Voice and Influence Workers celebrate two years of being key advocates for change within Sheffield’s care sector

Just over two years ago, Sheffield City Council created five new posts for young people who are care-experienced to gather voice and influence change.

During their time in the role, the Voice and Influence (V&I) Workers have made a variety of achievements which will impact Sheffield for the better. This nationally acclaimed team help to improve services for care experienced children, young people, and adults up to 25 years old.

The V&I Workers support activities to share the views of care experienced young people and are commissioned to do pieces of work around voice and influence. They play a key role in promoting change within Sheffield’s care sector and advocate for change and improvements within every piece of work they conduct.

These include:

• Assisting in passing a motion for ‘Care Experience’ to be recognised as a protected characteristic
• Run training sessions with social workers at university around the realities of being care experienced and what makes a good social worker
• Trained 15 new Personal Advisers in what makes a good PA
• Co-delivered sessions for Create and Change groups of other care experienced children and young people
• Developed top tips for health colleagues (GPs)
• Set up a podcast sharing episodes every three months
• Launched a Community Parenting Film

One of the groups they run is called SUN (Speak Up Now) is a care leaver’s voice group 

The team run three voice and influence groups (SUN being 1 for aged 7-25 years old) They also do focus groups and wider consultations with children and young people that are care experienced and ‘seldom heard’.

They have directly engaged through groups or research with over 350 children and young people in Sheffield this year.

The Voice and Influence team are also bringing in new connections and projects by directly linking up with organisations. They have worked with Cidon, a local construction company, who have funded a SUN project to make a set of 'Comfy Cosy Crates' for young people as they go into their own home for the first time.

The crates concept came from an idea in the SUN group and they put together a list of everything they’d have liked. They contain a cosy blanket, pots and pans, cutlery, a cookbook and a ring doorbell as many care leavers report feeling unsafe where they live.

Cidon are helping to source and fund the first 60 crates for young people moving into their own tenancies this year. All the belongings are packed in a laundry crate- so even the box itself is functional and all items are brand new.

Each post is shaped around the individual worker and their availability, skills & interest making sure they can deliver in the areas they are passionate about.

For some members of the team, they still require support from the service so through their own experiences of accessing this support they can highlight where improvements should be made.

The activities the workers conduct include running their own Scrutiny Panel for senior managers in children’s social care, commissioning outreach work for partners, leading on projects in the groups and consultants in other settings such as Health, the Virtual School and Universities to help them develop their services.

Cllr Dawn Dale, Chair of the Education, Children and Families Policy Committee, said:

“The impact the Voice and Influence Workers have made on our city and our council is so integral in making sure Sheffield delivers quality services to those in care, care leavers and those that care for our children and young people.

“Our Voice and Influence Workers have made a giant impact in their role in the past two years including assisting in passing a motion for ‘Care Experience’ to be recognised as a protected characteristic.

“Sheffield City Council is extremely grateful and proud of what the team have achieved in the past two years and will continue in supporting their work in the city.”

The team is now looking for individuals, businesses and organisations that would like to support our care experienced children and young people by providing opportunities, funding or discounts.

If you want to find out more about how you can help the team and their community flourish, please email CommunityParenting@sheffield.gov.uk.