The Quality Standards – Children’s Wishes and Feelings Standard
You are probably already considering additional resources that will help evidence the Children’s Wishes and Feelings Standard. In this post I wanted to share a quick and easy tool you can use to,
- Engage young people effectively and gain an insight into their wishes and feelings.
- Add to your evidence for the new Children’s Wishes & Feelings Standard.
Recently we were working with a Children’s Home staff team who were finding it difficult to discover a young person’s overall wishes and feelings. Staff were finding engagement challenging and felt that barriers to communication were becoming stumbling blocks preventing quality interaction and sharing. The young person was not keen on entering into discussion on their likes and dislikes, wishes, feelings and hopes for the future.
Together we looked at the approach the team were taking toward engagement. They were using a ‘sit down and chat’ routine which had worked well with other young people. Together we looked at what was known about this young person. Historical records showed this young person was not comfortable with the sit down and chat ‘style’ of communication. In a further group team discussion, most of us agreed, that sitting with an adult, with the primary purpose of a ‘just chat’ about our lives would have freaked us out when we were teenagers! We identified that the young person was a visual learner. We decided to try the My Story Template.
Initially used as a quick tool to engagement on Regulation 44 visits we find this approach to engagement popular with young people and their key workers.
Using the ‘my story’ template the staff team were,
Able to engage the young person more effectively
Communicate in the young person’s individual style
Pave the way for more meaningful dialogue
Prevent the young person feeling backed into a corner.
The template can take as little as 10 minutes to complete. It provides a quick and easy starting point to getting children and young people engaged. It can also be used to evidence, The Children’s Wishes & Feelings Standard, The Positive Relationships Standard and The Care Planning Standard.
1 editable My Life powerpoint template
Ready made My Life slides simple to update
My Life photo files
My Life more photo files
Full Instructions
This tool is really simple and I have found it to be a useful resource in many situations. I hope it will prove useful to you.
Registered users can download from www.onrezume.org.
Not registered? You can download My Story Template now by registering with our portal Onrezume here. We will be including other compliance tools & resources regularly.
Maggie Danesfahani
Inspection Improvement Specialist/Independent Regulation Visitor
Contact: maggie@rezume.co.uk
Protecting you from adverse inspection outcomes
If you are looking for external support, Rezume offer Mock Inspections, Inspection Health Checks, Inspection ready Workshops and Independent Visits. For more information please either visit the Children’s Homes section of our website or call our team on 01303 680460.
