The phrase ‘voice of the child’ can become a slogan if it is not visible in everyday practice. A young person’s record should show more than what adults decided for them. It should preserve their wishes, feelings, questions, disagreements, choices and goals in a way that respects both their agency and their right to privacy.
Record what they actually say
Where appropriate, use the young person’s own words rather than translating everything into professional language. If they say, ‘I hate being asked the same question by everyone,’ that may communicate more than ‘young person expressed frustration with professionals.’ Short, relevant direct wording can preserve meaning and tone.
Include disagreement
A record should not make it look as if the young person always agrees with plans. If they disagree, say so. Record what they object to, what they would prefer and how staff responded. Respectful disagreement is valuable information and can help future decisions.
Distinguish choice from refusal
Language matters. A young person who chooses not to attend an activity is not automatically ‘non-compliant’. Record the choice, the information they were given, any risks considered and whether an alternative was offered. This keeps the record accurate and avoids unnecessarily adversarial language.
Do not make them repeat themselves
When systems and handovers are poor, young people may have to explain the same preference, concern or history to multiple staff members. Good records should reduce that burden. Important preferences and recurring concerns should be easy for authorised staff to understand.
Capture goals they care about
Plans can become dominated by professional priorities. Ask what the young person wants to change or achieve. Their goal may be to see a sibling more often, get a job, improve sleep, learn to drive, save money or feel less anxious on public transport. Recording these goals helps support feel relevant.
Record participation in decisions
If a young person was involved in a review, risk discussion, placement decision or support plan update, record how. Attendance alone does not prove participation. What did they contribute? What changed because of their view? Were any requests declined, and was the reason explained?
Respect private information
Capturing voice does not mean recording every personal disclosure in every place. Consider relevance, safeguarding responsibilities and confidentiality. Sensitive information should be recorded proportionately and accessed only by those who need it.
Review records with young people where appropriate
Depending on the service, circumstances and policy, reviewing records or plans with young people can improve accuracy and trust. They may correct assumptions, explain context or identify language that feels unfair. Even when they cannot edit the record directly, their disagreement can be documented.
Putting this into practice
The most useful way to apply this to the young person's voice in records is to start with one real, anonymised example from the service rather than trying to redesign everything at once. Choose a recent shift, record, handover, incident or support interaction and walk through what actually happened. Ask staff where they had enough information, where they had to guess, where work was duplicated and whether the young person’s experience was visible. Then identify one change that would make the next similar situation clearer or easier. That might be a better prompt on a form, a clearer handover category, a named action owner, a more consistent phrase for recording observations, or a scheduled management review. Keep the change small enough to test. Large policy rewrites can feel productive while leaving day-to-day practice untouched. A small workflow improvement that staff understand and use consistently is often more valuable. After a week or two, review whether the change improved clarity, reduced repeated questions, helped staff act sooner or made the record more useful. If it did not, adjust it. Good practice develops through observation, feedback and refinement rather than one perfect template. Where the issue touches safeguarding, legal duties, medication, restraint, confidentiality or another regulated process, the service should always check its current policy and relevant professional guidance before changing practice.
Questions for supervision and team discussion
Managers can also use the young person's voice in records as a supervision or team-meeting discussion rather than only a written standard. Ask staff what good practice looks like when the shift is busy, what usually gets missed under pressure and what would make the right action easier. Use examples rather than abstract criticism. If a record is too vague, rewrite one paragraph together. If actions are being lost, trace one action from the moment it was created to the point it was completed. If the young person’s voice is missing, ask what question staff could have asked or what part of the conversation should have been captured. It is also worth asking how the process feels from the young person’s perspective. Do they have to repeat themselves? Do different staff give different answers? Does the record focus mostly on things going wrong? Are decisions explained to them? These questions move quality improvement beyond paperwork and back toward the experience of care. Finally, agree what ‘good enough’ looks like. Staff need practical examples and clear expectations, not vague instructions to ‘record better’ or ‘communicate more’. A shared standard makes feedback fairer and gives new staff something concrete to learn from.
Key takeaway
A young person’s voice is not an extra paragraph added at the end of a professional record. It should be visible throughout the story: what they wanted, how they experienced events, what they chose and what matters to them next.
