In December 2013 the Children’s Involvement Team consulted with primary aged children on the future of libraries in Sheffield.

We asked children about their use of libraries and what they thought to the proposals as of December 2013. Results of the consultation fed into a wider consultation involving adults. Results were used to influence the proposals for the future of Library’s in Sheffield.  

We consulted with children (5-11 years old) across five geographical areas of Sheffield (North, South, East, West and Central) in order to seek the views of a well-represented cohort of library users and non-users. We aimed to work with an average of 15 children and young people from each of the identified settings, which generated responses from an overall cohort of approximately 150 children.

>>Click here to read the results of the children's consultation

Within Reach is a local charity working to promote and fundraise for sporting activities for disabled people in partnership with Activity Sheffield, Sheffield City Council.  Within Reach and Activity Sheffield were developing a funding proposal to make physical activity and well-being sessions more accessible for disabled children and young people and their families who are not currently accessing provision. 
The Children’s Involvement Team was approached to consult with disabled children, young people and their families to find out why provision isn’t being accessed and what would assist in enabling them to access provision in the city.  We consulted with 60 families through an online questionnaire and worked with 14 families on individual in-depth case studies. 

Lots of messages came out this really in-depth consultation, if you are interested to read about them...

>> Click here to read the summary report

The Children Involvement Team were approached by Catherine Nuttgens (Access to Nature- Sheffield City Council) to carry out a qualitative evaluation with children, young people and families.   Catherine asked that we capture the diverse thoughts, feelings and experiences of woodland spaces.
At Access to Nature events on Sunday 22nd April at Eccelsall wood and Saturday 28th April at Woolly wood we consulted with approximately 26 children, young people by filming their woodland stories and experiences.  Woodland stories were captured by filming inside a yurt that reflected the theme of the day.  We asked children and young people to tell stories to the camera about good and bad experiences they have had in woodland spaces. 

>>Click here to read the report

Sheffield Young Commissioners were a group coordinated by the Children’s Involvement Team. The children and young people were aged 8-19 and were fully trained and skilled up as peer researchers.

The Young Commissioners carried out the Positive Activities for Young People's Consultation consulting with almost 1000 children and young people to reshape activities available throughout the city. Results showed that children want to see different things happening within their communities. The Young Commissioners ensured that the consultation was inclusive to all communities and that everyone had the opportunity to take part.

>>Click here to read the report

The Children’s Involvement Team was approached by Fiona Addison, Knowledge Development Officer for Sheffield City Council to attend the Star Awards. The purpose of this annual event is to recognise and celebrate the achievements of Sheffield’s looked after children and young people and care leavers. We undertook a questionnaire consultation to collect feedback from young people, carers and professionals about the evening. Younger children were also asked some simpler questions about the event in the form of an activity sheet with games. We also designed a ‘solar system’ all about the things people are proud of, and their achievements. Respondents wrote down their answers on stars and stuck them to our display. It was hoped that this could be used to inform the individual awards which are presented at future events.

>>Click here to read the report

The Children’s Involvement Team took part in the annual Families Together fun day event held at Norfolk Park.  The Children’s Involvement Team consulted with 24 children and 10 adults to gain their views on the Families Together service.

After conducting a consultation at the first Youth Offending Service in 2011, the Children’s Involvement Team was approached by the newly renamed Youth Justice Service (YJS) to repeat the consultation with young people attending the annual YJS Celebration Day. The event, held at Hillsborough Park on 25th July 2012, provided a selection of fun activities and food for young people currently involved with YJS. It was decided that this would be a great opportunity for the Children’s Involvement Team to consult with the attendees about their experiences with YJS; both in order to celebrate good practice and to have a say about any things they would like to change. The consultation involved seven young people answering questions to enable the YJS to review its practice.  

‘Young Inspectors’ is a project that gives young people the opportunity to be proactively involved in evaluating leisure provision within Sheffield.  A group of disabled and non-disabled young people have been trained to inspect leisure activities, services and venues to assess how fun, inclusive and user-friendly they are.  The Young Inspectors have devised a set of assessment criteria which they will use to review the services offered for young people in Sheffield.  They will ‘mystery shop’ services against their criteria and award them with a star rating accordingly.  Inspectors will be assessing services in both the public and private sector and will highlight good practice and any areas for development. 

>>Click here to find out more information about this work

>>To find out what the young people have been saying about the activities they have inspected click here

The messages from this work varries from activity to activity.

>>To read about each activity's key messages please click here

Linking The Voice of Disabled Children and Young People to Comisioning:

We worked in collaboration with ibk initiatives to with different groups across the city to develop as many One Page Profiles as possible in a six month period, mainly from the months of September 2010 – February 2011. Settings included Children's Centres, After School and holiday clubs, mainstream and special schools. We worked with a total of 161 children and young people. Information gathered on the profiles was collated and analysed for key themes and messages, which fed into commissioned services and delivery.

