When in Meetings
Depending on the meeting either you the young person or the social worker will be primarily who they need to hear from, and if the young person isn’t there more likely than not you’ll be the primary. It’s not an option to simply sit there in meetings unless you’re called upon.
As you are the person who primarily works with that young person and spends the most time with that young person, understanding their behaviours and their routine, but also being responsible for building relationships with them and engaging therefore them giving you insight into their lives, ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions you are expected to speak and share knowledge wisdom and experience with the other professionals and give advise as to the young persons wants and needs and expectations and why they may be doing well or why they may not be doing so well. Doing this evidences that we are doing the job they pay us for, and we are actually doing it well as we have actual information and insight into what’s going on.
If you fail to do this it simply shows that one of the reasons the young person may not be doing well is because they are not effectively being engaged and the staff members here don’t actually care giving the idea or validating one presented by some young people that our staff including you “has the personality of a cardboard box, or a blank piece of paper”. Worse it makes you seem unbothered combine that both and it implies you are not good at the job and the organisation hires poorly or doesn’t train their staff well. This falls back on us collectively as if the staffing is bad the social workers will ask for their kids not to be placed here. You need to engage and be vocal in meetings and be seen to be supporting the young person and advocating for them as well as telling factual information about them so that people can see what they are paying for.
It’s simple empathy. Put yourself in their position, if you’re sending your child to a place like this where you consider it to be expensive, after giving your child what you interpret as great love support and care but fearlfully had to let him go, and your having a meeting with the people you’ve sent him or her to ashing what’s going on and they have nothing to day unless you call their name directly nobody is writing anything….would you feel comfortable with your child being there?. Would you feel they are being taken care of, or if the staff actually cares for that child. Or actually wants the child to do well or improve, it implies instead you’re bored and just want to get this over and done with to carry on with your day. And you want more for your child so the ideas then start swirling in your head as to how these people may be treating your child based on how you see them act in meetings so when the child acts up a part of you feel they may be justified as they feel uncared for making our job here harder.
Taking notes.
Everytime there is a meeting information is given key points are acknowledged that affects the young peoples lives, well being, and support plan. If you are in meetings listening and hearing but not bringing anything back to us in the form of notes about agreements, insights, action points we now need to take, or things to be aware of then we will never know and carry on an usual thinking things have remained the same.
When other professionals see us and see we have actively not done what’s agreed, write it down or acted on it in anyway, infact half of us not even knowing it it makes us look terrible poor and incompetent and as an organisation it will be questioned. Therefore for every meeting we now attend whoever attends I will expect to see notes for them ALL please they can be posted in the updates group that we send daily updates to. I will also ask for them to be reflected in the care plan in each young persons folder that it affects.
In meetings when possible I have two people the primary and the secondary. This is because I expect two roles to be played, the primary person usually leads and engages the main discussions with professionals while relying on the secondary persons support and validation of information shared to verify if it’s factual or not. E.g. the young person has been doing well this week wouldn't you say so (secondary would say yes and possibly add In reasons why they believe this to be true).
Outside of that the secondary supports the young person and takes notes in the meetings.
If a situation occurs where you have to play both the primary and secondary role I expect you to either A ask if anyone is or is able to take notes and share with us (please know you are responsible here so please ensure you chase them up after until they are gotten). Or alternatively you tell them you’ll be taking notes during the meeting so please excuse you if your looking down at any moment or ask for a quick repeat. It shows professionalism.
Below I’ve listed a template of ideally how I’d like the notes. However I realise that it’s not necessarily possible in all situations or workload so when there’s time the below is what I’d like to receive but if there’s not much I expect to at least see a made body of text with relevant and pertinent information as well as action points and changes, as well as things to be aware of dates and times.
An example of info we would definitely write down.
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Pertinent info. The young person has an exam on the 5th of may.
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The child will need support going to the doctors next week.
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The young person broke up with his girlfriend.
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is his allowance is changing from 65.97 to 72.81
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He is or is not happy about something.
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Her hours are increasing or decreasing.
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The local authority is happy or sad about.
MEETING TEMPLATE EXAMPLE
Title of Meeting : LAC Review Meeting for MK
Date : 26:04/2023
Time: 10:00am
Attendees:
Who attended the meeting and their role
Tanya Mclean - TM - social worker
Hayley Dorry - HD - Virtual School
Sally Mendez - SM - Therapist
Notes
Please make notes of information shared by other professions in the meeting.
These can be brief and important notes to that relates to the young person that may be helpful to share with the YP.
This includes information shared regarding the 5ECMs Health, Education, Mental health, work, future prospects, risks, CCE, CSE, Prevent, FGM, exploitation and any identified ways that supports you as the key worker to positively engage that YP.
I.e HD explained that the young person tends to shut down when you are too formal with them. (this is good information to know and may inform the way you work with the yp moving forward)
SM states that MK has not been taking his medication and therefore this is causing him to have insomnia. (important to note as this medication can then be better monitored to reduce the amount of nights you are woken up because they have not taken their meds. You can also talk to the YP about why they are not taking their meds as part of a key working session. This may also be useful to add to their support plan)
Etc… take a note from each professional and also give an overview of what you shared I.e
TM discussed MK’s health, budgeting and the concerns around them constantly going missing.
Actions
Add bullet points of any tasks each professional needs to do in order to support the yp
E.g.
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TM to send email to HD of MKs next medical appointment once it has been booked
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*HD to send letter of appointment for next LAC medical
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SM to contact MKs mother to complete forms for ASD and ADHD assessment.
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AAll to remind MK to take better care of personal hygiene
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TM to support MK to complete passport application and college application.
