In 2022/2023 there are 3 main areas of work:
- How we write – supporting change in writing culture and practice for our current workforce
- How we learn to write – developing learning about writing skills, culture, and practice for our new workforce
- The systems we use to write – supporting change in the way we use our procedures and digital systems, to support the principle of information ownership, reduce stigma, and allow those we support to better exercise their rights in their records, around access, control, participation, and voice.
How We Write
The How We Write workstream are:
- Developing an understanding of the workforce’s perception and practice, of the writing they do about the people they support.
- Developing understanding about our current writing:
- how we represent in writing the voices of children and young people.
- how we represent in writing our professional voices, at the same time as in giving agency to what matters to children and families and in reducing stigma. Looking at how we empower people to through our writing and create records that provide supportive scaffolding to them.
- Developing with children & young people, parents & carers multi-agency Recording Principles to establish a shared understanding and expectation about how we write.
- Learning what writing differently can look like by testing different ways of writing, and listening to what our children, young people and adults tell us feels better to them when we write about their lives, care, and support.
- Identifying challenges to writing differently i.e. we have now learned through audit process that it will be important to help define what child’s voice looks like in their records.
- Identifying current guidance and policies that need to be reframed with non-stigmatising language and putting the child’s voice at the centre of processes.
- Auditing records to identify how a child’s voice is captured. A Health Visitor and School nurse audit has identified the need to deliver training around improving this in practice with a forward plan for this to be embedded in mandatory training and in all areas of HV and SN record keeping teaching.
- Developing guidance for our workforce about writing
How We Learn How to Write
The How We Learn How to Write workstream are:
- Developing our understanding about what professionals need to learn about writing.
- Beginning to develop a framework of learning about writing for a multi-professional workforce. This will provide a clear link between our professionals writing, our practice of care, our understanding of the impact of trauma, and values people’s lived experiences.
- Developing a multi-professional e-learning resource about writing.
Systems We Use to Write
- Establishing a multi-agency Digital Transformation Reference Group to advise on how we can use our systems to better support the needs of those we support so their voice is heard, and they are better able to exercise their rights in their records.
- Identifying the range of ways children, young people, and adults wish to contribute, participate and access their records.
- Contributing to The Promise’s ‘My Story’ Digital Project, looking at how Scotland can develop digital tools that incorporate the principle of information ownership. Allowing care experienced children and young adults, to have increased control over their information and how it is shared.
- Revise local procedures and guidance to reflect how we will support people to exercise their rights to voice, participation, access, and information ownership in their records.
For more information about their role in Write Right About Me, contact Mim Smith Project Manager – mirsmith@aberdeencity.gov.uk