1. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar

2. Teresa Dickson Scottish Government
Directorate for Children and Families
Looked After Children Unit
I worked on developing the avatar along with a colleague Miranda McIntosh whom some of you may know. Miranda recently left the Unit on maternity leave. Also here today and colleagues Elspeth Hough and Tara Clark who also work within the Looked After Children Unit. Elspeth recently joined replacing Miranda as Unit Head on job share. Tara Clark joined the unit last October.

3. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
The avatar was created by the Scottish Government in partnership with:
NHS Lothian
Mentor UK Scotland
CELCIS
Children’s Parliament
Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
The avatar was created by the Scottish Government in partnership with:
NHS Lothian
Mentor UK Scotland
CELCIS
Children’s Parliament
SG participants – policy representatives – housing, education, health, justice analytical services, children and families analytical services

4. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
How did the Sophie in Kinship Care avatar come into being?
NHS Lothian had developed their own Sophie avatar for use in training LAC nurses
Useful tool for Scottish Government policy teams to assist them in thinking about kinship care when developing and refreshing policy
Child centred approach
Supports GIRFEC
How did the Sophie in Kinship Care avatar come into being?
NHS Lothian had developed their own Sophie avatar for use in training LAC nurses
Useful tool for Scottish Government policy teams to assist them in thinking about kinship care when developing and refreshing policy
Child centred approach
Supports GIRFEC
This avatar helps bring the situation of children in kinship care alive to policy teams that wouldn’t naturally see the link between their policy area and kinship care.

5. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
Who is Sophie?
10 year old girl with a range of health, education and social needs
group represented is children aged under 16 who have one or more long term conditions, such asthma or epilepsy
children like Sophie make frequent use of:
primary care and specialist community care services
attend Emergency Department
may be admitted as an emergency
Sophie and her family are likely to receive a range of local authority voluntary sector services
Sophie is unlikely to be thriving
Who is Sophie?
10 year old girl with a range of health, education and social needs
group represented is children aged under 16 who have one or more long term conditions, such asthma or epilepsy
children like Sophie make frequent use of:
primary care and specialist community care services
attend Emergency Department
may be admitted as an emergency
Sophie and her family are likely to receive a range of local authority voluntary sector services
Sophie is unlikely to be thriving
In 2017, the Scottish Government’s Children Social Work Statistics Scotland tell us there were 14,897 looked after children. 28% of which were in kinship care. A rising group of children whos needs must be met.

6. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
The Model
child centred approach and identifies what Sophie herself wants, what she is good at and what are her areas of difficulty
the GIRFEC model facilitates this, with the wellbeing indicators being used to measure her overall wellbeing (Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included)
allows us to focus on Sophie’s strengths as well as her areas of difficulty
The Model
child centred approach and identifies what Sophie herself wants, what she is good at and what are her areas of difficulty
the GIRFEC model facilitates this, with the wellbeing indicators being used to measure her overall wellbeing (Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible and Included)
allows us to focus on Sophie’s strengths as well as her areas of difficulty

7. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
How can the avatar help?
helps policy makers to test their policies against how they would cater for Sophie’s needs as it challenges perspectives
may assist those delivering services for children in kinship care understand the issues for this group of children, which is growing in Scotland
Kinship carers
How can the avatar help?
helps policy makers to test their policies against how they would cater for Sophie’s needs as it challenges perspectives
may assist those delivering services for children in kinship care understand the issues for this group of children, which is growing in Scotland
Kinship carers
For example if Sophie lived in Shetland – Ferry policy colleagues would have a part to play in ensuring accessibility to the main land if Sophie had a illness that required treatment on the mainland.
Where does granny live? Is there children around for Sophie to play with? Would housing policy support a house move?

8. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
How was the avatar created?
group of Scottish Government policy and analytical leads
representatives from NHS Lothian, Mentor UK Scotland, CELCIS and the Children’s Parliament
gathered background information, statistics and the views of kinship carers and children.
How was the avatar created?
group of Scottish Government policy and analytical leads
representatives from NHS Lothian, Mentor UK Scotland, CELCIS and the Children’s Parliament
gathered background information, statistics and the views of kinship carers and children.
The group met twice and all involved consulted with partners that could contribute to the avatar. Mentor UK Scotland took the avatar to the Big Hearts after school club and asked the kinship children to draw Sophie to express how she would feel. Mentor also took the avatar to their Kinship Care Advisory group and sought feedback from carers. The carers could see the benefits of the avatar and how developing their own could help them initiate difficult discussions with the children in their care and get them to open up about their feelings.

9. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
How have we raised awareness of the avatar within the Scottish Government?
Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans, in her role as champion for young people during the YOYP hosted an all staff seminar on Wednesday 15 August
seminar provided the opportunity to introduce the avatar and facilitate cross Government discussions about how our policies are considering the needs of young people
initiated discussions with key officials within policy areas that impacts on children like Sophie and other young people in Scotland
How have we raised awareness of the avatar within the Scottish Government?
Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans, in her role as champion for young people during the YOYP hosted an all staff seminar on Wednesday 15 August
seminar provided the opportunity to introduce the avatar and facilitate cross Government discussions about how our policies are considering the needs of young people
initiated discussions with key officials within policy areas that impacts on children like Sophie and other young people in Scotland

10. Sophie in Kinship Care Avatar
What do we hope to achieve?
raise the profile of kinship care across the wider Scottish Government
start conversations around how the Sophie Avatar can assist colleagues in developing/refreshing policy and ensuring kinship care children are considered
introduce the tool for colleagues to consider using that reflects their Sophie
What do we hope to achieve?
raise the profile of kinship care across the wider Scottish Government
start conversations around how the Sophie Avatar can assist colleagues in developing/refreshing policy and ensuring kinship care children are considered
introduce the tool for colleagues to consider using that reflects their Sophie
The Unit I work in have already had discussions around other Sophie avatars that we could create. As well as following Sophie on her specific journey, we may develop Sophie in foster care or Sophie who has been adopted. It is hoped that other policy teams will create avatars to help them adopt the person centred approach. We are obliged to deliver policy and legislation but it is more often than not bland and dull but by creating a simple visual which helps us think about individuals, it brings situations alive and hopefully helps us see how any changes would impact on them at an earlier stage.
I’ll now hand over to Heather who will explain the next session