Now Including

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Its been a busy few weeks here, with lots of progress! Unfortunately this has meant that the Now Including blog has suffered! So here is a little update:

One young person, in Glasgow, is working with me on the Participation strand of our project. Two young people, in Glasgow and Fife, are helping me to develop the ways in which Transitional Support communicate who they are and what they do to a variety of audiences.

We’ve taken over a wall in Includem’s Glasgow office, where we are documenting some of our thoughts, and have invited others to contribute (first picture).

A little more detail on each project strand:

Understanding:

We have identified a number of problem areas and barriers within this area, and have begun to develop a few solutions too;

Problem: Young people not feeling informed about TSS. It takes time for young people to build trust with their worker and Includem when they first move over from Core to TSS, or when they first begin with Includem. This will always be the case, but we want to ensure that road is as smooth as possible, to prevent young people from disengaging early on, before trust has had time to develop.

Potential solutions: A leaflet or ‘referral pack’ which a worker can deliver to a young person on their first meeting. Something similar already exists for Includem’s Impact team. This would include business card sized profiles on each worker a young person is likely to meet. These would be casual and personable in nature - to allow young people to feel they know a little about each worker before they meet them all. It would also contain a short synopsis of the TSS service, how it differs from Core, how it is the same and the helpline number would be clearly visible. The main page would contain the words of young people who have worked with TSS, explaining how TSS helped them and what it is they can do.

Problem: Young people can struggle to explain Includem and TSS to other services they link in with. Effectively explaining Includem and their work can be useful to young people when plans are being made regarding outside agencies they might also work with.

Potential solutions: A document which can be supplied by Includem workers to young people, who can then pass it on to outside agencies. This would need to be very clear and concise, and young people would be supported to make sure that the recipient read it there and then - to make sure the information is taken in, understood and that any questions are answered.

Problem: Outside agencies not fully understanding Includem’s work and taking this into account when making plans for support. Whilst work is done at a senior level to have Includem’s work recognised across the sector, young people would benefit from better understanding and stronger working relationships across agencies at the worker level.

Potential solutions: Something which helps workers to get the message about Includem out to other agencies they work alongside. This might be a well designed business card, a leaflet, or even a teabag. We’re not sure yet!

Problem: Includem’s website is not built with young people in mind. It can be hard for young people to find out information about Includem independantly. It is natural that those with internet access will “google” Includem - but all current results are aimed at professionals and can be quite inaccessible, or even off putting.

Potential solutions: The Includem website should be redesigned to function for young people. From this central page, professionals would be able to navigate to a “backstage” site, containing the same resources and information as the current one. The new young person’s website would also include information about what to expect when working with Includem, some information about teams, information about other young peoples’ experiences of Includem, information on how else to involved with Includem and an area to leave feedback on the service.

Participation:

As well as identifying areas in which both young people and Includem would benefit from young people’s involvement, we are developing a framework for participation going forward: How should Includem approach the involvement of young people? What are the principles of good participation?

Problem: How can we meaningfully involve young people in Includem recruitment and induction training?

Potential solution: A well constructed structure for Includem to follow when inviting young people to take part in recruitment sessions. They should be given the chance to contribute to the design of recruitment and training sessions, and be equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary. There should also be time for reflection afterwards - both on the process itself - what worked, what didn’t, and on skills developed and gained by those involved.

Problem: How can Includem gather meaningful, honest and valuable feedback on their service, as young people exit? The current “Your Views” questionnaire is not effective. It is not always completed, the purpose is not clear, and the information gathered is not well used.

Potential solution: We’ve taken time to consider a few different options for this. Should it be a game? Should it be face to face? Online? Paper based? On the phone? Who is the right person to deliver this? Should a young person do this in isolation? After a lot of consideration, we feel that the best course of action is that there are a range of “delivery agents” who can collect this feedback from young people. This is a decision which should be made on a case by case basis, and in consultation with young people, workers and team managers. “Delivery agents” could refer to workers, team managers, senior managers, support staff or self-driven. This is all still under review, but we are excited to develop a great solution for this!

Problem: How can young people and workers find out about participation opportunities? Opportunities for young people to participate in a variety of ways, both inside and outside of Includem, are presented to Includem frequently, and from lots of different places. How can we get this information out into the open, and ensure that young people are properly supported to take part?

