At Norman Galloway Homes, the voices of our young people shape everything we do. We believe that our care-experienced young people are the experts in their own lives. That’s why we run consultations, focus groups, and feedback sessions throughout the year to make sure your ideas, opinions, and experiences are at the heart of our services.
We want to make sure you have a say in how we do things, from how your home feels, to how we can better support you to achieve your goals. Participation is always voluntary, and you will be paid for your time and expertise when you join our focus groups.
These opportunities can help you develop key skills, such as:
Presenting your ideas and findings to decision-makers and stakeholders
Communicating confidently in a group
Listening to others’ views and giving feedback
Building teamwork and leadership skills
Shaping services for other young people in care
Your voice matters and together, we’re building a service that works for you.
Tell Us What You Think
Your feedback matters. Whether it’s a suggestion, a compliment, or a complaint – we want to hear from you.
Having clear ways to give feedback is vital. It helps us improve, and it helps you feel heard. We also want to make sure every young person knows how to make a complaint if something isn’t right. That’s why we’ll be holding a focus group to talk about how we can make this easier and clearer.
Celebrating Care-Experienced Excellence
Every week, we celebrate a young person in our service who’s made progress, shown kindness, or achieved something special. Young people can nominate themselves or their friends.
Each month, we hold a celebration event to recognise everyone’s achievements, with certificates, gifts, and a chance to celebrate together. We want to make these events even better – so we’re asking young people how they’d like them to look and feel:
Should we build a stage?
Invite inspirational care leaver speakers?
Involve local businesses and organisations?
Tell us what would make you feel proud and celebrated.
👉 Young Person of the Week
Have Your Say on Driving Lessons
We’re consulting with our young people about introducing block-booked driving lessons. We believe learning to drive can boost confidence, independence, and life opportunities and we’ve seen that young people who do driving lessons often engage better in support sessions, because they see real benefits from learning new skills.
But we want to know what you think:
Would you use this scheme?
How should we offer lessons?
How can we make this work best for you?
How else might you benefit from driving lessons.
You can take part in the consultation here:
👉 Driving Lessons Survey
Getting Involved & Having Fun
We know that when young people take part in cultural, media, and sports activities, it can lead to better relationships, more confidence, and better mental health. We’ve already connected with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, and they’re now including care experience in their national surveys but we want to go even further.
Our survey and focus groups will help us:
Understand what activities you’d like to do
Make sure you have access to opportunities
Build partnerships with theaters, sports clubs, and cultural organisations
Recent highlights:
Free tickets to university dance event at Theater Royal, Nottingham
Free tickets to Lemn Sissay’s live show, at Newark Theater.
Access to football training with Stapleford Town FC
If you’re a business or organisation that wants to support our care leavers, you can get in touch and offer free tickets, discounts, or experiences.
Your Views on Safety & Privacy
We use CCTV in some of our accommodation to help keep everyone safe – but we know young people have different views on this. Some of you feel safer with cameras; others don’t like being watched.
We want to find the right balance. That’s why we’re holding a focus group to discuss:
Where cameras should or shouldn’t be used
How footage is used and stored
How we can make everyone feel safe and respected
Shaping the Support We Offer
Our support sessions are designed to help you achieve your goals and live independently – but we want to make sure they’re right for you.
We’ll be running focus groups to ask:
What support is most helpful?
What do you want to focus on when you join us?
How can we make sure you feel heard and supported?
What Makes a Home?
We’re proud of the standard of our accommodation – but we want to go further. Beyond clean, secure, and well-equipped homes, what else matters to you?
We’ll be holding focus groups to hear your views on:
What makes a space feel like home
How we can improve your living experience
What little touches make a big difference
How Do We Know It’s Working?
Our aim is simple – we want to support you to achieve positive outcomes in education, employment, and relationships.
But how should we measure this? We’re introducing new tools like Outcome Star and already use BERRI assessments – but we want your input too. Should we measure:
How many young people are in work or education?
How confident you feel?
How many life skills you’ve developed?
Join our focus group and help shape how we measure success.
Your Voice in Building Our Life Skills Centre
We’re opening a brand-new Life Skills Centre – designed to help you learn practical skills for independent living. We’re working with businesses and professional traders to create hands-on sessions, but we want your ideas too.
What sessions do you want? What skills do you need? What will help you feel ready for independence?
Join the discussion:
👉 Life Skills Training Programme
Building Your Future
Our Jobs Programme supports care leavers into work – but is it working for you?
We want to improve the programme, attract more employers, and make sure it’s helping you find the right opportunities. We’ll be running focus groups to hear:
What kind of jobs you’re looking for
How we can better support you into work
What would make the programme better
