Background Following a review of how we heard the user voice at Keech Hospice Care, I began to question our involvement of young people in this. As a hospice providing care for both adults and children, we have children and young people accessing all areas of our service. My challenge was not knowing how to best hear their thoughts and opinions. I sought the support of the youth officer at our local council office who was keen to help and we were lucky enough to also get the support of the engagement manager from RCPCH (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health).

Aim To truly hear the voice of young people who accessed all areas of our services.

Method Colleagues from Central Beds. youth team and RCPCH set up a series of workshops, and using a range of engagement activities including young inspector, started to compile feedback on our services, environment, staff and their thoughts on future developments. They named their project ‘KeechCan’.

Our role was to recruit young people which we did by writing letters, including it in our newsletters for families, putting it on social media and generally talking about it to young people and families. We recruited a mixture of patients, siblings and bereaved young people.

Outcome RCPCH provided a report at the end of the workshops with all the young people’s feedback. It was presented by some of them at the last workshop to myself, care managers and the quality team. The feedback is insightful, thought provoking and at times challenging, but invaluable.

Conclusion We have encountered some challenges along the way, but it has been a hugely rewarding experience. We are now looking at how we continue and embed the young person’s voice into policy and culture.