Human Rights Watch – Children`s Rights
Positive outcomes: personal
Partnership and negotiation skills
Strategies learned in participatory practice provide excellent models of the transaction for the children involved. For example, in working toward partnership in the social work relationship, children are required to give their explicit consent to the involvement, where the contract of the engagement is negotiated and what it comprises. This can give a level of influence and an element of choice about the provision offered which can help young service users to understand their own wants and needs, as well as to learn and practise some of the processes of negotiating and prioritising. For example, a written contract, signed by the child, may include an agreement about times of meeting, what will be discussed and what it is hoped to achieve. Where social workers have worked toward such a contract, or helped children to include it in their records, it is far more likely that they will engage and co-operate. And these skills will stand them in good stead in future transactions, be they personal or business.
Feelings of self-worth and better behaviour Where young people have been engaged constructively in their social work or in consulting on policy issues, this also carries with it benefits which will further their capacity to participate in wider issues. Developing confidence and feelings of self-worth can enable them to deal with personal and family problems more constructively. Next texts will describe children’s experiences of child protection investigations. This quote from a 9-year-old boy illustrates how the gain in his self-confidence meant his behaviour substantially improved: ‘Since the ICPC things have got better because I’ve been going out and coming in at proper times and going to bed when I’m told. I’m fine now – my confidence has improved…speak better, sleep better…
at school, things are better because I used to fight nearly every day – but at this school I’m good.’ Such positive experiences can also empower children to become involved in issues outside the family, such as in community initiatives or school councils.
Voice and choice
Starkey introduces the notion of voice – that is, having a say in service provision – as a way of enabling young service users to be aware of choices, to exercise choice and to have the opportunity to voice dissatisfaction. This quote is from a 15-year-old girl who had been using drugs, and was talking about how her participation in a family group conference really helped her, as reported in next texts: ‘…I had the choice whether I wanted to go [to the drug scheme] or not and all the family around me decided whether it was a good idea and whether it was good for me. I think it was me that made the decisions really. So that’s good because I’ve never been able to do that before, I’ve just had social workers just making decisions for me, you know, without even consulting me, so that was really brilliant, because you get to decide yourself.’
It also provides a good example of what Lister conceptualises as ‘agency’ as it describes the process of acquiring the confidence to act in a purposeful, autonomous way, and to positively experience being taken seriously.
Identity and self-esteem
Having an awareness of agency contributes to identity and self-esteem and is, in turn, influenced by them. So, it is important that professional practices enable opportunities for the agency to be effected. Such processes provide important learning which can then be extended to the wider arena. Looked-after children who have good experience of assessments, conferences and reviews are well placed to transfer their learning to organisational issues.
The involvement of looked-after young people in the Who Cares? Trust can be seen as a product of their positive experience of and skills gained in a social work intervention. In 2009, the trust ran a project called Building Futures, where young people took part in an intensive three-day course to build confidence and prepare for the workplace before embarking on a fortnight’s placement. The overall aim of the project was to provide care leavers with work experience opportunities, which would enable them to gain valuable skills and experience to enhance their employment opportunities.
Better decisions
Participation can lead to more accurate, relevant decisions which are better informed and therefore more likely to be implemented. The importance of listening to what the child has to say in situations of child protection or domestic violence can not be over-stressed, as child abuse inquiries have many times brought home. And better decision making in agencies can also be a result of listening to children’s experiences of service delivery.
Positive outcomes: service delivery, policy and training Enhanced skills
In working toward organisational or policy change and in youth forums and councils, young people have developed skills of communication and presentation – verbally, in writing reports and in their use of technology. For example, in talking to a group of trainee social workers about her experience in care, Marie produced a brilliant PowerPoint presentation, some small group exercises for the trainees to work on and a role play exercise. Such experience and skills will stand her in good stead in an employment capacity.
Better services
At an organisational level, the benefits are that services become more responsive to the needs of children and young people, and more accessible and efficient as they are providing a more effective service. The study described in next texts illustrates a number of ways in which the local authority took on board the views of the children. For example,
the complaints procedure for young people was revised following consultation with a group of young people who had complained. As a result, the complaints officer was upgraded to the senior management group and a hotline to the assistant director was set up. This ensured that complaints were taken beyond the individual level and that the feedback was also given to the Area Child Protection Committee and to team managers. Clear time scales and the use of advocates from a voluntary agency ensured that the young person knew what had happened as a result of their complaints.
Contributions to other organisations, such as charities and research
The value of listening to the views of children has been demonstrated by the National Youth Agency, which maintains a database on participation. Their report (2008) says that 80 per cent of statutory and voluntary sector organisations currently involve young people in decision-making. Many children’s charities include an advisory group of young people.
