Language, The Promise and the Hearings System

All children have needs and the language they experience impacts on their wellbeing, sense of self and ability to thrive. 

For children in the care system, words are even more important: unintentional use of professionalised language compounds a sense of them being different, and children and young people told the Care Review it can feel belittling and have an impact on their sense of self. Words to describe their lives, like ‘unit’ and ‘placement’ and ‘contact’ and ‘respite’ and ‘LAC’ (looked after child), are not the same as those used by their non-care-experienced peers.

If you want to read the findings in more detail, you can visit The Promise website and read the suite of reports. We want to make sure that the Promise commitments around language are put in to practice in the Children’s Hearings system.