Keeping The Promise
You might have heard of the Independent Care Review or The Promise. This section of our website provides you with some information about what we are doing to Keep The Promise and make the Children’s Hearings System better.
What have we been doing?
We have listened to all the voices in the Independent Care Review and also to the voices of young people from Our Hearings, Our Voice and their 40 Calls to Action. This has helped us develop our Keeping The Promise Route Plan. It contains lots of information. If you would like to read it in full, it is available on our website.
Will it make the Children’s Hearings System better?
Yes. We are committed to making change and improvement happen. We are part of the Hearings Systems Working Group which has been set up to look at how we can re-design Children’s Hearings. This group will look at what changes are needed in the law. This will take time. Until the re-design happens, we are going to do lots of other work to improve the system we have.
What is going to happen?
- We are going to improve our information materials, such as the letters that are sent to you.
- We are going to continue making our Hearing centres more child friendly and accessible.
- We are going to make more information available about your rights.
- We are going to provide more information in different formats such as British Sign Language and sub titles.
To make this happen, we will work with Hearings-experienced children, young people and their parents/carers. Your voice will be at the centre of everything that we do.
What will the benefits be?
- Everyone in our organisation will work with children and families with kindness.
- Hearings are fair to everyone, feel safe and uphold your rights.
- Everyone coming to a Hearing has the information they need to be prepared and be able to give their views in the Hearing.
- The reasons for coming to a Hearing will be clear and explained, as will the decisions of the Hearing.
- Rights to appeal will be easily understood.
- The language that we use to talk and to give information will be easily understood.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about our work to Keep The Promise or have any difficulty understanding this information, then please email us or get someone to contact us for you.