A project to improve language in the Children’s Hearings System has produced a progress report reflecting on the journey so far.
Now called the Language Leaders – the group which reports to the CHIP – aims to prevent misunderstanding, distress or re-traumatising of children and young people in the Hearings System, through changing the language used.
The Language Leaders are made up of six young adults with lived experience of Hearings, five professionals from across the Hearings System (SCRA, CHS, Social Work, Advocacy and Children’s Rights) with facilitation by Our Hearings, Our Voice.
Gordon Main, Project Lead at Our Hearings, Our Voice explained: “The group has now met four times and there’s so much energy and enthusiasm for this critical piece of work from the young people and the professionals involved.
“Through collaboration between the Hearings-experienced young people and adult
professionals in the group, and through reaching out more widely to Hearings-experienced young people, we collated two groups of words – those that needed to be ‘binned’ from the Hearings System and those that we need to keep, but described differently to prevent distress or confusion. Our progress report provides more information on this.
“The project is still at a relatively early stage, and yes, it is a wee bit messy, but that’s the nature of the work. We are committed to keeping everyone involved in the Children’s Hearings System up to date with our work and more information will be available in the spring. In the meantime, if anyone has any questions or comments, please get in touch with me.”