What we do

The Forum concentrates its activities on developing ways to hear the voice of children in need and to relay this to central policy authorities. It seeks to influence changes in policy so that the investments create services that better meet the needs and aspirations of young people. The Forum now acts as the consultee on a number of local authority and statutory bodies providing services to special needs children in Highland.

The Forum recently produced the final report from a three year consultation project to investigate the experience of services of approximately 270 representational children and young people living in the Highland area. The seven themes of For Highland's Children 2 Service Plan 2005-08 (safe, healthy, achieving, active, nurtured, included, respected and responsible) were used to set questions about the help children get to achieve the objectives of these themes. The report, "Are we there yet? A way to go" (2008) has been used to contribute to the evaluation of the Children's Service Plan, For Highland's Children 2 2005-2008, and to influence the development of For Highland's Children 3 2008-2011.

The Forum also produced a report, "It's MY Journey" 2007,  a consultation on the experience of transition in to adult services for 44 young people, which influenced the drawing up of newTransitions Protocol and Guidelines for Highland.

The Forum has made significant contributions to various inspection services in Highland, Quality Improvement Scotland, Social Work Inspection Agency, HMIe and Child Protection Joint Inspection. We have contributed to various national consultations including consultations with young people who use specialist health services.

The Forum has also carried out service evaluation projects with children and young people accessing respite care and through a whole school evaluation in a secondary school.

The Forum works closely with Highland Youth Voice in seeking to promote effective invovlement and participation of children and young people at every level of decision making and planning for children's services.

The Forum has worked closely with the children's services policy developers in Highland hosting consultative events, ensuring children and young people, their parents and the voluntary sector are involved in the review and development of policy.

The Forum is now working closely with a range of agencies to promote the "Listen to Us" campaign, developing tools and providing support to encourage everybody working with and for children and young people to involve them effectively in a dialogue for change, which delivers better outcomes for children and families.