Our Ambassadors make sure children's voices are heard

This doesn’t just include children and young people who are currently receiving a service; it also includes children and young people who have previously had experience of and involvement with children’s services.

We employ 15 Ambassadors who are young people who have had experience of having  a Child in Need Plan, Child Protection Plan, had support from the disability teams or Early Help, and have either been or are in our care, or are the children of foster carers.

Our Ambassadors provide us with support, challenge and quality assurance in relation to our policies, procedures, practice and improvement journey.  They are also the voice for children and young people that cut across children’s services and in our delivery of services to children at every level.

Some of the ways Ambassadors are involved in Gloucestershire

• At a strategic level - as mentors to senior managers, presenting and responding to our Improvement Board, at the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee, Virtual School Management Group and Corporate Parenting Group.
  
  
• Ambassadors are part of our recruitment on interview panels for posts at all levels (including Directors), they deliver training and inductions for student social workers, newly qualified workers and new members of staff, they work closely with the Social Work Academy and input into essential training, facilitate Mind of My Own App training and talk to Foster Carer Support Groups.
  
  
• Ambassadors are supporting Children’s Services to think about the language that we use when we talk about and talk to children and young people as well as what we write in children’s records about our work with children and young people. This initiative is called ‘Language that Cares’ and you can find out more about this below.