Summary:

Richmond Borough Council have used Hear by Right as part of a widespread consultation, mapping and planning exercise with many of the different groups of young people they work with. This 'Getting a better deal for children and young people in Richmond' series of events saw work with Care Leavers, Disabled Young People, Youth Service users, School Councils and Children and Young People in Need. The consultation reports are available online and can be found be following this link to the London Borough of Richmond profile page.

This report, ‘Getting a better deal for children and young people in Richmond’, is the product of a series of interactive sessions working with different groups of Young People in Richmond. These sessions sought to find out about the priorities of young people in Richmond, about how they felt they were listened to by the services they were in contact with, and how they felt their voices could better be heard.

Through a focus on standards, and through exploring with those young people taking part their expectations of when and how they should be involved and listened to, the event involved the application of the Hear By Right model with young people firmly in the driving seat.

Young people had the opportunity to explore the role of standards in improving the services they receive, and then took on mapping their experiences of being listened to - with each of the sessions rounding off through discussion between young people and adults about the planning steps that could be taken to respond to the young people’s input, reflections and ideas.

The sessions were co-ordinated and facilitated by Lois Ratcliffe, Participation Co-ordinator for Richmond Borough and Bill Badham of The National Youth Agency. Each led to a comprehensive (and almost instant) report of the young peoples views - and to a summary report.

Each report includes a full record of young peoples input at that session, and provides a key insight into the structure and format of the sessions.

Please click here to download the reports. Reports can be found under the Map & Plan Tool panel.