And it is now considered good research practice to have a steering and/or consultation group led by or involving young people. An example of this is described later, where a young people’s group worked together with the researcher to identify what research questions about the Integrated Children’s System might engage the young service users as well as the most opportune environment for carrying out the research.
Input to resources and training
Young people, especially those who are looked after, are increasingly being involved in information distribution and advertising, and in training. Participation Works is a UK organisation set up to provide ‘online access to the world of children and young people’s participation’, including access to information and resources on, for example, rights and governance. Young people aged 16-19 are approved as trainers, and help to run workshops on Hear by Right (HBR), a tool designed to enable organisations to map and develop the extent of young people’s participation in their organisation.
Hear by Right comprises a set of standards for the active involvement of children and young people. The National Youth Agency (NYA) based the standards on the ‘Seven S’ framework, which forms a practical evidence-based model of how to achieve change in organisations and is thought to promote a shared dialogue between service providers and their users. The framework comprises:
• Shared values
• Strategies
• Structures
• Systems
• Staff
• Skills and knowledge
• Style of leadership.
The NYA have a brief to work with Children’s Trusts to embed Hear by Right, and many organisations, such as West Kent Housing and Cheshire Youth Groups, are using the tools created to improve their services. Young people are also involved in the delivery of training courses such as Ready Steady Change, a course introducing agencies to tools and materials to increase young people’s effective participation in decision making; and to the consultancy package, Building a Culture of Participation. Investing in Children, described earlier, also has a programme of staff development training which it delivers to partners and organisations. The training is delivered by two adults and two young people, its overall purpose being to create a greater understanding of the issues faced by children and young people in society. LILAC is an organisation, initiated by A National Voice (an organisation run by young people in care and care leavers), that recruits and trains young people in care to inspect local authority children’s services. The inspections are based on standards that the young people themselves have set, and the evaluation of pilot projects that they have carried out has demonstrated that they are able to open up and share truths with experienced inspectors (see www.fostering.net).
Influence on national and international policies
At national level, different groups of young people have taken on responsibility for influencing political decision-making and debate. The Children’s Rights Alliance, for example, seeks to promote the rights of children and young people and is proactive in encouraging young people to participate in their projects. The Alliance has appointed young people as full trustees on its Board of Management, and have recently taken part in England’s ‘Get ready for Geneva’ project, which campaigns for children’s rights in England to be respected and better protected. They are also involved in the international debate. Through the Geneva project, they form part of the United Nations’ reporting process for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Also at an international level, the Who Cares? Trust is involved with the rights of young people in Zimbabwe.
Evaluating outcomes
However, although we can list a number of positive outcomes of children’s participation in organisational arenas, researchers do continue to evidence that, even when structures to promote participation have been put in place and models developed, there are continuing problems in evaluating outcomes. Wade (2003) suggest that there are two main questions organisations need to ask themselves: is there evidence that children and young people have been actively listened to, and is there evidence of change as a result?
There is evidence that local authorities do not formally evaluate the impact of their initiatives. Oldfield and Fowler found the limited use of monitoring and formal evaluation procedures in both the voluntary and statutory sectors. Franklin and Sloper also found that participation was fragile and often rested on a few individuals within an organisation. Where key staff had a wider remit this aspect was not always prioritised. There was a need for dedicated funding, not always available now nor in the longer term. And while there are requirements on local authorities and the courts to progress children’s participation, there are no formal mechanisms in place for evaluating outcomes.
In relation to children with disabilities, Franklin and Sloper found that more than half of the social service departments they researched could not indicate change resulting from the involvement of young people. Where change had occurred it referred to changes in the activities offered, rather than at a decision-making level.
Kirby et al. suggest four reasons why organisations fail to evidence outcomes:
• They lack confidence, being at an early stage in the process.
• They focus on monitoring rather than on outcomes (so they describe what they’ve done rather than what has changed).
• They have difficulty in evidencing possible outcomes, such as increased self-esteem.
• They find it difficult to attribute the change to the young people’s participation.
However, the problem does seem more endemic than Kirby thought.
The 2010 report by Participation Works identifies the same three key barriers to involving children.
The first was the low number of organisations who were proactively measuring the impact…the second and third…concerned the need for better promotion of the benefits…and…the need for better senior management commitment to children’s participation.
Overall, then, it seems outputs, rather than outcomes, are being evidenced. The Social Care Institute for Excellence’s review of service user participation also found little evidence of achieved outcomes. The worry is that the uncertainty about how to involve children in ways that bring about active change, including managing organisational change, is continuing. Some of these issues are explored in detail in next texts which report on a study in one local authority of the structures in place to collect and respond to children’s views.
This text has explored what participation means, discussed evolving definitions of the use of the term and looked at the outcomes that can be achieved in the different arenas in which children’s participation takes place. There are a number of ways in which children’s views can be elicited and represented, and these will be discussed in the next texts.
