Gillian’s policy priorities before she leaves

Retirement is closing in for Gillian Newman, Policy Lead of Inspiring Young Voices, after 14 years with the organisation. In her final few weeks with us, Gillian is still working hard on several fronts and she has given us an update on her priorities before she leaves.

Participation framework: a model of working that enables children and young people to know their right to a voice, to have the space and opportunity to express it, attention paid to that voice by decision makers at every level and for that voice to make a difference.

Performance review framework: to have an agreed cross-sector framework for self-evaluation of services that allows third sector organisations, as partners to the children’s services plan, along with all other partners to share both quantitative and qualitative data to demonstrate what difference their work is making to children and young people. Built into this framework would be children and young people’s own evaluation of how well listened to they were.

Children’s Rights and Impact Assessments: that these are included across policy making bodies in Highland, involving the voice of children and young people by referring back to the agencies who work with them.

Communication strategy: the pandemic period has exposed gaps in communication across and between integrated services and the children and families they serve. All services are under pressure in terms of workload and the resources to meet the needs of our communities, but honesty and good information will go a long way to improve individual and community resilience as we seek to move towards recovery.