Perth & Kinross Council (PKC) were the very first Scottish authority to use our apps at the end of August 2017. The seven months that have followed are an example of a brilliant Mind Of My Own implementation.

In fact, they have implemented so well in such a short space of time, that Mind Of My Own was mentioned in their recent Care Inspectorate report. Below are some of the key actions and events that have taken place on their journey so far.

Staff training

Experience tells us that staff training is a must for a successful Mind Of My Own implementation. We have seen organisations fail at the first hurdle if they do not provide training to their frontline teams. PKC are just one of many authorities who got off to a flying start with our apps because they budgeted for two days of training with one of our expert trainers.

Co-produced a press release with Mind Of My Own on go live

Upon going live, we co-produced a press release explaining how Mind Of My Own apps will be helping young people county wide. This was an important step in showing how seriously PKC took their responsibility to ensure all children’s voices are heard. It also helped their staff understand the importance of using the app and of introducing it to the children and young people they work with.

Senior engagement and reporting results

The senior leadership team at Perth & Kinross are fully engaged and on board with embedding Mind Of My Own across all their services. The implementation is backed by Deputy Director Jacquie Pepper, who works closely with the operational project team to ensure its success. Results are also reported and shared with the senior leadership team every three months.

Young people of Perth helped Mind Of My Own re-design our app

Perth & Kinross were one of five authorities to organise a group of young people to come together and take part in a Mind Of My Own co-production design session. The feedback given by the children and young people who attended the group was amazing. They have been crucial in our current project; the re-design of our first app, OneApp. This is just one example that demonstrates how PKC encourage their young people to participate, share their views and opinions, and to give Mind Of My Own a try!

An excellent Care Inspectorate report 

In April, Perth & Kinross received a glowing inspection from the Care Inspectorate (very well done to them!). We were particularly interested to see our name mentioned in the report under the section ‘How well are children and young people respected?’ …

“In order to prioritise young people’s voices the recently introduced Mind Of My Own (mind of my own) app is successfully helping looked after children and young people structure their thoughts and tell services what they want, whenever it suited them best.”

We are proud to be working with Perth & Kinross and encourage them to keep up their great work They’ve taken on the challenge of being the first local authority in Scotland to use our apps in their stride. So well, in fact, that their Mind Of My Own leads are helping to give advice to other Scottish authorities who are going through their own implementation.