Data created from the authentic voices of children using Mind Of My Own becomes intelligence that helps leaders. When Coventry children’s services joined the Mind Of My Own community in 2018, we were all thrilled. They had the perfect mix of being on an improvement journey and the desire to better understand their young people, refocus towards the voice of the child, and use this intelligence to help the leaders make strategic decisions when improving their services.

Usage

Currently 373 children and young people in Coventry City have Mind Of My Own on their devices, and nearly 2,000 statements have been produced since the rollout. Sheila Bates, Coventry City Council children’s champion, has said that one of the biggest challenges around usage of the digital participation tools is keeping them at the forefront of caseworkers’ minds, because of the high volume of demands placed on them.

She explains:

We do this by sending out regular updates and newsletters.

We include stories from workers who have used the app and the benefits it has shown.

We are also keen to hear about any problems or difficulties staff may encounter and do our best to help.

Coventry City work together towards the same goal of hearing the authentic views, wishes and feelings of all their children and that’s a huge reason why the rollout has been successful. Sheila has previously given her top tips for a great participation strategy, which you can read here.

Impact

Each quarter Sheila delves into a sample of around 30 case files, looking to analyse and better understand the child’s lived experience, how that has fed into planning and hopefully made a difference to them. She reports back to leadership on her findings. She says:

All this intelligence helps leaders make strategic decisions when improving services.

As one of the leadership team, John Gregg, director of Coventry’s children’s services, could see how beneficial Mind Of My Own was for children’s views to be heard, so when they came to re-commission the apps in October 2019, he made sure they added the new scenarios ‘Return from Missing’ and ‘My Education’.

We’re so glad that Coventry are truly achieving a child-centred approach and we can’t wait to continue supporting them.

Please see the full CYPNow article here