the voice of the child is twofold: • Legislation and Guidance • Children Act 1989 Welfare checklist s1 (3) (a) – the ascertainable wishes and feelings of the child as well as the Children Act 2004 and the Children and Young People Act 2008 • UN Convention of the Rights of the Child 1991 various articles govern rights of anyone under age 18 which are directly applicable • Human Rights Act 1998 Article 10 – the right to freedom of expression • Munro Report 2011; Working Together 2013

5. Children Act 1989 Laura Hanbury PhD Researcher based at University of Kent: • Up until this act, children’s thoughts and feelings were largely unheard and decisions tended to be made on their behalf by professional adults. Reports found that in some cases, assumptions had been made about how children think and feel. However, this is not allowed to happen anymore and it is advised that every effort should be made to gain an insight in to a child’s lived experience, however young they are. • In child protection cases where emotions often run high, gaining the wishes and feelings of a child can become a complicated process for many reasons. Firstly, what a child says they want may be in direct odds with what the child protection professional wants (or perhaps feels would be the best for the child). Secondly, a child may be so emotionally confused by the whole process, they may not be able to make sense of it. In which case, it would always be advisable to check a child’s understanding for what is happening before any wishes and feelings are sought after.

6. Children Act 1989 pt 2 • In any case, special thought should always be taken to consider the following: • Out of the wishes and feelings that were gained, have they been considered in light of their age and current levels of understanding? • Have we considered the child’s physical, emotional and educational needs? • If a change in circumstance is likely for the child, how do we think it will affect them? • Have we considered the child’s age, sex, background and other characteristics and what would be relevant to the court? • What kind of harm is the child suffering? Or what would be the risk of future harm? • How skilled are the parents or any other potential caregivers at meeting the child’s needs? • Is there any other route or powers that the court hold in relation to the care and welfare of the child under the Children’s Act 1989? • Taking all these points in to account, gaining the wishes and feelings of the child has the potential to influence many of the points written above and that is perhaps why this process is so important in the field of child protection. It remains a tricky field to navigate when one must find the right balance between what a child wants and what one feels is best for them. Nevertheless, we are more likely to add to a child’s experienced harm when we do not consider them at all.

7. UN Convention on rights of the child • Article 12 (respect for the views of the child) Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously. This right applies at all times, for example during immigration proceedings, housing decisions or the child’s day-to-day home life. • Article 13 (freedom of expression) Every child must be free to express their thoughts and opinions and to access all kinds of information, as long as it is within the law. • Article 14 (freedom of thought, belief and religion) Every child has the right to think and believe what they choose and also to practise their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights. Governments must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents to guide their child as they grow up.

8. Munro Report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/munro-review-of-child-protection-final-report-a-child-centred-system Children want social workers who listen to them , talk to them on their own and who respect them. They want social workers who treat them as individuals with their own unique needs, views and interests. One message from children was how important it was to see them separately from their parents/ carers Just 42% of children said that their social worker or caseworker saw them alone Usually or every time they saw them.

9. What would be a good way for professionals to find out your wishes and feelings?

10. Framework for Assessing Children and Families 2000 Child Centred 1.34 Fundamental to establishing whether a child is in need and how those needs should be best met is that the approach must be child centred. This means that the child is seen and kept in focus throughout the assessment and that account is always taken of the child’s perspective. In complex situations where much is happening, attention can be diverted from the child to other issues which the family may be facing, such as a high level of conflict between adult family members, or depression being experienced by a parent or acute housing problems. This can result in the child becoming lost during assessment and the impact of the family and environmental circumstances on the child not being clearly identified and understood. The significance of seeing and observing the child throughout any assessment cannot be overstated. 1.35 The importance, therefore, of undertaking direct work with children during assessment is emphasised, including developing multiple, age, gender and culturally appropriate methods for ascertaining their wishes and feelings, and understanding the meaning of their experiences to them. Throughout the assessment process, the safety of the child should be ensured.

11. Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 Introduction: s10 and s14 Anyone working with children should see and speak to the child; listen to what they say; take their views seriously; and work with them and their families collaboratively when deciding how to support their needs. Special provision should be put in place to support dialogue with children who have communication difficulties, unaccompanied children, refugees and those children who are victims of modern slavery and/or trafficking Statutory authority on WT is ensured from Children Act 2004

12. Why is obtaining the Voice of the Child so important? 2 2. Implications for Practice • Recording VOTC ensures good quality work i.e. the work we undertake reflects the reality of the children’s lives and what outcomes they want • Obtaining VOTC is evidence of meaningful engagement with children. • The wishes and feelings of children provide an evidence base for intervention if required • Recording and reviewing VOTC helps to plan and review our work – have we made a difference? Over what timescale? Therefore, a measurable way to gauge effectiveness.

