These themes were discussed and explored in the context of the Children’s Hearings System, but the young OHOV board members often spoke passionately about how these issues impacted their lives on a much larger scale. For instance, how it feels when panel members and Children’s Reporters have access to personal information about their lives. This progressed into discussions about other adults who might know sensitive information, such as teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers, Police Scotland, and so on.

The young people at OHOV recognised that the lives of children with care experience would not improve by only engaging those organisations central to the Children’s Hearings System. They decided that they wanted to work collaboratively with a broad range of professionals, guiding them to understand more about the type of support that is most helpful to them.

We know that there are existing policies, legislation and practice guidance which relate to the themes explored by young people contributing to this guide, however, children’s needs are not yet consistently or fully met in their experience. We wanted to explore our six key themes not only in terms of their relevance to the Children’s Hearings system, but also how they permeate children’s wider lives in the care system in general. When reading about the themes within this guide, you’ll see references to children’s experiences of Hearings, but also to their time at school, their relationships with staff at residential houses, the support they’ve received from social workers, and more. 

A representation of this exploration of our 6 key themes through the lens of both hearings and care experience is illustrated in the iceberg graphic.

The board members of OHOV have always expressed an interest in amplifying the voices of care experienced children and young people across the country. We wanted this guide to reflect a broad range of experiences and perspectives, so we met with children and young people from across Scotland- from the big cities to rural Scotland, from Ayrshire to the Northeast, Shetland, the Highlands and Central Lowlands. The groups we worked with focus on voice, care, justice, hearings, and lots more. We worked with young people with experience of foster, residential, kinship and secure care, of living at home with family, of supported living or homeless accommodation, and of being in custody.

Before meeting with these groups, the OHOV board members wanted to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to carry out this type of ‘research’ without unintentionally causing harm or re-traumatisation to any of the children and young people involved. We explored effective research skills and trauma informed practice, which eventually led to the creation of a trauma informed guide. As the board members were learning and developing new skills, many of them asked for this to be recognised in formal accreditation. As a result, the work the board members have undertaken and the skills they have demonstrated have provided assessment evidence for a Participation and Democracy certification by Youth Link Scotland, which many of our board members are working towards. 

The guide is structured around the six key themes outlined above. Each theme includes a range of sub-themes, many of which overlap and connect across multiple areas. Some sub-themes are so central to children and young people’s experiences that they appear repeatedly throughout the whole guide: 

• Personalisation – getting to know children and tailoring support accordingly
• Addressing the stigma and judgement surrounding care experience
• Learning from and sharing children’s personal information 
• Involving and informing children throughout support provision
• Love – not all young people used the term ‘love’, but they all spoke about the central importance of friendship, unconditional acceptance, and empathy from people who provide care or other support to them.

You can use this guide in whichever way makes sense to you; explore each of the 6 key themes in depth or narrow your search to learn about those that are most relevant to your current learning and development needs. You may wish to read children’s written quotes and/or listen to their voice and video recordings directly. Please feel free to share any parts of this resource that feel helpful to you individually, or in team discussions; we would love as many adults as possible to learn from the voices of children and young people who contributed to this work.

This guide will continue to evolve as we continue to learn from children and young people through new and ongoing engagement opportunities.

We want to thank the many young people who shared their insights and experiences to contribute to this guide, and we want to thank you, the reader for engaging with it.

We hope that you have taken something from this work and would love to hear how you plan to take your learning forward into practice. We also welcome your thoughts on this guide.

This guide will continue to evolve based on feedback and what we continue to learn from children across Scotland. If you have anything to share to enhance our guide, or to provide feedback or ask any questions, please reach out to us at amy.miskimmin-logan@scra.gov.uk