By Rami Okasha, Executive Director of Scrutiny & Improvement  

This week colleagues from the Care Inspectorate are delivering a presentation at the prestigious European Social Services Conference to share information and learning from Scotland’s innovative Young Inspection Volunteer programme. For us, this is a truly person-centred approach to scrutiny and improvement. It puts the voice of care experienced young people right at the heart of children’s service inspections.

It is an honour to be asked to present our work at this conference, but more importantly it is a real opportunity to show how this programme is making a tangible difference in amplifying the voice of care experienced children and young people and helping everyone to support better outcomes for them.

We have already had a lot of interest in this programme from other organisations, both here in the UK and abroad. We have shared our experiences and knowledge with a number of international organisations including the Foundation of Social Welfare Services in Malta and the Swedish Health and Social Care Inspectorate, and learned from them. We really want to share Scotland’s experience of involving young people and placing their experiences and personal expertise at the heart of inspection work.

Looking at care from a young person’s perspective

Our team of young inspection volunteers are specially trained people aged 18–26, who themselves have experience of care. Most have lived in foster care, residential houses or with extended family in a formal kinship care arrangement. Some have used aftercare support, disability services or experienced homelessness.

They work closely with inspectors so that their views influence the final inspection report and the results of their efforts are evident in every inspection and report they are involved in. We have recently completed a five-year programme of joint inspections across all 32 community planning partnership areas in Scotland, examining how well different organisations such as social work, health, education and the police are working together in local areas to improve children’s lives. Our team of young inspection volunteers has contributed to every joint inspection since 2012, in every part of Scotland.

These volunteers go along on inspections and talk to the children and young people about their experiences. They offer really valuable insights as they can look at services through the lens of a young person and not a professional, and they often ask practical and challenging questions during inspections based on their own experience of care. They can tell us a lot about how children and young people experience care and the difference it makes to them.

It is clear that children and young people often feel they can talk more freely to another young person than they can to an adult. So, young inspection volunteers play a vital role in working with the inspectors, making sure that the concerns of young people are understood and taken seriously.

As well as interviewing children and young people, the volunteers undertake a wide range of activities as part of these inspections such as assessing Integrated Children's Services Plans, which set out how local partnerships are working together to improve children’s lives. They may also look at websites and leaflets providing advice and guidance for young people to check whether they are accessible, accurate and easy to understand. They interview local politicians and senior managers to find out about the services provided and how they demonstrate the difference they are making, helping to identify good practice that other services and partnerships can learn from.

Listening to children and young people

This year, we are moving to a new model of joint inspections of services for children and young people in community planning partnerships taking a more focused look at the experiences and outcomes for children and young people who need protection or who are care experienced. Our young inspection volunteers will have a key role in these inspections.

They have already played a crucial role over the past year in helping us to gather the views of children and young people to find out what really matters to them, what they think we should be looking at and what questions the inspections should answer. These views have been central to the development of our new programme of joint inspections.

The most important message we got from these conversations is that children and young people should be enabled to experience sincere human contact and enduring relationships, both within their own families and with care service professionals.  As a result, we have committed to making these issues a priority in all our inspections and this is why relationship-based practice and how young people are supported to develop and maintain consistent and enduring relationships underpins our new approach. Involving young people as inspection volunteers helps to shift the process from young people being the subject of scrutiny to being active participants in this process.

Support and training

We offer young inspection volunteers extensive on-going support and training on issues such as confidentiality, child protection and equalities. The team of 13-strong volunteers has its own designated Involvement Adviser who ensures our volunteers always have strong organisational and peer support. 

Sometimes young inspection volunteers have to deal with challenges because of their own past experiences and with issues such as insecure housing, low income or complicated family relationships. Some are young parents and juggle childcare, education or other commitments with their voluntary work at the Care Inspectorate.  We know this voluntary work is challenging but the volunteers tell us that it is also very rewarding, not least because they are helping to ensure the outcomes for other young people are the best they can be.

It’s also good experience for the volunteers personally as this voluntary work opens their eyes to the different roles available in the care sector and gives them time, as well as a wide range of new skills, to think about what they want to do when they move on.

Earlier this year, our volunteers developed their own Learning Log document where they can record the practical skills and experiences they are gaining which are transferrable to the workplace or further education. Four volunteers recently enrolled at Glasgow Kelvin College where they will use the Learning Log evidence to work towards a Community Achievement Award.

Some former young inspection volunteers have also gained employment with the Care Inspectorate in substantive administrative and professional support posts. One young inspection volunteer who will be sharing her experiences at the conference, is now a modern apprentice in our organisation’s finance department, working towards an SVQ qualification.

Raising the profile of care experienced young people

As well as their role in inspections, volunteers are very active in helping to raise the profile of this vital voluntary work and of care experienced young people in general. Some of them were recently involved in making a new recruitment video and they often represent the Care Inspectorate, attending events and sharing their experiences to spread the word in as many ways as they can. Many of the volunteers have at least one selfie with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon!

Scotland is currently celebrating Year of Young People and our young inspection volunteers are embracing this opportunity to get the message out there that there is always support available to all children and young people experiencing care and to challenge any lazy prejudices there are about young people who experience care (#YIV18 #YOYP18).

If you’d like to know more about what motivates young people to volunteer with us I recommend you read Toni Twigg’s blog on our website.