13. Theoretical perspectives • Social constructionism i.e. realities are constructed in a range of ways and there is a need for the views of service users to be recorded, assessed and acted upon is possible. What is the reality of life for the child / what do they feel about their situation. • Recording VOTC is also deeply rooted in anti oppressive practice as this affords the chance for the child to be heard and for plans to be made collaboratively with them rather than imposed on them

14. Barriers to obtaining VOTC It is important to recognise that obtaining and recording the lived experiences of the child is not always straightforward. There are a variety of different challenges that professionals may face in undertaking Voice of the Child work. There are added complexities when children we are working with have additional needs. Therefore, what is needed is a committed, creative and collaborative approach to working with barriers and additional needs. Please remember that it is no longer optional to record the voice of the child Group Activity

15. The Voice of the Child: Learning Lessons from Serious Case Reviews Key findings The main messages with regard to the voice of the child are that in too many cases: • The child was not seen frequently enough by the professionals involved, or was not asked about their views and feelings • Parents and carers prevented professionals from seeing and listening to the child • Practitioners focused too much on the needs of the parents, especially on vulnerable parents, and overlooked the implications for the child

16. Approaching VOTC work • Be clear about what you want to find out about • Check you have understood correctly • Use positive language • Ask open questions as much as possible • Ask questions at the right developmental level for the child • Sum up what you think has been communicated

17. Some Tools to use: applications, strengths and limitations • Three houses • Three Islands • Helping Hands • A day in my life • Emojis This list of tools is not intended to be exclusive or prescriptive but as a starting point. CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING!

18. A day in my life • There are different formats in which this information can be obtained. This can be a useful first exercise with a child/ young person and a “getting to know you exercise” • Answers, as with all tools can be revealing of areas of concern without being difficult for child to understand or leading questions.

20. Three Houses • Mentioned in the Munro Report 2011 as an effective and adaptable tool • It can be scaled up or down in detail depending on age and level of understanding • Useful for lots of different assessments • It is able to be reviewed during medium and long term CIN, CP, court and permanence work. The tool can also give a useful pen picture during short term intervention

24. Three Islands • Similar tool to Three Houses but can also include frequency of events. • Useful for longer term cases/ private law cases dealing with contact and residency issues.

26. Emojis/ emotions/ feelings cards • Start task by asking child to explain different faces/ emotions to you so that you can be sure they understand the meaning • Ask them to pick faces for themselves, their family/ home/ friends anyone that is important to them – develop conversation about why they have picked those faces • Context is everything • Very visually striking and effective with younger children • Can be reviewed at a later date and across siblings

28. Helping Hands • Very simple tool – can be done with any paper and a pen • Useful for a wide range of ages • Can be a basis for identifying and building resilience • Can help identify safe adults in the family

30. Children with additional needs The nature of their difficulties can make it harder for children with additional needs to participate. This can be complex and requires innovate ways or working. There is a need for services to work together and assist one another in understanding the needs and wishes of the child • Find out as much as you can about the child • Use their strengths • Support communication with resources if needed • Show interest • Go at the pace of the child – try not to fill silences

31. Communicating with very young children • According to research babies can detect emotion in voices at three months old. • Researchers believe that human voices play a crucial role in social development, so they set out to show what activity there was in babies’ brains when they listened to different sounds. • Research was carried out using MRI scans which detect activity in certain areas of the brain. 21 babies aged between three and seven months were played sounds such as speech, laughing and crying while they were asleep. The scans revealed which area of the brain was activated while listening to these sounds. • The scans showed that the area of the brain called the temporal cortex is very sensitive to voices, just as it is in adults. Neutral (coughing) and happy (laughing) sounds caused the same reactions. However sad emotions (crying) activated a slightly different area of the brain. The researchers believe this shows that the ability of babies to detect negative emotions happens in very early life. • The babies were also played environmental sounds, such as water splashing and sound of toys, which caused more activity in the left side of the brain, whereas neutral emotional vocalisations, such as coughing, caused more activity in the right and front of the brain. The contrast between the activity produced by environmental sounds and the activity produced by vocalisation was greater in the older babies. This suggests babies’ ability to detect different types of sound increases with age, as we would expect.

32. Group work Scenario 1 In pairs, use the different “A Day in my Life” resources to find out about the lived experiences of the person next to you • Was there any information that was unexpected? • How could you apply this tool to the children that you work with? • How might this information be reviewed or form part of ongoing plan of work with this child?

33. Summary VOTC is vital to the work of everyone that works with children. There is legislation and guidance compelling professionals to undertake this work and the implications for practice are many. There can be barriers and it is important to recognise and mitigate these as much as possible. It is important to recognise and work creatively to record the voice of children with additional difficulties VOTC does not need to be complicated, rely too much on creativity but it does require listening, observation and determination to hear from the child about their lived experiences.