Support for the Stage 1 You're Welcome Award

Social care and health Health and wellbeing Your health Sexual health Young people's relationships and sexual health You're Welcome Award for Sexual and Reproductive Health Services Support for stage one You're Welcome

To get started, consider how youth-friendly your service is now.

Use the following points as your baseline review. This includes ideas from local young people on what youth friendly services providing sexual health support should be like.

1. A liaison for young people

We've done this for you!

We asked over 60 young people in Derby and Derbyshire for their views on accessing services that provide reproductive and sexual health support through engagement sessions and activities.

The young people were spread out in different geographical locations in Derby and Derbyshire. Groups included those with special educational needs, those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those in care.

This page includes the views they shared.

2. Get some feedback

The national guidance suggests getting feedback from young people about whey the like or don't like about your service as well as how they would like things to change.

We've gathered feedback on some key topic areas related to accessing sexual health support not specific to a particular service or location.

Use these along with your own existing feedback methods to start building on what makes young people feel welcome.

Stigma

Young people's top tips on how services can help overcome stigma in accessing sexual health services:

1. Ensure all staff feel comfortable taking about relationships and sexual health topics. 2. Staff should be non-judgmental and pleasant towards young people, reflected in their tone of voice, for instance. 3. Demonstrate that sexual health support is a normal part of being healthy by including it in holistic conversations, signposting to other health services. 4. Challenge sexual health misconceptions and share facts.

Easy access

Young Peoples top areas to address to ensure sexual health services are easily accessible:

Increasing awareness:

offer more opportunities to get support from a variety of different methods and spread out geographically
raise awareness of support through community groups, for example, sharing posters, health fairs, speakers
share more information about relationships and sexual health support in schools and colleagues - be really clear that sexual health services are free

Service user experience:

consider reducing waiting times for young people
choose an alternative option to answer phones for young people to leave messages
make efforts to streamline referral processes for young people
host appointments in multi use venues
ensure support is not overly time consuming

Self care:

provide information with no pressure to access support straight away
create simple to use websites easily and find information around self care
give opportunity to ask questions anonymously

Values and behaviours:

be accommodating for young peoples needs
learning about the varied needs of young people in order to be ready to support them
provide a positive initial impression of your service through a welcoming receptionist and other public facing staff

3. Feel comfortable around confidentiality

The national guidance suggests that services check their confidentiality policy is up to date and circulate this to all staff including reception and ancillary staff. It should be displayed or published online.

Alongside this, here are some top tips from young people themselves.

Young people's ideas on how reproductive and sexual health services can show that they are confidential:

> “Share good reviews of your service online” > “Be really implicit about how services are confidential” > “Different waiting rooms for those who don’t feel comfortable” > “Able to write things down if you don’t feel comfortable saying out loud” > “Posters up stating: we support our patients and we keep everything private because we care” > “Staff working in service saying right at the beginning 'before we begin, anything that is discussed in this room is confidential and won't be shared with anyone unless absolutely necessary'” > “Always have 1:1 or private rooms for discussions where possible” > “Asking parents to leave at certain points in appointments such as when asking whether you are sexually active” > “Staff to be aware of different terms for sexual health products so they are aware of what young people are asking for” > “Do things in the most confidential way, like avoiding shouting across rooms to colleagues” > “Give the reason for why questions are being asked” > “Being clear that it's a 1:1 service that is available”

Many young people expressed that they were not aware that health services were confidential, and this should be more clear. They said “doctors should sign an oath”.

4. A welcoming place to be

The national guidance suggests refreshing your waiting area and consider if there are ways to make the space more inviting and relaxing. This could be getting some games, resources or magazines that are more appropriate to young people across a variety of ages. Make sure resources are appropriate and sensitive to the range of people attending.

We asked local young people what a welcoming inclusive service feels like and they shared their thoughts as follows.

1. Asking for pronouns. 2. Staff are modelling good behaviours. 3. Services taking different approaches based on holistic approach to individual – not one size fits all based on the fact that they are young. 4. Allowing family members or friends to attend appointments for support. 5. If young people are seeking support with an adult, always addressing the young person in the appointment first – always making them feel part of the conversation. 6. Seek advice from young people on potential improvements or change.

5. What we're doing for young people

The national guidance suggests thinking through the various aspects of your provision and identify different services that are relevant to young people.