Potential solution: There are a few solutions here. One: Participation in service development, or in another project should fall under “Eduction, Employment & Training” within the ABL programme. Two: opportunities should be included in Includem’s monthly newsletter. To gain readership, team managers should read these aloud at team meetings; this allows workers to discuss which young people might wish to take up the opportunities. Three: these should also be posted in a public space within Includem (perhaps in the “resource room” - where computers etc are available for use by young people) so that they are visible to young people and workers. Four: Again, these should be published on the Young Person website.

Sounds good. What else? How are we going to make this happen? How are we going to make this last?

We are prototyping several of these ideas already; this will lead to further development, and hopefully implementation! By working alongside different people and different parts of Includem, the word of the project is spreading, and buy-in is building!

Workers, team managers, service managers, development & communication managers etc all have an important role to play in making sure that this project has a legacy, and that the work put in by young people is respected and taken on board.

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Recently we gathered at Includem's Fife office to explore the role of Transitional Support Service. The day was a great success, bringing together TSS workers and representative frontline workers from across Includem's teams. In mixed groups of TSS, Core, Impact, East and West we looked at the service which TSS provide, and what they do not provide as well as which young people might refer to TSS and the reasons why. We also explored the themes of "good transitions" and "bad transitions" more widely. This allowed teams to think about some principles of transition in a variety of scenarios: transition from child services to adult life, from Core to TSS etc. We spent some time looking at the referral process into TSS, with a view to ensuring that it works well for the young people involved, as well as clarifying and developing the roles of each Includem staff member along the way. We now have a working document which we aim to share across Includem shortly, in order to ensure all referrals run smoothly. Finally, workers were given the chance to "ask a question" to anyone in Includem. TSS Team Manager, Karen, was able to answer some of the questions for TSS directly, and there will be an opportunity for others to answer questions too. It was fantastic to be able to give non-TSS workers time to look at and understand the work that TSS, and to give TSS workers the chance to bust some myths around "what they do"! Thanks to everyone who took part.

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The second part of my project review of Phase 1 - looking at the design process, and how our project fitted within that.

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A document I prepared, which reviews our approach to Phase 1 of our Now Including project

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Thinking about how to explore both strands of the project with young people.

How do different people know who Includem are, and what they do?

How do we help young people meaningfully have their voices heard, and acted upon, within Includem? How and why do we support them to be a part of something bigger?

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Last Thursday Includem (and Snook) took part in IRISS’s Relationships Matter Jam – a one day hack event which brought together 5 organisations from across Scotland to explore ways in which young people can continue to be supported as they move away from child services and care services.

In attendance were representatives from Care Visions, Falkirk Council, Hot Chocolate Trust, Includem and Kibble.

Participants were asked to consider some barriers they face when working with young people and to submit these as part of the application process. The organisations chose to look at the following barriers:

· Workers feeling judged if they choose to remain in contact with young people when they leave a service

· Workers not knowing if they are allowed to offer ongoing relational support

· Getting love right for every young people - what does love look like in a professional context?

· Understanding and enacting the boundaries of professional and personal relationships

· Supporting young people to have confidence to continue to seek support when they experience difficulties in life. (Includem)

Facilitators, visualisers and helping hands were provided by IRISS, Young Scot and Who Cares Scotland. Includem were teamed up with Young Scot’s Toni, who partnered with us on several projects in 2014.

When young people exit Includem’s service, they are always reassured that they can still use the Helpline – a service which is available to provide support to young people 24/7.

However, experience shows that in practise, young people are reluctant to do this. Even those who have made good use of the Helpline whilst working with Includem fail to use this service after exit. We wanted to understand why this might be, and how Includem can best support young people beyond their initial service delivery, whilst not imposing on the independence (or interdependence) of the young people in question.

We were able to bring together a great pool of Includem brain power on this issue: two young people who have been working with Includem in Fife; sister/brother team Alana and Gavin, their Transitional Support worker Kathleen, frontline Core worker in Glasgow Kim, Briege who has been undertaking PhD research with Transitional Support and myself, Keira, Includem’s embedded service designer from Snook.

Alana and Gavin had helped me look at this issue during the first phase of our project, and took this opportunity to share and discuss their experience of the issue with the wider group.

Fuelled by pastries, tea, coffee and Parma Violets, we delved deeper into what some of the underlying reasons might be that young people are reluctant to pick up the phone at the very moment they need help most.

We were all in agreement that one of the biggest revelations from the day was our rejection of the word “Exit”. The group felt that this word implies a very final action. “You don’t come back in an exit,” as Kathleen put it. We wanted to support young people to lead interdependent lives, without needing Includem by their side, but to truly feel that the door is always open, and to have the confidence and ability to walk back through it.

