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Voice and Influence Update
Since May of this year, seven Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) have begun new Voice and Influence groups with adopted young people. These groups are still in formation stage, with young people getting to know each other, building relationships with key staff and developing their ideas and plans for their groups going forward.
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In East London, as part of their core offer, Adopt London East (ALE) Adoption Support Team identified the need for a tween/teen group for adopted young people. Initially ALE worked in partnership with WE Are Family (WAF) to consider the scope of the group. A questionnaire was devised and sent out to adoptive parents with adopted children aged 11-14. The first group took place in March 2023 and was used to engage both with adoptees and adoptive parents regarding what they wanted from the groups. Sessions have also since been run in July and November with activities chosen by the young people to allow them to bond and get to know one another. Whilst the adopted tweens/teens meet their parents also meet separately and have a support group of their own. Feedback has been very positive, including the chance to meet others and discuss common issues. Further activities are planned for the new year after which ALE will review the groups with the adopted tweens/teens and their parents to plan further provision as part of the core offer 2024/25.
In the North West, RAAs are taking a pan-regional approach to Voice and Influence development. To begin with the group are developing a survey to be sent out to all young people aged 11 to 25 across the five RAAs. The survey will seek young people’s views on both their experience of adoption support and on if/how they would like to be involved in shaping changes to adoption systems and practice for the future.
Across the country there are five well established groups. In the East Midlands, the young people’s consultation and participation group, the Voices of Adoption Group, is made up of 11-18 year olds that meet about six times a year on a Saturday. The group has recently been involved in reviewing and revising the young people’s questions that are asked at adoption panels and were also involved in the recruitment process for the youth work posts in Adopt East Midlands. The young people took part in the practical activity where the candidates undertook a baking activity with the group and the group fed back on how they felt the candidates interacted, listened to them and communicated with them. Their views were then fed into the interview process.
If your region currently has no Voice and Influence offer and you have yet to access the support available from the Adoption England team to help get children and young people involved in your area, please contact Hannah Jones.
Voice and Influence Practice Network
October saw the first meeting of the Voice and Influence (V&I) Practice Network. The Network will meet monthly, supporting practitioners and managers to develop their V&I projects, share best practice, provide resources and guidance to engaging young people in meaningful ways and ensuring their involvement leads to genuine influence on services.
The first meeting focused on different types of engagement with young people and included discussion on the various levels of participation ranging from tokenism to co-production and how these may look in practice.
'I thought it was a great meeting and will be a fantastic opportunity to think through this important area of practice together, as well as an opportunity to share best practice and hopefully do some collaborative working nationally.' - feedback from one Network member.
Openness in Adoption - Time to Change the Approach Conference
Adoption England held its first hybrid event where professionals and families, including adopted people, adoptive parents and birth parents, joined online to the in-person event held in London. The day, which was attended by over 550 people across England, explored solutions on how we can support the modernisation of maintaining links to children’s birth family and significant others, and create flexible, individualised plans for children that meet their life-long needs and help them develop a clearer understanding of their identity.
When asked ‘Should there be greater consideration for children to have face to face contact with those who are significant to them?’ 100% of delegates answered yes.
Attendees heard from keynote speakers Julie Young, University of East Anglia (UEA) researcher, who discussed research spanning over two decades from UEA, Professor Beth Neil, who outlined the benefits for adopted children maintaining links to their birth identity, and the Honourable Mrs Justice Judd spoke on the adoption Public Law Working Group paper, which is currently open for consultation. You can read more about this here.
Delegates also had the privilege of hearing from individuals with lived experience of adoption during a round table event chaired by Mike Hancock, strategic lead for PAC-UK. The round table consisted of adopted people, birth parents, adopters, and a foster carer.
A dropbox has been created with all the materials from the conference, please click here to request access. Please be aware permission from the speakers has been sought to use the information for professional training only and we ask this is not shared on social media or at events that recording of such information cannot be controlled.
'There has been a shift in approaches to contact which is encouraging and exciting. Feels like momentum is building to make adoption more fit for 21st Century.' - comment from one attendee.
Adoption England and the University of East Anglia (UEA) collaborate on adoption culture change project
The national team at Adoption England are currently working with UEA on a project looking at culture change within modern adoption and how we can help to stimulate and guide change around maintaining relationships in adoption. The project held its first webinar in October which was attended by over 400 delegates and will be available to watch on UEA’s YouTube channel. The first Communities of Practice workshop for our culture change champions was also held last month and was well attended by champions across England.
If you would like to nominate yourself or a member of your team to be involved in the project, please email Vicky Swift.
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