1

Hearing The Voice of the Child In Barnsley

The Voice of the Child – An introductory guide for

practitioners on undertaking direct work with children

2

1. INTRODUCTION

Communicating and listening to children is integral to our work with

children young people and their families. To gain an understanding of the

child’s world and what it is like to be the child who we are working with

means spending time with them, listening to them as well as talking to the

significant adults around them who know them best.

In Barnsley we want to hear the voice of the child. We want to know

what it is like to be the child, their views and what they would like to

happen. Within our quality reports, we measure the extent of the child’s

voice and how this has been recorded on their file.

Ofsted’s evaluation of serious case reviews from 1st April to 30th

September 2010 identified the five following key points:

“The child was not seen frequently enough by professionals

involved, or was not asked about their views and feelings.

Agencies did not listen to adults who tried to speak on behalf of

the child and who had important information to contribute.

Parents and carers prevented professionals from seeing and

listening to the child

Practitioners focused too much on the needs of parents especially

on vulnerable parents and overlooked the implications for the child.

Agencies did not interpret their findings well enough to protect

the child”, (Ofsted, 2011).

This booklet is a practical guide

to help with direct work with

children in gaining their views,

wishes and feelings. It offers

practical ideas and activities to

encourage the development of

trusting relationships that

enables the voice of the child to

be heard.

3

2. Things to Consider Make enough time to meet with the child. Spending time with children

using a play activity is valuable, fun and will give you more information

about the child to aid your assessment.

Obtain consent to meet with the child. Always gain parental

permission, unless the child/young person is mature enough to consent

to meeting with you.

Explain confidentiality. Concerns for the safety of a child override any

confidentiality request they may have asked for. Explain that

anything they tell you that puts them at risk of harm will need to be

passed on.

Question whether a school visit is necessary. Some children do not like

to be visited at school. If a school visit is necessary, what would be

the best time for the child?

Give children opportunities to express their wishes and feelings. They

should be allowed to finish what they saying, any disclosures, issues or

concerns should be referred to relevant professionals. Parents should

be informed unless it would place the child at risk to do so.

Let the child know that it is the adults that need to make the

decisions what is best for them, but they have a right to share their

thoughts, wishes and feelings.

Use good quality equipment to value their views.

Keep a selection of activities at hand ready to use.

Children have a right to know what is recorded about their wishes and

feelings.

Children have the right to know who we will share the information

with.

Make every effort to help children with communication difficulties

express their views. Pictorial cards can be used and interpreters if

needed.

Make observations. Observations are extremely important especially

with younger children and children with additional needs, who have not

developed verbal communication. Behaviour can be considered as a

means of communication and tells us a lot about the child.

Never change the child’s words – say it as they said it

Never make assumptions about what their drawings may mean

Never start something you can not finish. See it through and keep

appointments

Be honest and do not make promises you can not keep.

4

3. Planning a session of direct work with a child/young

person

Plan the direct work with a beginning, middle and end. Preparation is key

to the success of the session. What information about the child do you

have beforehand? What is the aim of the session? Plan activities to

assist with the aim to obtain a successful outcome.

Consider your own appearance and what you are wearing. Formal clothing

may create barriers. You could wear something that attracts the child

and makes you appear friendly and will help to initiate conversation like a

watch, bracelet or badge.

INTRODUCTION

explain your job, the length of the session and use an icebreaker

BEGINNING

Confidentiality

Aims and purpose – what you aim to achieve

Choose equipment – toys – games

Move to a space where the work will take place and prepare for the

session

MIDDLE

Session in progress

ENDING

Recap what you have done during the session

Agree a time and date for follow up session

Tidy up

Play a game of the child’s choice unrelated to the session. This will

help to lighten the mood, and bring them out of the grim things you

may have been talking about.

5

4. Questioning Certain questions can help to gain a picture of the child’s world to help

find out what it is like in the day of the child. Closed questions that

require yes / no answers can be leading and suggestive. Open questions

enable children to be free with their answers and provide more of a fuller

response and possible a more accurate answer.

- What is it like being you?

- Tell me about yourself?

- What will make it better?

- What will make it worse?

- What makes you happy / unhappy?

- List 10 things that would make you happy?

- Who is important to you?

- It is the grown ups responsibility to make decisions,

what would you like to say to them?

- What would you like to happen?:- Plan A, Plan B,

Plan C …..

- What would you like to be different? What would

you change by waving a magic wand?

- If you had 3 wishes/magic wand, what would you

wish for?

- What would life be like if there was a miracle

overnight and you woke up in a perfect world?

5. Icebreakers First impressions are important. Having a rapport with the child or young

person is the beginning to building a trusting relationship. Asking a child

about their day, and picking up clues about them. Be observant and

remember things they have told you about them for next time which will

show them that you have listened to them. Not knowing what to expect

can result in anxiety worry and stress. Ice breakers help both parties to

relax and have fun.