>>Click here for details on a One Page Profile

>>Click here to visit the ibk initiatives website

Children's Voices were approached by Jen Rickard of the Public Health Improvement Team, to carry out a consultation with children and young people all about food. The results were to contribute Sheffield’s 2010 Food plan. The consultation ran from the 3rd to the 5th of June 2010 and took place during Sheffield’s Food Festival in the Winter Gardens. Approximately 400 children and young people were consulted using fun and engaging consultation techniques

Click here to download a copy of the report

Throughout January to March 2010 an extensive consultation on the draft Sheffield Integrated Offer for Children & Young People took place. The Offer has been developed by Sheffield City Council, and is based on what children and young people have been telling us about what they want and need outside formal education – with an overall aim to improve life chances and choices for children and young people aged 8-19 years olds (up to 25 for those with additional needs). The Offer is based around four key elements:

Somewhere to go
Something to do
Someone to talk to
Something to say

Children's Voices were involved in consulting with 340 8-11 year olds by holding fun and engaging consultation activities in 9 schools across Sheffield. The consultation also involved on-line questionnaires that were hosted here on the sheffkids website! We had 219 reponses.

Children’s Voices had an interest in the development of the Heathlands Park;
a new park and playground between the Oxclose and Deepwell estates in
Halfway, Sheffield. Children’s Voices approached the Friends Of Heathlands
Park group to offer their support in consulting with children in the area. An event was held at the site on 27th March 2010 to offer the whole community a chance to have a say on the development. The event was extremely successful with children and families turning up to have a say on the new playground. Approximately 45 children, young people and adults were consulted using fun and engaging techniques.

>>Click here to download the full report

>>Click here for a copy of Sheffield City Council's playground design proposal

>>Click here to go to the Friends of Healthlands Park website

"Check it out!"

We wanted to find out what disabled and non-disabled children thought about play and leisure in Sheffield. We invited 12 children to check it out! We supported the children to visit their favourite activity and to try something new. They put their investigator hats on, went visiting and reported back what they found. We helped the children explore their findings and come up with suggestions for making things better. We filmed the whole process so that we could make a difference for all children in the city.

>>Contact us for a copy of the Check It Out! DVD

Children’s Voices were approached by Sheffield City Council’s Parks and Countryside service to consult with children about what type of woodland playground equipment they would like to see at three sites identified for Play Builder funding. The sites were Rivelin Valley, Fox Glen and Woolley Wood. The consultation took place at the ‘Wood Fair' event on 26th September 2009 in Encliffe Park. Approximately 110 children, ranging mainly from 8-13 years, were consulted using fun and engaging techniques.

>>Click here to download the full report

During spring and summer 2009 Children’s Voices consulted with approximately 400 children from two primary schools in Wisewood. Children's Voices asked pupils for their thoughts and views on setting up new after school clubs. Children's Voices worked with the school councils to train them in how to consult with peers. We had three sessions with each school council guiding them though the whole consultation process. This included:

- thinking of questions
- choosing consultation techniques
- consulting with other pupils across the whole school
- counting and analysing results
- designing feedback posters

The sessions were very successful as they not only produced some interesting results about what the pupils wanted for an after-school club but also helped the school council to learn about and develop skills in delivering a fun and engaging consultation.

>>Click here to download the full report

During April 2009, over 300 children aged between 5 and 11 years from 12 Sheffield primary schools were asked for their views on Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and the service they provide to children in primary schools. The children were asked questions such as how often they would like to see a PCSO in school, what they would like the PSCO to talk to them about and how they want to get to know their PCSO. Pupils were consulted either through class groups or through their school council. As an outcome of this report South Yorkshire Police intend to have a PSCO linked to every school in the city on a regular basis. Schools that took part in the consulation have been informed of who their designated PSCO is.

>>Click here to download the full report

Children’s Voices were approached by Sheffield Homes to consult with children living in the Broomhall area of Sheffield about Dorset Street playground. Children’s Voices ran two days of consultation in February 2009. The children were asked for their views on the current play equipment and were asked to tell us about what they liked to do in a playground and what stops them from playing at Dorset Street playground.

>>Click here to download the full report

Children’s Voices were approached by LINk to consult with children on issues relating to health and social care. In January 2009 Children’s Voices organised a range of fun and engaging consultation activities that featured at the ‘You’re the Voice’ event held in Sheffield city centre. At the event Children’s Voices consulted with over 130 children from across Sheffield, aged from 2 to 19 years.

