West Sussex County Council: a participation strategy, a new brand and a local offer for care leavers

The starting point

West Sussex had a Voice and Participation Team doing good work, but participation still sat with one team rather than the whole service. Children and young people had told the council they were tired of filling in survey after survey without hearing what happened next. And care leavers had no single, clear place to find out what they were entitled to.

What we did

1. TrainingA Journey Through CareSix sessions for staff, June to July 2021
2. StrategyWe listen; we share; we actThe Children and Young People’s Participation Strategy, signed off by the leadership team in April 2022
3. BrandA new identity for the Voice and Participation TeamFive values, five icons and one brandmark, with full brand guidelines
4. PeopleParticipation championsSenior leaders from across children’s services, with a champions bootcamp in August and September 2021
5. CoachingWeekly coachingFor the team manager, to put the strategy into practice
6. Local offerLeaving care: what next?A new local offer for care leavers across eight areas, following statutory guidance
7. WebsiteThe local offer onlineAn accessible website for care leavers and staff, launched on 24 October 2022 in National Care Leavers Week

How we worked

Training and workshops were led by people with lived and professional experience of care. The strategy came out of six months of training, workshops and consultancy with staff, children and young people. We built the brand with the Voice and Participation Team in a series of workshops on their mission, logo, colours and imagery, and young people were consulted along the way. The local offer was co-produced with care leavers and personal advisers, and we broke the work into stages so the team always knew what came next.

What changed

“The Care Leaders have played a huge role in changing the culture to one of co-production and centralising the voices of young people.”

The participation strategy gave the whole service three pillars, six organisational challenges and five rules of engagement to work to, and participation champions now meet monthly. The team took the brand into everyday use, from its Canva brand kit to new merchandise. When the local offer launched, Councillor Jacquie Russell, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “We believe we now have one of the most comprehensive offers for care leavers in the country.”

What happened next

This work was the start of a longer partnership. We went on to develop West Sussex’s strategy on protected characteristics with children and young people in 2024 and 2025, and in 2026 started work on its care leaver hubs.