Listening to children, young people and families and getting their voices heard in the right places is critical to ensuring that the system is serving them effectively. It’s important that we listen to families more and find ways of responding as a system, not just as individual agencies, and to customise our services and responses to meet the varying needs of our community.

We actively promote and encourage colleagues across the public and third sectors to ask children and young people about their experiences, feelings, concerns and hopes for the future, so that we may shape the system to meet their changing needs.

Inspired by the Appreciative Inquiry approach which sector colleagues in other parts of the country have used very successfully, we are implementing a new way of connecting with children, young people and families which we’re calling Surrey Appreciative Inquiry and Learning (SAIL).