>>Click here to download the full report

Come and Play, Have Your Say...about your area

Heely / Meersbrook

During the spring of 2009, a total of 240 children aged between 5-13 from three primary schoools in the Heely/Meersbrook area were asked for their views on a number of issues that were rasied by the 2007 Every Child Matters consultation, carried out by Sheffield City Council. The issues that were identified by children and young people living in the Heely/Meersbrook area were...

- lessons at school
- recycling
- attendance at after school clubs
- bullying
- safety in their area
- travelling to and from school

The Council and other services in the area will use the results to influence decision making and direct services..

>>Click here for the full report

Children and young people in Sheffield consistently tell us that bullying is one of their biggest concerns. To address this issue we have run a 12-month ‘Circle of Friends’ pilot project during the academic year 2008-9 in one mainstream and one special primary school in Sheffield. The model has been used with great success in other cities nationally.

‘Circle of Friends’ is where a group of children, some of whom are viewed as vulnerable members of the school community, are invited to come together once a week to play games and take part in positive activities celebrating each other's gifts and talents. The children look at what makes a good friendship, why friendships are important and how to support other children in school through friendships.

Recently we have had the project externally evaluated by John Stead from the NSPPC. The project received a glowing report on how effective it has been at improving self esteem, friendships, social skills and emotional well-being. These effects have been noted by the teachers, head teachers, parents and the children themselves.

Now we have successfully run the project for 12 months we are developing the project further by delivering again in the 2 previously supported schools and, additionally, delivering in a nursery setting and a special secondary school. Through this we will support the existing schools to continue to facilitate their own 'Circle of Friends' and develop a training package to teach other schools how to set up their own 'Circle of Friends' groups.

>>Click here to download a copy of the project evaluation

>>Click here to contact us for more information on 'Circle of Friends'

Children's Voices worked with 20 children at Project Buzz, an after-school club at Springfield Primary School in Sheffield. A lot of children at the school are from asylum seeking and refugee families or newly arrived to the city so Children's Voices worked on an animation with the children to tell the stories of how they arrived in Sheffield. Children had discussions about where they were born, why they moved to Sheffield and how they got to Sheffield. The children combined all their experiences and made it into a fun animation! Children learnt how to use cameras and camcorders, make characters out of Plasticine, act and create sets.

>>Click here to see an edited copy of the animation

>>Click here to see their animation project report

The children also investigated things for children to do in Sheffield and contributed to our SheffKids website by taking pictures and writing reports about where they went and what they saw. Check out their work here.

Come and Play, Have Your Say...about your area

Greenhill & Gleadless Service District

During summer 2008, a total of 106 children from South Sheffield aged between 5 and 15 years were asked for their views on a number of issues that were identified by the 2007 Every Child Matters consultation, carried out by Sheffield City Council. The issues that were identified as important for children and young people living in the Gleadless & Greenhill Service District were:
• experiences of being bullied or witnessing bullying
• feeling unsafe in their area
• concerns around gangs
• healthy eating and lifestyles.

The service district used the results to influence decisions in the area.

>>Click here to download the full report

Children’s Voices were approached by the Parks and Countryside service, Sheffield City Council to consult with children about the services they provide. The consultation took place at the ‘Wood Fair' event in October 2008 in Encliffe Park. Approximately 50 children ranging from 10 months to 17 years were consulted in a fun and engaging way that mirrored the theme of the event. The children were consulted on the quality of the current services, additional services that could be offered and their general thoughts and opinions about playing in the woods. Park and Countryside used the results to shape the services they offer.

>>Click here to download for the full report

Children’s Voices were approached by Activity Sheffield to consult with users of Pitsmoor Adventure Playground to find out their views on a proposed re-furbishment to the indoor facility on the playground site. Children’s Voices worked alongside the architect and playground staff to conduct a consultation day in June 2008 that included fun and engaging activities. The consultation gathered around 30 children’s opinions on several aspects of the new building’s design and usage.

>>Click here to download the full report

Over the course of 7 days during Easter 2006, almost 700 children aged between 2 and 18 years were asked for their views on different aspects of play. Based on the children's messages through this consultation, 12 projects that met the children's play needs were put forward to form the basis of Sheffield's Big Lottery bid for our share of the government's £155 million funding for play. The projects will be funded for 3 years initially and children will continue to be involved in the development and evaluation of the projects.

>>Click here to download the full report

During April, May and June 2005, primary aged pupils from across Sheffield were asked for their views on school. The consultation took 3 different forms:
- 3 days of fun consultation activities over 3 days in 3 areas of the city involving 350 children
- questionnaires circulated to 268 year 5 pupils across 6 schools
- focus groups sessions invoving 14 pupils from 2 schools.

>>Click here to download the full report