Participation (Your Voice) 

We have three forums where children and young people can participate to be heard and influence change.

We have three forums where children and young people can participate to be heard and influence:

• Young Voice for ages 6 to 10
• Youth Voice for ages 11 to 15
• Your Voice for ages 16 to 25

These forums are there to provide an independent voice for ‘children in care’ and ‘care leavers’ to help them make changes to local and national procedures and legislation that affect their lives.

We can also support you to access independent support via The Children’s Society (PDF, 397 Kb).

For the Young Voice (ages 6 to 10) forum sessions will be held 6 to 8 weekly with some additional sessions in school holidays. This will be play based but themes will underpin the sessions so that the children can contribute to the development of services for children and young people.

For Youth Voice (ages 11 to 15) and Your Voice (16 to 25) forums will be run every two weeks (alternately); these will be interactive sessions. One aspect of the session will be the development of Corporate Parenting workshops to be held 4 times a year. There will also be information sharing sessions to support children and young people’s knowledge on why social workers and partner agencies do what they do. Children and young people will also be involved in wider consultation to contribute to the development of services for children and young people.

The forums will lead 4 Corporate Parenting events a year ensuring that matters that affect children and young people in care and leaving care are raised and discussed with those who can influence how Bradford Children’s Services are run.

The forums will undertake commissioned work that enables the voice of child to be integrated into service delivery.