Create a 'did you know' poster for the waiting area listing all these services. Consult young people in this process and involve them in the design process of any visual aids.

If you are not doing this already, consider acting on this section of guidance and use the following feedback from young people to help the messages be most effective.

We asked young people to use stickers on a pre-filled sheet of options (with the opportunity to add more ideas) to show which were their preferred methods of receiving health information online and not online.

How can we advertise health information online?

All social media channels were stickered frequently. Most popular were YouTube and TikTok.

How can we advertise health information (not online)?

The top 3 answers were:

word of mouth
through friend/peers
parents / carer / trusted adult

Individuals had an unlimited amount of stickers and some groups stickered many options for both online and not online methods. This suggested more health information is welcomed shared through a variety of methods other than those listed, such as health fairs, information sessions, PHSE Lessons, posters in education setting and public places, and signposting from other services.

6. Experience of working with young people

The national guidance suggests to talk with all staff about working with young people.

Find out what previous experience staff have working with young people. Are there any positive or negative stories that can be learnt from? What do staff feel are the barriers to engaging positively and productively with young people?

Local professionals working with young people to support their sexual health met up to discuss their views. Here are their top pieces of learning and ways they have overcome barriers.

Demonstrate confidentiality and trust at every opportunity.

This can be done by:

using vocabulary commonly used by young people instead of professional terms – check out sites that are created for young people, such as Brook
making it clear that any support provided is for that person in that situation and doesn't relate to the setting they are in (for example, if the person is in a school setting when seeking support, and what the young persons shares won't get them in trouble at school)
reflecting on ways that you can show that you care, even if you aren't able to provide an answer to a concern. This could include validating their feelings, and finding out the right service to support them
taking part in training that supports making every contact count. This is offered for free by Joined up Care Derbyshire
thinking about how support is approached, when providing advice, steer away from expressing what is legal and illegal and instead approach from a perspective of what is ethical and not ethical
similarly, consider your service's role is in the individual you are supporting’s story, our role is to empower young people, not enforce them
sharing and highlighting trusted sources of information in a way that young people would want to receive them, such as on social media. There is so much information available to take in, so make sure not to dismiss non-trusted sources of information - and provide an opportunity for young people to discuss the different views

Katy, public health nurse said:

> “We can't emphasise enough that our services are confidential and trustworthy”

Utilise feedback effectively

This can be done by:

gathering young peoples feedback often in order to ensure support provided is well received and useful
using feedback to make changes to services
providing multiple ways for young people to feedback so that a wide range of views are captured, for example, verbally at the time of the support being provided, a digital survey after support or a scheduled focus group later on

Be Inclusive of all young people.

This can be done by:

continuing to promote services to lots of different groups of young people. It's often underestimated how much work goes into making sure services try to reach everybody
with this in mind, provide a real focus as a service on supporting underrepresented groups and prioritise outreach
focussing on the quality of interactions rather than the quantity of people supported
demonstrating that your service is proactive in engaging with young people
accepting there will be trial and error and not to be afraid to try something new in order to support young people.
taking a holistic approach to any support provided and consider any wider factors that may be having an impact on a young person - include those in conversations and adapt for those factors

Kelly, sexual health promotion manager said:

> “It's not always about thinking really hard about the right approach - just show up for young people, show up where young people are”

Collaboration with others

This can be done by:

not feeling like your service has to provide all the answers, a fresh face can sometimes feel more comfortable for a young person. Often a specialist can offer more expert support too
supporting young people to access other services for different approaches to support. Different approaches can sometime benefit a young person
taking time to read new local and national guidance and research around young people's relationships and sexual health. It's not always necessary to start from scratch
researching and understanding the offer from other local services supporting young people. Some people have preconceived ideas about what services can and can't offer – find out and promote them with young people

Provide good access to services

This can be done by:

providing access to support in multiple ways such as online, face to face and by telephone
being prepared for different support situations - consider printed materials as well as sharing information online
even if your service does not provide the type of support a young person needs, make sure to give them the details of the services that is most appropriate for them

Other reports sharing the views of young people

There are also lots of national and local reports sharing the views of young people:

7. Find out who is out there

The national guidance suggests doing some initial research into other projects and services in the area that support young people's health and wellbeing.

The Young Person's Relationship and Sexual Health Partnership have created a list of local health and wellbeing services that support young people.