East Riding’s Voices That Influence Team has been shortlisted for a Children’s Champion Award at the National Children and Young People Awards.
The awards celebrate excellence in social care. The Voices That Influence Team has been shortlisted for work in championing the needs and rights of vulnerable children.
The team delivers advocacy, ensuring children understand their rights, can express their wishes and feelings, and are empowered to influence decisions that affect their lives during some of their most challenging experiences.
The team also ensures participation across the council’s work – feeding lived-experience insights into service improvement and policy. They create genuine opportunities for young people to influence decision-making through the Children in Care Council and Care Leavers Forum.
A key part of Voices That Influence’s work is the Young Ambassadors Programme, where care-experienced young people aged 18-25 are employed to play an active role in shaping services. Young Ambassadors co-facilitate participation forums, contribute to scrutiny and quality assurance activity, co-produce and deliver training, and sit on recruitment panels with equal responsibility for evaluating candidates. This approach places co-production at the heart of service design and delivery.
Councillor Victoria Aitken, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education said: “I am delighted the team’s work has been recognised on a national scale. The Voices That Influence Team do fantastic work through advocacy, participation and co-production, ensuring that children’s voices are heard, valued and transformed into meaningful action. I hope they bring home the Children’s Champion Award when they announce the winners next month.”
The Children and Young People Awards take place in Birmingham on 22 October.