This is a review by the Young Inspectors: a team of young people who rate Cardiff’s youth services. Their reports are being hosted on theSprout so that all young people can read and have their say on them.
Learn more about the Young Inspectors here.
What do they do?
Team Around the Family (TAF) support families who sometimes need a little extra help for them to have happy, healthy lives.
TAF aim to work with families to help them identify their strengths and needs and make their own family plans to guide them towards their goals.
TAF will help you identify existing support from friends and family as well as
current and new services which can support you.
How did they do?
We liked that different mechanisms were used for contacting families and that these were tailored to each individual’s preferences.
The information packs they provide are informative, and we liked the evaluations used
following group sessions and that young people are helping to develop a new young person friendly version.
Verdict: Achieving
Recommendations:
- Look into the use of social media as this can sometimes be a quicker way to access and contact young people. It is also good to have worker profiles.
2. It’s Your Choice
We like the fact that the services are assessed on a voluntary basis and if young people don’t want to be involved they don’t have to.
The TAF plan is written in an easily understood language and the young person is involved throughout the process. It is made clear that the young person can leave at any time.
Appointment dates, times and places are arranged to suit individual needs.
The young people are able to choose from a number of diversionary activities to ensure that they are doing something that they wish to do.
We particularly liked the use of one-to-one time with family members to make sure they are fully informed.
Verdict: Achieving
“The process was a very long one. There was so much for us to cover and
learn. Dates changed and we had to rearrange things which wasn’t good. I
have really enjoyed being a part of the young inspectors and carrying out
inspections. I like that we broke up the sessions with some fun activities such
as the white water rafting and Cardiff City game”. -Alkasim
3. No Discrimination
The TAF offices have disabled access and the fact that service users decide where and when they meet means that meetings are always accessible and meet the needs of the individual.
We were pleased to see that more accessible evaluation forms were being developed with C&YP (children and young people).
The service contacts families in their chosen first language through the use of interpreters or translation.
Operates all across Cardiff and is not confined to certain geographic areas across the city. This means that C&YP and their families in any part of the city can have equal opportunity to access the service.
Verdict: Achieving
4. Respect
The use of individual action plans helps shift the power balance more in favour of the young people / families, who – with the help of their workers – set their own targets and goals.
The TAF meetings were different in the sense that C&YP are encouraged to attend and have their say about what they want for their families. It is also important that C&YP have the opportunity to listen to what adults and professionals say about them and their families, and that if they wish to they can challenge these comments.
Verdict: Achieving
The services are judged by how well they meet the 7 Participation Standards.
5. You Get Something Out Of It
C&YP get someone to talk to about the issues they are facing, and to help them in setting themselves personal goals and targets. Most of the work is done on a one-to-one basis and so is very personal to the individuals.
We also loved that C&YP who attend steering groups earn time credits for their participation. Time credits can be spent on a wide variety of fun activities across the city. At the request of the young people, groups have been held at Zone Play and Cardiff City Football Stadium.
Verdict: Achieving
6. Feedback
C&YP have their very own copies of the TAF plan. Having a dedicated worker meant that feedback would be a much quicker
process.
We also liked that feedback was covered in each of the young people’s groups with regards to the decisions made in previous groups and felt that this was a good cycle and an appropriate way to feed back to the young people.
Verdict: Achieving
Recommendations:
- Involve young people in finding further effective ways of feeding back to people, maybe look at digital options such as SurveyMonkey.
- Newsletter that lets C&YP, professionals and services users know what is happening in the package and the other services.
7. Improving How We Work
This has been demonstrated by the package in various ways, from the way in which the services interact with young people at first contact and choosing suitable / neutral place to meet, to young people designing their own individual action plans.
We also like using the young people group as a steering group for the team and really liked the idea of the art that reflected what TAF was and meant.
Verdict: Achieving
What did we think?
We were impressed with the values and the ethos of the service and organisation. It was extremely clear that the service respects the opinions of children and young people, and taking these opinions into account is intrinsic to the running of the service.
The staff that we met were great and you could tell from their enthusiasm that they loved their work and we are sure this will come across to the young people.
The evidence that was presented was very well organised and constructed, and allowed us to gain a better understanding of the service and showed that listening to the views of service users means the service continually assesses its working practice and strives to make the services better for its users.
We as the Cardiff Young Inspectors team make the recommendation that the service is achieving all seven areas of the National Participation Standards.
Overall Recommendation: Achieving
Read the full report by clicking on the link below:
Interested in reviewing the service? Learn how to become a Young Inspector.