Our Hearings Our Voice

An image of a boy wearing headphones, writing something. The text reads Good Practice Guide for Solicitors in the Children’s Hearings System: Top tips from children and adults on supporting children in their hearings

Introducing a new guide on the role of solicitors in children’s hearings. Co-produced with hearings-experienced young people, it highlights best practice and children’s rights.
Read the guide and top tips here: www.chip-partnership.co.uk/wp-content/u...

www.chip-partnership.co.uk/wp-content/u...

A young man talking to a class full of university students.

A young man standing at a desk with a screen behind him. The text on the screen reads “High Expectations. Don’t just expect children in care not to have many qualities. They might need your help to find their qualities”.

OHOV board member, Andrew James, delivered a powerful input to future teachers, social workers and speech therapists at @unistrathclyde.bsky.social today, sharing with them key messages about what children with care experience need from those that support them

#education

A group shot under a spotlight. Text says 2025 Wrapped Day 5 Rise Up

And finally, our last post for 2025 Wrapped is a celebration of our Rise Up conference; an event planned and delivered by the fabulous board members of OHOV. We launched our guide, Seeing Beyond the Surface, and spoke to adults about what matters most to children and young people in the care system

Colourful background with text saying 2025 Wrapped Day 4. A photo of the solicitor’s guide and graphics of paperwork and books surrounding it.

Day 4 – OHOV board members with experience of hearings, solicitors, CHS, SCRA, Clan ChildLaw, Civil Legal Assistance Office, Children 1st and advocacy providers worked together to create a good practice guide for solicitors. You can read the top tips here:
www.ohov.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Text saying Day 3 2025 Wrapped. A photo of a colourful guide with stars in the background. A QR code taking readers to the guide.

Day 3 of OHOV 2025 Wrapped! We created an online interactive guide called Seeing Beyond the Surface. The guide features videos, artwork, poetry, & voice recordings gathered from our research with children & young people, along with lots of quotes. You can visit our guide here: www.ohov.co.uk/guide/

Text saying 2025 Wrapped – Research. Photo shows four young people with speech bubbles, thought bubbles, and a lightbulb over their heads.

To research what children and young people need from the professionals in their lives we spoke to groups of young people from all over Scotland. To ensure these conversations were safe & supportive we did trauma informed training & created a trauma informed guide: www.ohov.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Text saying 2025 Wrapped - Aviemore. A photo of 11 people posing on a park with mountains behind them.

Day 1 of OHOV's 2025 Unwrapped - Aviemore! In February we had a great weekend in Aviemore where we combined work with ice skating, archery, and dinner (not all at once). During the weekend we recorded content for our guide and started planning our conference. Excited for the next one in March 2026!

A rubber duck wrapped up like a Christmas present with the text 'Our Hearings Our Voice 2025 Wrapped'

That's a wrap! 🎬As we come to the end of another year with our fantastic board members we'd like to share a daily snapshot of some of our projects from 2025. Check in each day next week to see what OHOV have been working on this year!

Young people in one of our new hearing centres in Glasgow

A HUGE thank you to @ohov.bsky.social for coming along to our Hearings centre in Glasgow yesterday to present Seeing Beyond the Surface to staff. Colleagues tuned in virtually to hear about your new, interactive guide exploring what children and young people wish all adults knew. #KeepThePromise

A picture of hands holding paper dolls and text saying: Introducing the Guide - Building on good practice- collaborative approach Strong foundations in research Resource for solicitors and other adults in hearings Improve the experience of children and families Top Tips and the longer guide

Join us on 10th December, 1-2 pm, to hear about a new guide on the key role solicitors play in children’s hearings, co-produced by hearings experienced young people, solicitors and other adults involved in hearings- www.eventbrite.com/e/good-pract...

We're looking forward to presenting a chapter from our new guide for adults #SeeingBeyondTheSurface at the Kibble conference today. Three of our board members will explore the theme of 'support' through an interactive workshop. Not seen the guide yet? Have a look: www.ohov.co.uk/guide/

Have you seen our new guide? #SeeingBeyondTheSurface explores what matters most to children & young people in the care they receive. Structured under 6 themes and brought to life through creative expressions from young people across Scotland, it's well worth a read: www.ohov.co.uk/guide/

We're really looking forward to delivering a workshop at the @kibblegroup Annual Conference on the 24th November! Details below:

www.kibble.org/kibble-annua...

