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Consultation with Children Looked After and Care Leavers about e-Personal Education Plans

By Admin on June 27, 2016 • ( 0 )

Two ePEP (Electronic Personal Educational Plan) providers were invited to present their systems to a group of professionals. There were two presentations to watch. This was the second presentation.

The purpose of the consultation was for young people to be consulted on their views and opinions on a potential new ePEP system for all Children Looked After in West Sussex.

The focus of the consultation concentrated on the content and design of the ePEP system, and young people were invited to give their opinions on what they saw. The facilitator navigated through the system, showing young people how they can input into the system and particularly focused on the young people’s section.

Young Peoples feedback and comments

Young people liked that young people and professionals, such as social workers, IROs can all access the system
It was interactive for younger children
Liked that it had characters
Liked that it had characters and make it look like a person
Young people who had learning disabilities could use it
It was colourful
Good use of emoji’s
You can access documents from it, after you have left school- up to 75 years
Liked the electronic calendar- useful! “I kept losing everything when I was at school”!
Useful to have access to attendance records
In my opinion “ young people find these really boring, so this system might help young people engage with the PEP better”
The system was designed with young people
“Nailed it!”

Young people were also asked if they had any improvements or questions about the system:

Young people said if you were accessing the system and you were over 18, you wouldn’t need the characters/interactive bit so much
How would you access the system if you can’t read or write properly (and you don’t have someone to support you)
Can you use it on your phone?
How could you make it more discreet for young people in school?
Keeping in confidential
Young people didn’t like the name of the system “squiggle ”
Can this system be back dated for young people who are not in care at the moment, or left care?

The Head of Virtual School joined the young people to have a discussion on their feedback, and he was able to answer most of their questions. He stated he would forward these questions to the provider for clarification, particularly on the question “can this be back dated for young people who are not in care currently”.

What the provider said in response to young peoples feedback/questions:

The questions/feedback points are:

Young people said if you were accessing the system and you were over 18, you wouldn’t need the characters/interactive bit so much.

The answer to this question is yes I totally agree, with working with some young people 18 and above we have decided that the questions they would answer would appear directly into the (private space) account for them the view.

How would you access the system if you can’t read or write properly (and you don’t have someone to support you)

The SEN PEP might help with answering this question. It has been used quite a lot with asylum seekers. However the best approach is by asking for help and a professional will help support a young person complete the section if required.

Can you use it on your phone?

Yes we are developing an APP which will be ready for the end of the year this will work on iPhones currently you can use it with your Android phone but it will be much better once the APP has been developed for 1st September 2016.

How could you make it more discreet for young people in school?

This is a private space which is discreet and not a social space to share with friends. We are training the teachers to make sure young people respected the system as a private space.

Keeping it confidential

Nobody is allowed access except the from professionals directly involved with the young person and the young people themselves. Documents will be kept confidential.

Young people didn’t like the name of the system “squiggle ” [How/why did the interactive platform on ePEP get this name? (DC)

Young people came up with the name of the younger age however we are willing to change the name and we are taking suggestions. Personally I like (StoreIT) or (MemoryBOX) we have until August if we need to change the name.

Please submit suggestions if you like

Can this system be back dated for young people who are not in care at the moment, or left care?

No unfortunately this is only available from the first day the system goes live. This is something we would need to speak to the authority about we could certainly allowed to expand the platform to account for social services however currently the Young person must have an ePEP account before they have access to the private space.

What’s happening as a result of this:

The feedback from young people will influence what decision is made about which Epep provider is used. Using a new Epep system, will bring more consistency and joined up approach for professionals, a more positive change and improvement for children looked after in West Sussex.