We recently published the second edition of our Good Practice Guide which showcases initiatives across England that are tackling drivers of delay for children and families in care proceedings. In the most recent edition of the guide, we focused on initiatives that have co-production with experts by experience at their core. In this article, Yannick Mitchell looks at some of the features that underpin these initiatives.
There can be no better way to deliver and improve services than by listening to those who have direct experience of receiving them.
Designing services not just with lived experience in mind, but as partners in their co-production can lead to better outcomes for the families and children they serve. When we put together the most recent edition of our Good Practice Guide, it was clear that this was a principle embraced by many initiatives across the country.
With a focus on these initiatives, I want to expand on some of the key features that have led to good outcomes for service users:
Lived experience adds significant value and expertise that can drive service improvement.
Working with experts by experience can lead to significant improvements in the processes and outputs of a service. As part of my role as a coach for the Wolverhampton area on the DFJ Trailblazers programme, it is clear to me that the local authorities in the area hold the Dandelions (Telford & Wrekin’s parents with experience group) in high regard. The Dandelions work across children’s services to co-produce leaflets with vital information going to families in care proceedings. Dandelions also play a large role in the training delivered to practitioners as well as taking an active part in the recruitment process. Their involvement supports Telford & Wrekin’s vision for “building a service with our parents, for our parents”.
Elevating the voice of those in care proceedings leads to better engagement and more empowered young people.
When working in children’s services, I saw countless assessments completed with the box reserved for capturing ‘the voice of the child’ left blank. In private law proceedings, a recent Nuffield Family Justice Observatory report discovered that in almost half of the cases studied, there was no indication of a child participating in the process. The Adolescent Participation Pathway Pilots (APPP) aims to address this problem through a planned intervention in partnership with local authorities and CAFCASS which involves a series of engagements between a young person, a judge, a social worker, a guardian and a support worker. These engagements focus on encouraging a young person’s participation in the court process and culminates in the creation of a ‘My Plan’ in which a young person identifies achievable goals. In an earlier iteration of this pilot, young people reported feeling better supported and listened to, and social workers described an improvement in their relationship with the young person.
Experts by experience can be a central part of your team.
In many instances, service user groups sit next to, but not within services. At times, this might be appropriate. In other instances, the voice of lived experience can form a key part of your team. In Blackpool, their co-production team brings together partners from across the system including social workers, Early Help, midwifery, private solicitors, drug and alcohol services, HMCTS and more, but crucially, includes parents with lived experience. After their involvement in the national ‘Born into Care’ study, Blackpool decided to co-produce their next steps leading to the identification of 8 principles and 12 workstreams to prioritise supporting parents and unborn babies at risk of separation at birth. They also co-produced a MAP guide which helps families to understand the pathways through social care.
For engagement with experts by experience to go beyond a tick-box exercise and become genuinely impactful, each of the initiatives referred to in this article and featured in our Good Practice Guide have committed fully to a culture of collaboration and co-production.
The results of this commitment are evident in the NEST Team (Nurture Empower Safe Together) in Rochdale which empowers parents who have faced recurrent care proceedings. Their model was developed alongside mothers who had experienced having multiple children removed into care and has resulted in 20 babies living at home with their parents and the de-escalation to Child in Need for the majority of referrals they’ve received.
It's also evident in Lancaster where the HOPE Boxes initiative was developed alongside those with lived experience to produces boxes which capture memories and maintain a connection with the baby during court proceedings. Mothers have reported improvements to their wellbeing and a reduction in loneliness and the stigma associated with having children removed into care. The boxes are designed to promote sensitive communication and help reduce trauma while building mothers’ confidence in professionals. An initiative like this could only be developed alongside those who understand the trauma that comes with having a child removed into care.
The challenges facing public services has been well documented but as demonstrated in the initiatives referred to in this post, co-production allows stretched services to deliver outcomes that matter to people and change lives for the better.
If you’re involved with or aware of initiatives that demonstrate good practice in care proceedings, please get in touch with us for consideration in future editions of the guide:
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