Young People's Reference Groups
Throughout the year the Service Developmemt Team organises varous groups and activities for young people. Some of them are called reference groups; these groups are made up of a small number of young people (normally between 5-8 young people).
The purpose of these groups is to find out what the young people think about a certain subject e.g. Social workers and then help them to think about how they could improve things.
The groups usually meet for a number of weeks and work towards an identified goal e.g. designing a leaflet about the subject, organising an event or producing a report etc.
We really value what young people tell us and because the groups are not just about consultation but about designing new services or producing something new then we normally pay the young people who attend.
Rates of pay varies from group to group (as the work is never the same) but it is normally about £5 per session.
Over the last few years we have had lot's of these reference groups and below you will find a few examples of the types of things they have looked at:
This group came together for 6 weeks to look at how young people's participation could be improved within Children's Services. The group gave lot's of feedback and organised an event to launch the Participation Strategy.
This was a small group of disabled young people who met up for 12 weeks to discuss their experiences of access to culture and leisure opportunities. The group helped to design a leaflet for other young people about this issue.
This group met regularly to discuss various issues related to life in foster care. They gave their views on confidentiality, changing placements and what their hopes/fears were for leaving care.
If you would like to be involved in this type of group then please contact the Service Development Team on
0191 424 4633 or keep an eye out for details in ChatterBox or Just For Us newsletters.
