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Agenda item

Agenda item

HOW WILL YOU HEAR ME

To receive a presentation from Bernadette Kileen, Youth Development Worker on the recent Safeguarding Summit on the Emotional Health and Wellbeing of the City’s pupils.  A short video will also be played.

Minutes:

The Board received a presentation from Bernadette Killeen, Youth Development Worker on the recent Safeguarding Summit on the Emotional Health and Wellbeing of the City’s pupils.  A short video from a series of videos made by the Young Peoples Council called ‘How You Hear Me’ highlighting depression in young people was played at the meeting.

 

It was noted that:-

 

  • How You Hear Me was a participation development tool for professionals which had been developed with the Young Peoples’ Council.
  • It was a collection of 15 short films of young people’s experiences of being heard, or not heard, within different service themes.
  • It had been developed as a resource of around 20 hours of training for staff in organisations to explore their participation practices, explore definitions, develop strategies, and evidence outcomes of participation.
  • It started from a conversation with young people about the inconsistencies of the services they received from different personnel across all service streams.
  • The project started from the premise that if you find new ways to hear, you hear new things.  It challenged professionals, particularly at front line level, to raise the standard of how they evidence and articulate the differences they were making to a child and the family’s life; and, equally, how a child and the family could articulate the difference the professional had made to their life. 
  • The resource had been around for approximately 18 months and had recently won a British Young Council National Innovation Award, and the Young People’s Council were extremely proud of this project

 

The Board were then shown one of the video’s which told the story of a young person experiencing depression as a result of a family member suffering life threating injuries.  It was felt that the video portrayed a powerful story about the young person’s ability to cope and also not cope with the situation he faced.  It demonstrated the resilience of young people to cope with stressful situations, when often their coping strategy becomes depleted and also their ability to articulate that to a system that are working to help them.

 

The Board also received feedback on a recent Safeguarding Summit held on the City which had been commissioned by the Leicester Safeguarding Children’s Board. (LSCB)

 

It was noted that:-

 

  • LSCB had their own Board with young advisors and a number of partners had worked together, including the Young People’s Council, to agree a theme around emotional health and wellbeing in city’s pupils and what was happening to support their health and wellbeing.
  • It had also been linked into the ‘Time to Change’ message with a view to extending the campaign to young people.  There had been partnership working to produce posters, a resources kit and pledge cards.  The posters had used the statistics from the latest health and wellbeing survey in relation to the city.
  • The event had been open to primary and secondary schools in city and 15 schools had attended, with pupils aged from 7-16 years old.
  • The event had not been planned as a disclosure day but as a solution focused day.  Those taking part had participated fully and had wanted to share their experiences.  They had wanted to articulate the difference between mental health and mental illness, and to develop a mental health first aid toolkit which they could take back and use in their schools.
  • Bullying had been discussed including the difference between on-line and face to face bullying.
  • Consideration was also given to the different aspects of wellbeing.  The ‘Time to Change’ posters and resource kit were made available and the pupils made pledges and took these back to their schools.
  • The event had also been useful in giving guidance and aids to teachers to assist them to observe trigger signals and how to address them.  This had received positive feedback from the teachers who had felt the time spent with pupils on this topic had been very beneficial and it would help to enhance the resilience programme in fitting into a wider agenda within the school.
  • A report on the event was being prepared and would be shared with decision makers to make them aware of what young people wanted from decision makers.

 

The Chair commented that the event had demonstrated that what happened in Leicester in participation with young people was not simply a tick box exercise; but it showed that Leicester focused on the outcomes that could be delivered with young people and that it was led by young people, which was very important.  The Chair asked that the thanks of the Board be passed onto all those involved in project and the work of the teams working with young people.

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