Using colouring pens/pencils draw together

Free drawing helps to begin to develop rapport between you. You can

begin by talking about your favourite colours. Use praise and compliments

and do not ask what their picture is of, always ask them to tell you about

the picture so not to offend them. Drawing together can also be a useful

and fun activity. You don't need to be good at drawing; it actually helps if

6

your drawings are simple. Drawings can aid discussions e.g. drawing a

picture of your best/nicest day.

Likes and dislikes – shout out or use a worksheet

Create a list of likes and dislikes (join in, it does no harm to give a little

of yourself, but ensure professional boundaries are not crossed)

Favourite things – shout out or use the worksheet

Create a list of favourite things

Colour

Book

Film

School subject

Person

Place

Band/group

Flower

The flower could have petals drawn on and labeled, for positive people in a

child’s life, things they like or are good at.

7

If I had three wishes...

Encourage the child to discuss what they wish could

happen in their life. You will need to avoid making

promises that things will change if that cannot be

guaranteed. Discuss the child’s choices, how things could

be different to the way they are now and why they would

like it to change. Given free-rein the answers may provide

information about a range of aspects of the child’s life.

Use a toy wand or perhaps help the child to make a wand

by tightly rolling black paper into a tube and taping over

the ends with white paper.

Wishes and feelings game

Use a dice and one counter per player. Take it in turns to roll the dice

and move the counter the number of spaces rolled on the dice and share

what makes them feel happy, sad, scared etc. depending on what feeling

the counter has landed on. If the counter lands on the wand – a wish can

be made. The template can be changed e.g. you can use just happy and sad

faces and use the game to find out likes and dislikes

8

9

START

Wishes and Feelings Game

10

Question work sheets

A selection of questions written on work sheets can tell you a lot about

the child. Children often enjoy completing these as it takes away from

the direct eye contact that the may find intimidating.

6. ACTIVITIES

Family tree / genogram

By completing a family tree or genogram you can find out who is in the

family and how family and how family members get along with each other;

who lives with who and who the child likes spending their time with and

why. Use one of the ‘Family Tree’ templates to assist with this activity or

use the following symbols to create a genogram.

GENOGRAM SYMBOLS

A dotted line should be drawn around people living in the same house

MALE FEMALE GENDER UNKNOWN

DEATH

Enduring relationships (marriage/ cohabiting)

Transitory relationships Separation Divorce

11

12

The Three Houses

The three houses technique helps a child or family think about and

discuss risks, strengths, hopes and dreams. It is usually most effective

with older children or with families where you are finding it difficult to

devise an effective intervention plan. You can use it with individuals or

with a group. This technique was developed by independent social work

consultant Andrew Turnell and is mentioned in the Eileen Munro review.

You need three large pieces of paper (A3 or bigger), one for each house,

and pens, crayons or pencils. You, or the child, should draw three houses

on each sheet of paper (one house on each piece of paper).

Label the houses:

House of vulnerabilities (for younger children it could be house

of worries or fears)

House of strengths

House of hopes and dreams

Start inside. Inside the first house the child or family should write down

anything internal that makes them scared or worried such as self-

perceptions, values, beliefs, thoughts and feelings. Inside the second

house, write down anything internal that makes them feel positive and

happy.

Around the outside of the first two houses the child or family should

write anything external that makes them scared or makes them happy and

positive such as wider family members, peers, school etc. For the house

of hopes and dreams, you could ask the ‘miracle question’ – what would life

be like if there was a miracle overnight and you woke up in a perfect

world? Once you have completed the drawings, discuss what is needed to

address the fears, bolster the strengths and achieve the hopes and

dreams. Your first focus should be on resources within the family, as this

will increase their motivation and avoid giving the impression that

external support is being imposed.

13

Three islands

The three islands technique helps gain an insight into a child’s life without

having to rely on question and answer interviews, which can be

intimidating for some children. The Islands technique was developed by

Kate Iwi, young people’s services officer at charity RESPECT, UK.

What resources do I need?

A large piece of paper (A3 or bigger) and some pens, crayons or pencils.

For children unable or unwilling to draw, you can use toys and models

instead.

How do I do it?

Draw two islands near the top of the piece of paper and a third island

towards the bottom. Draw a bridge between the first two islands and a

gate in the middle of it. If it helps, name the islands i.e. the ‘Island of

Always’, ‘The Island of Sometimes’ and the ‘Island of Far-Away’.

Explain to the child that this is a game and that they live on the first

island. Ask them to draw themselves or use one of the toys to represent

them. They can then draw anything else they want to be on this island

with them (which could include people, animals, activities, objects).

If you do not have the exact toys / models to represent what a child

wants to show, just pretend (for example, a toy plane could represent

going on holiday).

