Corporate Parenting in SCRA
As a corporate parent, SCRA has a legal responsibility to support the wellbeing, rights and opportunities of care experienced children and young people. SCRA is committed to ensuring that the voices of children and young people are heard, respected and acted upon within the Children’s Hearings System.
As part of that commitment, corporate parenting manager Karen Garside has been delivering training to staff in localities across Scotland outlining SCRA’s duties as a corporate parent.
In order to explore what this might look like for individual staff roles, and the impact their practice has on children and young people, Karen has been joined by Amy Miskimmin-Logan, the participation development worker at Our Hearings, Our Voice. Karen and Amy introduced staff to a guide written by children and young people across Scotland – ‘Seeing Beyond the Surface: What Children and Young People Wish All Adults Knew’.
This guide is the result of research with diverse groups of children and young people across Scotland who have lived experience of the care system and is aimed at any adult who has a supportive role in care experienced children’s lives. It explores six key themes: relationships, support, language, seeing children’s potential without judgement, children’s stories and personal information, and children’s participation in decisions affecting their lives.
Along with written guidance for adults, Seeing Beyond the Surface is brought to life by voice recordings, videos, artwork, and poetry created by young people to express what matters most to them in the care they receive. Some of the artwork has been made into a travelling exhibition and is making its way around different hearings centres in Scotland to provoke discussion, raise awareness, and encourage reflection on the themes within the guide.
During corporate parenting training sessions SCRA staff have shared their own thoughts and experiences around many of the issues covered in the guide, particularly around the language children and their families experience when going through the Hearings System.
They have also discussed barriers and facilitators to good corporate parenting practice and thought about their own roles in relation to young people’s asks within ‘Seeing Beyond the Surface’.
A huge thank you to Amy from Our Hearings, Our Voice for supporting us with these training sessions.