We wondered if the problem might lie within the method of communication – Alana and Gavin spoke about being reluctant to pick up the phone – “We were too proud to make the call”. In reality, when they found they had hit a bump in the road, and didn’t know where to turn, it was a call from Briege that prompted them to get back in touch with Includem. Briege had phoned to arrange a follow up interview for her research, and on hearing that they were struggling, urged them to make the call. That prompting voice reassured them – Gavin told us he had worried (needlessly of course) about being rejected if they did place the call.

So we explored the idea of Includem making the initial contact – a solution identified by young people during phase 1. We wrote out a series of different communication methods; phone, text, face to face, letter, email, Facebook, Twitter, pigeon and considered the ways in which each could be used and the advantages and disadvantages of each; both with Includem initiating contact, and young people doing so. We identified a range of different ideas which might be explored in the future, but all agreed that a phone call was still the most powerful and overall, the most effective.

Brains and bodies refuelled with soup and sandwiches, we thought about a simple blueprint for the service. What were the potential outcomes and how were we going to get there?

We found it useful to start talking about a young person’s journey with Includem as a literal car journey. At the Includem driving school, young people are given confidence on the roads and the skills needed to navigate on the “highway of life”. They aren’t left to drive alone; Includem ensure they have a good network of support around them, and also reassure them that they can always pull over and give Includem a call if they need an MOT. We started talking about Includem calling a young person, for example, two weeks after “exit”, then two weeks after than, then a month, six months etc. just to check they are still happily and safely driving down the road - or that they aren't struggling and perhaps needing more support, or even just a small amount of helpline based support. This metaphor really helped us think about the problem in a new way – with young people coming up against potholes, or bumps in the road, traffic lights and roundabouts. The team never quite landed on the correct language we wanted to replace “exit” with, but we talked about “moving on”, “next steps”, “getting your license”, “being certified for the road”, “P-plates”.

To put our idea across, we wrote a short play (staring Gavin Gell and Kathleen Malcolm, coming to the Kings soon), in which we told the story of Gavin’s experience with Includem’s School of Driving – getting to grips with the road, with worker Kathleen supporting him in the passenger seat.

Having explored the barrier with young people and workers prior to the Jam, we relished this opportunity to investigate it further, with a diverse group of minds and perspectives around the table. This gave us the chance to look at some alternative solutions. This resulted in us feeling even more confident in the idea that periodic check-in calls after exit are simultaneously the most supportive, but least intrusive solution. The jam gave us the opportunity to develop the idea to such a stage, that we can easily begin to implement this on a prototyping basis.

At the end of the day, IRISS made a commitment to keeping the conversation going between all of the organisations in attendance. Most were concerned with supporting young people after they exit from care or other support services, and recognising the very real relationships young people build with the workers who care for them. A variety of ideas were generated, which lay within a wide range of feasibility and completion. We look forward to learning how these ideas have grown within each organisation over the coming months.

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This post is a bit of a precursor to a larger (and more fluid) document I am developing for Includem's reference. I've been asked to draw upon experiences and observations of participation within the service and service development and to present my understanding of this.

I've been reading up on, interpreting and digesting some thoughts on models of participation over the past week. Here are three diagrams I've created to help. Let me explain.

The first, Scale of Participation compares the level of support a young person receives from Includem (dark blue triangle, left hand side) with the support they are able to give back to Includem (light blue triangle, right hand side). This reflects my experience that young people who are in the first phase of their involvement with Includem do not yet necessarily have the capacity to participate in service development; by the sheer nature of the work, these young people have unstable situations and initially Includem's focus must be on gaining trust, establishing relationships and engagement with the service. As Includem's support is reduced, young people should have increased capacity to be meaningfully involved in service development. Often, young people have told me that they would like to "give something back" to Includem at this stage. The bright yellow triangles indicate tools and touch points already in place at Includem, and where they sit on the scale of young people's genuine and meaningful participation in the process. The dull yellow triangles are touch points which don't currently exist, but have been proposed at some point.

The second diagram is my translation of the standard model of participation. The most important aspect of involving young people in the design process, for me, is that it must be genuine and it must benefit one or more parties involved. If their involvement does not either actively influence decisions within the organisation or directly benefit the young person (through the acquisition of skills, understanding a process, feeling they have made an impact etc), then it is tokenism. Ideally it does both of these things to be truly meaningful.