14

On the second island, ask the child to draw or put anything that they

want to see but not all the time. Explain they have the only key to the

gate on the bridge, so anything on the second island can only cross when

the child lets them.

On the third island, ask the child to draw or put anything that they want

to be far away from them or never see again.

As the child is drawing or putting toys on the islands, make sure you ask

them who or what they are and why they have put something on a

particular island

What am I looking for?

Anything in the drawing or model that seems odd or worrying, as well as

anything that makes the child happy.

Warnings

You should be careful about interpreting what is drawn or shown too

literally. For example, if they draw a picture of a man and a women

fighting, this would not necessarily mean they have experienced domestic

violence. Drawings / modelling are a way for the child to express an

emotional state or process something they have seen or experienced.

You should avoid questioning where the child places things. For example,

you can ask why they have put their mother on the second island but you

should not say: ‘Oh, but I would have thought your mummy should be on

island one?” The child may end up trying to please you (or displease you.)

There may also be immediate reasons why a child has put something on

either the second or third islands – for example, they may put their pet

cat on island two because the cat scratched them earlier in the day.

As you can see from the picture above, the child has drawn things such as

brothers, sister, my heart and love, my brain, godfather, friends, a peace

sign and a baby blanket on Island one. On Island two, they have drawn

their cat, cousins, aunt and uncle and some other children. On island

three, they have drawn sadness and their father being handcuffed by two

police officers (this may not be immediately obvious from the actual

drawing- it came through discussion with the child of what she was

drawing). They have also decorated the islands by drawing the sea and

some jagged rocks around the third island.

15

Faces

What is this technique?

The faces technique consists of asking a child to pick from a range of

different facial expressions and assigning them to members of their

family. It is a useful method for discovering how a child perceives their

family. It is more likely to appeal to younger children or those at an

earlier stage of development.

What do I need?

A large piece of paper, pens, crayons or pencils. For children unable or

unwilling to draw, it is useful to have some pre-prepared facial

expressions such as happy, laughing, angry, hatred, sad, bored, aggressive,

relaxed faces etc.

What do I do?

Explain to the child that you want to know more about their family. Show

them or draw some pictures of different facial expressions and make

sure they understand each expression and the emotion it relates to. For

more developed children, you might use a wide range of expressions; for

those at earlier stages of development, you might decide just to use two

or three (ie happy, sad and angry). Ask the child to draw you pictures of

everyone in their family or the people they live with and then explain to

the child that each family member needs to have one of the facial

expressions. If they say something like ‘mummy is sad and happy’ ask if

they can pick which one she is most like. Some children cannot choose and

may decide to draw more than one head. This is OK and still helpful.

What am I looking for?

You are not only looking for which expressions the child draws but their

explanation as to why – what is their thought process behind picking a

particular face for one person and another face for someone else?

16

Buttons, beads and badges

You can use these objects to represent people in the Childs life and who

they are connected to. Describing the different shapes sizes and colours

can aid discussion about family and friends. These objects can also be

threaded together to make special bracelets.

Feelings dice

A game using these dice will

help children to discuss feelings

and become aware of facial

expressions and body

language. You can even make

your own using the

template below.

17

18

Scaling

Used in solution focused therapy, scaling is effective in creating change.

It helps to identify issues and measures the impact on the child. Using

the scale you can discuss what needs to change for the child to move up

the scale. You can then develop an action plan to help them to do this.

On a sliding scale of 1 – 10, with 1 being the lowest/sad and 10 being the

highest/happiest you can ask children many things, eg. How much do you

like chocolate, sweets or the X Factor? And build up to discussing

difficult topics. Other examples:

- How happy are you feeling today?

- What does this mean for you?

- Where on the scale would you like it to be?

- How do you think you will be able to achieve this?

7. RESOURCES

Paper and pens

Always be prepared and

have paper, good quality

pens or crayons with you.

Flip chart paper provides a

bigger surface and provides

variety.

Bag of Tricks Having a bag

with a variety

of objects can

aid

communication

and discussion

with the child

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

19

A timer can help keep you

focused. Some children

will want to know how long

you will be there.

Face shapes or paper

plates can be used to

depict themselves, family

members or friends

A glove puppet displaying

feelings can aid discussion

Stickers – all children love

stickers, can be used as

rewards

Post it notes can be used

for messages

Teddy – some children

prefer to talk through

objects

Small play people can

represent family/friends

Games Snakes and ladders can be used

to discuss ups and downs in their

life

Top trumps is a game for most

ages and can be fun to end the

session with

Connect four is easy to play and

good to end a session with

20

SAMPLE

WORKSHEETS

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Use these emotions to help with discussion and

descriptions of feelings i.e. when did they last feel like….

and why?

Make into a game of snap or pairs. Ask them to act out the

feeling using facial expressions and body language, and join

in and have fun!

31