Leading Change in the Children’s Hearings System: being guided by lived experience by Gordon Main
I am a young person, not a case nor a problem
I have a right to be heard, I deserve a seat at the table
I may attend hearings, but that does not define me
I’m not broken, I’m not unworthy of love
I have worth
I will not be quiet! I will be seen
I deserve respect
I’m not anyone’s mistake
Speak to me, not about me
I have thoughts, a heart, and a voice!
A poem by Rhys/ Dame Marsha Ducky, Board Member with Our Hearings, Our Voice (OHOV).
I’ve been granted permission, kindly by Rhys, to start this blog on leadership with his poem. It speaks to me about positive leadership, driven by passion, intelligent insight and expertise based on lived experience. It teaches me what Rhys and many other care experienced young people need and deserve to flourish in that leadership: to be truly heard and seen; given respect, worth, and recognition for their strengths rather than focusing on deficits, and to be involved as an equal at the decision-making table. Maybe even add a bit of love into how we support young people?
My leadership influences and values
I was brought up within a family where two of my brothers and sisters are care experienced. I’m not, so my knowledge, views and experience comes from elsewhere. My life has taken me into a few different leadership roles as a parent, social work manager, volunteer football coach, learning and development lead, consultant on improving care experiences, and currently as project lead for OHOV[i]. I have studied, written about and supported organisations to consider how they lead within childcare and protection.
It’s impossible for me to know to what extent my own values have shaped my approach to citizen leadership[ii]. Did my values come first or were they formed by my work, academic and life experiences; reinforcing my cast iron belief that those who experience services should be at the heart of how they are designed and how they meet their own needs?
Learning from mistakes
The answer to that big question probably doesn’t matter but what does, as Dr Nicole LePera argues, is living those values as verbs or actions[iii] . I’ve made mistakes along the way. A combination of my own inexperience, the culture and resources of organisations I have worked in, and society’s attitude towards sharing power with those without power, meant that many of the professional decisions I made or shared with multi-agency colleagues in the 1990s and 2000s, did not involve children and their parents fully. Often their needs were not properly met because we didn’t really know what they were, simply hadn’t asked them or subjected them to meetings which were formal, scary, hard to understand or led to further trauma. Tragically, this was and can still be commonplace. That’s simply not good enough. I feel guilt, but mostly a responsibility, determination and passion to change this.
Improving Children’s Hearings
I have learned and Scotland is learning too. For children in or on the edge of care and their families, the Independent Care Review and the Promise[iv] aims to build a new structure of care centred around children and families and, crucially, based upon what they have told us. At Our Hearings, Our Voice, Rhys and his multi-talented, hearings experienced, fellow board members are providing the leadership needed to drive improvement and reform of the Children’s Hearings System.
The young people published their 40 Calls to Action[v] for the Hearings System two years ago and they work with key agencies to support and scrutinise the improvements they can and have made to children’s experiences of hearings. Their leadership activity has included co-produced work towards changing the language used in hearings, letters and reports; recruitment of panel members and key leaders in the hearings system; influencing research methods and questions on virtual hearings; providing consultation on changes to the law; producing their own magazine for other young people attending hearings; and much more.
What does it take?
None of this happens by magic. Young people have a voice, but they often need concerted support and attitudinal change in the way described in Rhys’s poem, to be able to exert influence on the right audience. They need time, space, love, and respect to allow their own ideas, expertise, and creativity to reach the right ears. The owners of those ears also need some hand holding to give them space, time and resources to act on what young people are teaching us.
Leading wider reform
Significant work on reforming the Children’s Hearings System to keep the Promise is ongoing and young people from OHOV are involved in that. Their 40 Calls to Action have influenced the themes for the Issues List for the Hearings System Working Group[vi] and they have been involved in regular sessions with the design team and the chair of the group, Sheriff Mackie. More sessions are planned, testing out the recommendations to be made to Scottish Government for reform of the Hearings System to meet children’s needs before, during and after their involvement.
Ben, another board member from OHOV recently asked Sheriff Mackie why he has taken the time to build and foster a relationship with OHOV and what he got from that. He replied:
“I’ve done it because it’s all about you. Your voice has informed the Independent Care Review and it should continue to inform the redesign… Every single time I meet you I come away with some perspective or idea that just would never have occurred to me if I hadn’t been with you…”
Sustaining hope
Attitudes like this are found in many of the adults involved in children’s care and justice and give me hope that Scotland’s current approach to embedding leadership from children and young people in how we design and deliver the supports they need can be sustained. Services that make children feel safe, included, in control and that don’t lead to distress, confusion and further trauma are good for us all. We just need to remember what Rhys told us:
Speak to me, not about me
I have thoughts, a heart, and a voice!
If you have any comments for Gordon or Rhys, please get in touch.
https://twitter.com/OHOV_Scotland / http://www.ohov.co.uk / Gordon.Main@scra.gov.uk / 07393 803646 (mobile)
[1] Principles and Standards of Citizen Leadership (iriss.org.uk)
[1] What is the promise? – The Promise
[1] Inside-Page.png (1740×1222) (ohov.co.uk) [1] Issues List – The Promise
11 November 2022
