‘They don’t have to retell their story’: building long-lasting relationships with children and young people

One of the factors that attracted Lucy to North East Lincolnshire Council was being able to build long-lasting relationships with children and young people.

“At my previous local authority, my experience was predominately assessment, but I wanted to build on my professional development and case-holding and remain their [the children and family’s] social worker longer term,” she said.

This is something she is able to achieve at North East Lincolnshire Council as a social worker in the children and assessment service (CASS). Unlike her previous local authority, the social worker follows the child’s journey from assessment to the point that they go to the children in care team.

Following the child’s journey and being involved in court work, children in need, child protection, Public Law Outline and children in care work has definite benefits, says Lucy.

“We know that when a child’s social worker changes all the time, they are not going to be as open and trusting. Continuity of social worker is important because it helps to build those trusting relationships with the child.

“From my experience, the young people seem a lot less anxious, knowing that they are going to have the same social worker. And what I see here at North East Lincolnshire Council is that families quite like the fact that you are staying with them. They don’t have to retell their story, and the children have already built those relationships with you.”

Amplifying the child’s voice

Keeping children and young people’s needs is at the centre of the work North East Lincolnshire does

Lucy’s experience reflects North East Lincolnshire Council’s commitment to keep children and young people’s needs at the centre of the work the council does.

Ensuring that the needs of children and young people are acknowledged and addressed underpins the council’s commitments and is one of seven key areas that North East Lincolnshire Council is prioritising over the next five years.

The local authority’s report: ‘North East Lincolnshire Our Children, Our Future’ aims to ensure the area is a place children can grow up happy and healthy, safe in their homes and communities, with people that love them.

And North East Lincolnshire Council’s plan outlines efforts to enhance “the opportunities for children and families to share their views and experiences and to have a voice in order for them to shape and influence the local offer.” Through groups such as: ‘Our Voice Listen Up’, young people in care have the space to discuss issues that are important to them.

Ann-Marie Matson, the director of children’s services at North East Lincolnshire Council, and other senior leaders have met with many children in care personally to gather their views.

“I’ve directly met with children to understand how their voice can influence and shape practice, building the child’s voice and experience into induction, in training and recruitment programmes and in the recruitment of our foster carers,” she says.

“We’ve embedded a: ‘you said, we did’ approach, and we’ve introduced conversation cards, giving children and young people the opportunity to share their views and experiences about the questions on the cards, which are set by them. The aim is to identify children’s needs and act on them.  We’ve also introduced creative conversations which are focussed around a particular topic, and where corporate parents join children and young people to discuss issues that matter to them, in order to influence partnership action and to help improve their experiences and outcomes”

Building on the person-centred approach

North East Lincolnshire Council’s practice approach, which is focussed around being relational, strengths based and solutions-focused , ensures that social workers like Lucy remain person-centred in their approach to supporting children and their families.

“It’s about empowering the family to use the strengths that they have,” says Lucy. “And the voice of the child runs throughout all of our work and is pivotal to what we do.

“It is about being consistent for that person and doing what you say you will do. And if you don’t do what you say, it is about explaining the reasons why you haven’t followed through with something.”

Social workers work with children to understand their thoughts and feelings – their lived experience, how they see their lives, their behaviour and what their concerns are. Lucy has seen the benefits of doing just that.

“I’ve been working with a child for four months – supervising contact between him and his dad. A recent conversation was a turning point for me, as he was really chatty.

“He normally covers his eyes and is really shy. Typically, when I am trying to gather his wishes and feelings, he doesn’t answer, and I would have to tell through his behaviour. But when we spoke recently, he asked me about 20 questions.

“It felt good and made me appreciate how long it can take for a child to build those relationships and develop that trust,” says Lucy.

North East Lincolnshire Council encourages collaborative working between professionals as a way to ensure consistency in the relationship and build trust. Lucy was able to demonstrate the value of collaborative working when supporting a young person who was at risk of child exploitation.

“Working alongside a student social worker and a family support worker, we collectively built up trust and were really consistent, open and honest with her.”

“We explained what our concerns were. It took a few months but being there regardless of what was happening, supporting her was an intense process. But I think being consistent and everybody sharing the same message, to capture her views, helped. We got her home.”

“She had embedded that work that we had done with her, and what really worked is we were able to do the work with the parents too.”

Listening to young people

Working to gather the views of children

A key goal in North East Lincolnshire Council is ensuring that children remain in the area and stay with their families wherever possible too.

Julie Poole, assistant director, Children’s Assurance Evaluation and Partnerships, says: “We have high numbers of children in our care” but through working together, and with a focus on our children and young people, we are successfully reducing the numbers of children that need to be in our care, enabling them to live with their families and in their communities, which is our ultimate overarching ambition.”

Where that is not possible, Lucy has seen, firsthand, the effort involved in ensuring that the needs and wishes of the child are considered in decisions about where they live and how they are cared for.

In one particular highly complex situation, Lucy worked intensively with the child to gather her views, and then worked with the family support service and the adoptive parents to find a solution.

“I did some creative direct work – listening to spa music to calm her down and went for a drive. She likes to write down her thoughts, so, we unpicked them to gather what her triggers were, and how she feels. She would communicate with me through written notes – that is how she would share her views.

“She had a period in foster care but wanted to go into supported living. We had regular meetings – legal tracking meetings and panel meetings, to listen to her views and understand what she wanted and ensure that all options had been explored. We also did some assessments with her to go into supported living – and that’s what happened in the end.”

Lucy cites other examples where a child needed a foster home and through collaborative work with other members of the service and wider colleagues, regular meetings and planning sessions, she was able to find a foster carer within North East Lincolnshire Council.

“Just the passion that workers have for our children and young people – it is phenomenal. Everybody is working together for them,” says Lucy.