Another pitfall here is over-consultation. When young people are repeatedly asked questions about service delivery etc, inevitably they will give the same stock answers. I met a number of young people over the course of my project who gave me the feeling of having been over consulted. They were happy to take part; they genuinely want to do something which will help their workers, but often our conversations would start with them giving stock answers, what they felt I wanted to hear. The best sessions were with young people who I had previously met during my shadowing, or who I had previously worked with. Sessions were particularly productive when I was able to reflect back ideas and suggestions from our previous meetings. Seeing that what we had discussed was not just left on a questionnaire in a drawer, but presented back to them and asking to be developed to the next stage seemed to be a powerful way of stimulating genuine responses. The young people could become invested in the process. This was reflected in their attitude towards PhD student Briege. Briege has conducted a series of interviews with a number of Transitional Support Service young people. Having met her several times, young people indicated that they felt she was genuinely interested in their journeys. They appreciated that, like Includem workers, she didn't present herself as a cold, official professional, but as professionally personal. "She doesn't just come in and then you never see her again. She's good."

The final diagram I produced to help me consider the issue of dependancy vs interdependency. A key finding in Briege's PhD study has been the importance in developing interdependent relationships, rather than moving towards "independence". In reality, no one expects to live independently; we should be able to expect that we can rely on those around us for support throughout our lives, just as they should be able to rely on us. Often, young people who enter Includem's services are lacking stable relationships which they can depend on. Includem can serve as that support initially. A key aspect of the work done with young people is improving and developing those interdependent relationships which they can turn to once Includem are no longer in the picture. Phewf, ok. Now, back to detangling this!

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We're moving into the next phase of the project, and here is me doing some thought sorting.

I'll be concentrating on two things: 1) Participation within Includem. How do young people participate in Includem as an organisation? How do they influence the development of the organisation? The first two images refer to a sort of scale-of-participation, as it exists now, or as it could exist.

2) Recognition of Transitional Support. Producing material to get the message out there on what it is that Transitional Support do. In the third photo, I'm considering who Includem want to engage in this way, and some vague musings on what this might mean.

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Grab a coffee and take 15 minutes to listen to the young people and workers for Transitional Support Service talk about the service as seen from their eyes.

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Expression Where It Counts

Includem were invited to present at ARC Scotland’s Expression Where It Counts forum on transitions, held at Touchbase Scotland in Glasgow, on November 28th. The day was an exploration of transitions in Scotland, for young people with additional support needs. Other presentations came from organisations such as National Deaf Children’s Society, Scottish Spina Bifida Association and Sense Scotland. Includem’s Transitional Support Service sat in an interesting place within this; whilst the young people that Includem work with wont necessarily have additional support needs, they may have continuing vulnerabilities due to past histories of abuse, neglect, trauma, offending and deprivation and on-going deficits in family and social supports at a critical time in their adolescent development. Whilst Includem’s Transitional Support Service has a focus on transitioning young people from statutory child services, to adult life, the additional support needs discussed by other organisations generally led to their young people to be looking for smooth transitions between child services – in education, health etc – to adult services, as many of these young people will continue to need support into their adult lives.

  There was discussion throughout the day on Scottish Transitions Forum’s 7 principles of good transition. These are:

  1. All plans and assessments should be made in a person-centred way

2. Support should be co-ordinated across all services

3. Planning should start early and continue up to age 25

4. Young people should get the support they need

5. Young people, parents and carers must have access to the information they need

6. Families and carers need support

7. Legislation and policy should be co-ordinated and simplified.

  We presented Transitional Support Service, and the Now Including project, as a good example of many of these – particularly number one. A key aspect to TSS is that young people take the lead in their own support plans; identifying which areas they need support in, in discussion with their workers.

  We heard from several young people over the course of the day. A group from Arthritis Care Scotland performed a play they had written themselves, about Erin, a girl who lives with arthritis and is due to transition from children’s healthcare to adult healthcare services. Throughout the performance our protagonist collected all of the emotions she felt in a clear bin bag. They portrayed a bad transition, during which the principles outlined above were not met and Erin’s bag filled with red, negative emotions: ignored, disengaged, and frightened. In the second act, they introduced their proposal for a “Transitions Nurse” – a nurse who would work with her for a period of time before and after her switch to adult services. Included and supported, her bag quickly filled with green, positive emotions. Service designers in training!

