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.