Helping young people live their best lives

A new product has been launched by the accessible software provider Mind Of My Own, a company which offers a suite of tools designed to help children and young people thrive and help them get their voices heard by schools and care providers.

The new tool, My Best Life, has been developed in partnership with the charity NPC, a think tank and consultancy for the charity sector, and Lambeth London Borough Council. It offers young people and families access to a comprehensive directory of services, support and activities in their local area, ranging from leisure through to housing and health and wellbeing.

The digital family hub solution, which offers text-tospeech and translation into 130 languages as well as changeable backgrounds for users with dyslexia, allows individuals and their families to search councilcommissioned services to find those that are relevant. Users can also post reviews of services, providing useful data for commissioners.

After being developed and trialled by Lambeth London Borough Council, the new tool has been further developed with Together for Children Sunderland in preparation for an official launch in April 2023.

Jill Thorburn, Director at Mind Of My Own, said: “If you are a parent or a young person in an area it can be quite hard to find out what is going on. You have options like going on the council website and going through lots of information to find out what you need. What this product allows you to do is filter services. You can say ‘I am a young person, I am leaving care and I want to know how I get support for mental health and housing’. Through this filtering they will only see content relevant to them.

“From a local authority perspective what is useful is that people using their services can rate them. Young people and parent feedback can then influence what is commissioned in a local authority area. Local authority commissioners can see where services are oversubscribed, where there are shortfalls in provision in sufficiency and which services have better outcomes for people who are using them. There are also benefits for providers of those services in that their information can easily get to people who need to see it,” she explained.

Thorburn said the product would also help local authorities meet a Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care requirement to provide access to a digital Family Hub. “By contacting us to find out more about My Best Life, local authorities can stop feeling challenged about how to create a Family Hub. We make digital products, and we know how to work with local authorities to make them fit perfectly in their organisation.”

Melissa McArthur, Lead Commissioner Children’s Services at Lambeth Council, said: “My Best Life has helped us share our local services with the families and children that need them most. It is a brilliant way to have all our support resources in one place – easy for families and young people and for the local authority too.”

My Best Life has been co-created with families, young people and professionals, ensuring it meets everyone’s needs and preferences. This new product adds to several others already available from Mind Of My Own. These include One app and Express, tools which help young people communicate their views in a way that suits them, and Shout and Shout Pro, survey packages designed to help organisations understand and act on the evaluation of the services they provide.

• Find out more about My Best Life by emailing: hello@mindofmyown.org.uk