  The group from Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS) had built a wall (from polystyrene) and graffitied their names and other images on it. They asked members of the audience to come up and open drawers in the wall – each containing an object which represented one part of their transition, and what they felt should be considered. It was powerful stuff, with each member of the team giving us a story from their own transition. One young woman, Kelly, felt too shy to speak in front of everyone, and so read her story from behind the wall. She told us about her trip to see her favourite band, One Direction, in concert. The trip was going really well until she tried to use the electric hoist in the stadium’s changing facilities, which had been provided for her. It hadn’t been charged. In the end, she only made it to see the last half hour of the concert and she felt her night had been ruined – she used this example to demonstrate how important it is for different agencies to link up. “I love One Direction, but I would also love one good plan,” she finished. As the team summed up at the end, all of a sudden Kelly burst through the polystyrene wall! A nice metaphor about breaking down barriers and overcoming hurdles – although my heart was going at a million miles for quite some time afterwards.

  Muriel Gray, speaking as key note speaker and the mother of a young person with additional support needs, told her audience that as parents, she and those like her, would “fight Goliath” to give her daughter the best life she could. We heard from several other passionate and supportive parents, speaking on behalf of their young people where they were unable to. As “corporate parents”, who build genuine personal relationships with young people, the workers of Includem are the Goliath-fighting-Davids for young people who don’t find this sort of support elsewhere.

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Taking a look at some novel ways of collecting feedback from the parents and carers of young people as they exit Includem.

Tea bags (peppermint today thanks).

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Now Including Newspaper

Read our newspaper, which outlines ideas put forward by the young people who work with Includem's Transitional Support Services, as well as Includem's response to these. Paper copies are available at Includem's Glasgow office.

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Meet the young people and frontline staff of Includem's Transitional Support Service. This 4 minute version of the film I showed at Includem's staff conference features in the online, interactive edition of their annual report. Take a look at the report here:

http://www.includemsyear.co.uk/

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This month saw Includem’s annual staff conference in Cumbernauld, on October 11th.

Around 90 members of staff were in attendance for a jam packed day of talks, workshops and the highly anticipated buffet lunch (note to self: tacos do not assist engagement in conversation). Guest speakers included Dr Carol Craig, CE of the Centre for Confidence and Byron Vincent, poet and comedian, who reflected on his own experiences as a young person in “various northern sink estates”. The conference saw the launch of our newspaper, which hopes to answer the question “What is Transitional Support?” and presents some of the ideas proposed and developed by young people and workers over the past few months. Every staff member should have received a copy of this in their delegate pack, and the young people involved will also shortly receive their own copies. 

The conference was also the platform for the premiere of our “Now Including” film, in which four young people and three Transitional Support workers share some thoughts on the Transitional Support Service.

We were pleased to take the opportunity to facilitate a workshop with staff; “From Where to Here?” With some gentle guidance from Sarah and I (Keira) of Snook, participants mapped a spectrum of “transitions” of young people they knew or had worked with. By exploring a wide variety of transitions, we hope they were able to learn from the real scenarios they investigated together and some of the ways in which challenges were overcome. Participants were also able to appreciate the immediate benefits of creating simple visual stories as a way of quickly documenting thoughts, insights, ideas and the advantages of “doing, not talking.” Delivering these from our heads, onto paper leads to far more valuable discussion and the ability to move ideas forward. In a very short workshop, attendees had told the story of a young person’s transition, identified particular highs and lows, and thought about how some of these were tackled at the time, or could be supported in the future. We hope they feel confident in experimenting with these methods in the future and can use them with young people, within team development etc.

And what next?

On November 28th, Transitional Support and I will be presenting our film to the Scottish Transitions Forum – at an event exploring their seven principles of good transitions from the perspective of young people and parents. It is hoped that we can support a young person to attend this as well. 

I’m excited to begin developing and implementing prototypes from proposals put forward by young people and outlined in our newspaper. I’m looking forward to working on this in collaboration with young people and workers from Transitional Support again.

This week I’ll be meeting with Meggan, Keir and Heather to discuss some ideas regarding plans for team development, training etc. I have a steadily growing list of other areas I might help Includem explore, including developing some clear visual materials for their services and taking a look at their feedback channel “Your Views”.

Best get cracking.

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This just in...! Read it at Includem's staff conference on 10th of October.

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Thanks to the young people and workers who have so far taken part in the Now Including film, to be premiered at Includem's staff conference. Here is a sneak peak in Premiere Pro. Here is me remembering how Premiere Pro works. Hopefully I've caught your best side!