1. You’re Welcome; challenges and opportunities of engaging young people in health service delivery mandy.cheetham@durham.ac.uk Research Associate Evaluation, Research and Development Unit Wolfson Research Institute Durham University

2. You’re Welcome in policy “Compared to other sectors, healthcare systems are in their infancy in putting the experience of the user first, and have barely started to realise the potential of patients as joint providers of their own care and recovery.” (Department of Health 2010 Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS p13) “If children, young people and families have easy access to convenient health advice and support that are tailored to their needs, across key life stages, their needs are more likely to be met.” (Department of Health 2010 Achieving Equity and Excellence for Children p11). North East Health services awarded You’re Welcome include GPs, sexual health, CAMHS, school and FE-based and hospital services.

4. There should be one of these everywhere for everybody In reception … we asked if something could be done so that what you asked could be more private We loved that young people were invited to visit

5. How young people are involved in shaping health services in NE England Training & advice for health professionals Verification visits Youth4U Young Inspectors Investing in Children Mystery Shopping Developing resources

6. Young people should be involved in making things better. They could maybe go to meetings with adults and to feel welcome. Everyone should be encouraged to make contributions and express their opinions. Information should be young people friendly so that everyone understands each other. Young people could help make the design of leaflets, posters etc. So that it will attract other young people to the services. Large print, brail, audio and other languages of the charter should be available for those in need of it.

7. Team Work “You’re Welcome is all about everyone being on the same side and knowing what the others are thinking. We feel this will benefit everyone involved and it is not something that seems impossible if we all do our part...” Hartlepool and Stockton young people at Tees You’re Welcome launch March 2010

8. What young people say… “It’s all really interesting, we are learning whilst helping services. And all the feedback we have had from adults has been really good! They say they liked working with us and other young people and that it has made their service better, which is great! North Tyneside Young Person’s Health Reference Group (2010)

9. North East Regional You’re Welcome Celebration Event April 2011

10. So what difference does it make? The evidence base for children and young people’s participation in the design and development of health services is limited, in particular the effects on health, quality of life or satisfaction with services. (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 2010) Research is underway at Durham University to explore the effects of You’re Welcome on young people, health services and health professionals in the North East Contact mandy.cheetham@durham.ac.ukmandy.cheetham@durham.ac.uk

11. Hartlepool Young Inspectors’ experiences “It’s frightening at first cos you don’t know how they’re gonna be” “They just needed some help from us” “We changed their perspective on things” “They get like a view of a young person using the service” “They don’t ask a lot of yp” “We recommend then we go back in 6 months to see if they’ve put anything in place”

12. Investing in Children in Durham Young women aged 16 – 18 B) I think the opening times were made more clear now as well A)..like not getting your name read out that you just don’t want your name read out, like maybe you could have like a little like raffle ticket or something like that, or as well like they didn’t have screens in the rooms and some of them didn’t have screens and B)One had like scales in the corridor C)To get weighed on yeah A)We were like no good, never mind just for young people C)I think that’s just disgraceful and shouldn’t happen

13. Benefits of You’re Welcome Young people aged 15 – 18 in NT / N’land Changes attitudes to young people Helps workers understand how young people feel Helps services learn how to involve young people Improves the feedback methods used The way you are called to the room Publicity / advertising for the service Confidentiality posters Lay out of waiting room / colour scheme and music

14. Potential benefits of You’re Welcome for health care professionals Shape up health services to meet yp’s needs Makes staff proud of service / acknowledgement Opportunity to work in different ways, develop skills, look at attitudes Way to identify gaps / areas for development Raises quality of service for all ages Provides evidence for funders / commissioners Questions assumptions about young people

15. Barriers and Enablers What helps? Plan ahead.Identify resources. Involve young people from the beginning Help & advice from participation partners Training and support Realistic timescales for implementation What hinders? Conflicting priorities Inflexible working conditions Leaving it all to the last minute Attempting to do it all yourself

16. Reflections Resources / pros & cons of paying young people Skilled experienced participation workers Tokenism / setting up young people Flexible approach depending on setting Short term cosmetic or long-term sustainable changes Assumptions, fears and anxieties of staff Major NHS organisational upheaval

17. Research interests Quality improvement initiatives Organisational and cultural change Models of young people’s participation; what works, for whom, under what circumstances, to what effect? Participatory Action Research Young people as peer researchers in NE

18. References Department of Health (2007) You’re Welcome quality criteria; making health services young people friendly, London. Department of Health (2010) Achieving Equity and Excellence for Children; how liberating the NHS will help us meet the needs of children & young people, London. Department of Health & Association of Young People’s Health (2010) Involving young people in the development of health services, London. Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2010) Not Just a Phase; a guide to the participation of children and young people in health services, London. Wolfe I et al (2011) 'Improving child health services in the UK: insights from Europe and their implications for the NHS reforms', British Medical Journal, 342, pp. 1277.