One of the the best parts of our #RiseUp event was having our young people's friends, families, teachers, and partners in the audience, celebrating their hard work alongside us. We loved this video created by the partner of board member Abbie during the event! 😍 #SeeingBeyondTheSurface

Young people share expertise and care experience; leaders demonstrate they are truly listening at #RiseUp this week. Be part of this change across Scotland by immersing yourself in the young people's own guide for adults www.ohov.co.uk/guide/ @thepromise.scot @socworkscot.bsky.social

All the gang @ohov.bsky.social celebrating the wrap up of an amazing day- change makers with lived experience, skilled influencers and storytellers, some good laughs AND the launch of a new guide for all adults #BeyondTheSurface 👉https://www.ohov.co.uk/guide/ Boom 🤯

And they did it with style! 🎤🙌

A page of notes with Beyond the Surface What We Wish Adults Knew in the centre

#BeyondTheSurface brings to life what children and young people with care experience wish all adults knew.

We look forward to launching this guide and celebrating the hard work of our incredible board members & the young people they worked with. Two sleeps until our #RiseUp event! We can't wait 🎉

💫5 days to go until we launch our #SeeingBeyondTheSurface guide for adults! OHOV board members will creatively explore the guide's six themes with delegates at our #RiseUp event on Wednesday, through spoken word, poetry, art, quotes, video, voice recordings, and more. We can't wait! 🌟

With just under a week to go until OHOV's #RiseUp celebratory event, young people share their hopes for the day in this video

At the event we'll launch our online interactive guide, 'Seeing Beyond The Surface' - a creative exploration of thing things young people wish all adults knew.

Four young people standing in a row and smiling

3 board members joined the Experts by Experience group at CHS for a day in Parliament. They met with Natalie Don-Innes - Minister for Children, and were given a tour of the Parliament before watching First Minister’s Questions.

Read more here:
www.ohov.co.uk/2025/10/08/o...

Three people standing at a lectern. A screen that says 'what now comes to mind when you hear the term care experienced?'

We were delighted to be invited back to @unistrathclyde.bsky.social this year to speak to education students. Board members Ash and Andrew delivered a presentation on what educators can do to support pupils with care experience. Thanks for having us, Strathclyde!

OHOV have created a trauma informed guide for all adults who are working with young people in any capacity. Written in the words of our young people, the guide provides examples of trauma informed practice and highlights why this is important. Have a read of it here: www.ohov.co.uk/2025/08/07/y...

We've been travelling round the country meeting with groups of young people to chat about how professionals support care experienced children. We're gathering insights for an online guide, which will feature written work, poetry, art, videos & audio created by young people. Watch this space!

👂 Do you care about children’s rights? Why not become a Safeguarder and help make sure young voices are heard in hearings and court.

🧡 No qualifications needed—just empathy, integrity, and a commitment to children.

Find out more 👇

🔗 childrenfirst.org.uk/.../become-a-safeguarder

Animation wins gold award! - Our Hearings, Our Voice We have some exciting news to share! Articulate Animation won a Gold Award at the Scottish Design Awards.

Delighted to hear that @brawtalent.org won a gold award at the Scottish Design Awards for the 'Articulate' animation. www.ohov.co.uk/2025/07/01/a... Huge thanks to the team at Braw Talent for creating such a genuine co-productive relationship w/ the young people at OHOV ❤️

We had a fab board meeting planning a trauma informed approach to research w/youth groups across Scotland. Our findings will be published in an interactive guide for professionals, based around 6 themes: privacy, relationships, support, participation, seeing potential without judgement, & language.

We had a fantastic day at the #CiSAC25 conference. OHOV board members Ciara & Ash facilitated an interactive workshop called 'Is That Really All I Am?', exploring the impact of labelling children & young people in the Children's Hearings System. Thanks for having us @childreninscotland.bsky.social

On Saturday I was privileged to attend the Creativity & Care festival in Inverness, celebrating the creativity of an incredible group of young people. I learned more about the fantastic work of Moniack Mhor, enjoyed some artwork, and was inspired by the poetry and music of the talented young people

A rubber duck sitting on a pile of magazines, holding a balloon with the number 5.

Issue 5 of VOICE magazine is now on its way to Children’s Hearings Centres across Scotland!
This issue includes:

🍰 A fun cupcake recipe
🧑‍🏫 Tips for teachers supporting care-experienced pupils
🎨 Inspiring poems & artwork from the young people at OHOV

A huge well done to all the young people at OHOV!