Work Programme 2004-07: The Practice of Participation
By 2004, most of the major organisations serving or affecting children and young people in the public or voluntary sectors, at the national or local levels, had made a policy commitment to their involvement in decision-making. This was a major step forward from the situation only a few years earlier, when participation was the concern of an isolated few.
There are three questions that arise from the rapidity of this change;
- Has the battle for the hearts & minds of the adults who make these policies been won?
- Are the systems & resources in place to make participation a real option for all young people?
- Have young people been given sufficient information, support & encouragement to participate?
In our view the answer to all these questions so far must be ‘no’. Therefore there remains the danger that young people’s participation will become yet another glossy policy which will be quickly forgotten. However the debate has certainly moved on. In our own work we are no longer asked by organisations ‘why should young people be involved?’ but ‘how can we involve young people?’
The challenges
A number of critical challenges remain to translating participation rhetoric into daily reality.
Breadth Only a small proportion of young people are involved and with a bias to the more confident and privileged. There remain settings that are particularly resistant to change, or where increased involvement by children and young people is mistakenly seen as inappropriate. Citizenship education will be critical to expanding this to much greater numbers. But much more needs to be done to involve more marginalized young people, and schools may be less effective here. Young people themselves will need to lead campaigns for greater involvement.
Depth Will participation be another case of organisations ticking boxes but not fundamentally reforming? So far the limited evidence strongly suggests that young people have had little effect on decisions through participation exercises (Kirby with Bryson). To what extent have young people had a real say over resources, especially money? Is the necessary information provided to them to allow them the opportunity to make informed input?
What works?
There is a growing commitment to participation but organisations are often unsure and need support, training, new systems and skills. They may become frustrated if they are not using appropriate techniques and resourcing these properly. Evaluation and a commitment to learning will be essential. New means of moving from policy commitment to practical change are necessary.
Improving and sharing practice. The number of practitioners required to support children and young people’s involvement is growing dramatically, yet many continue to be isolated and struggle not just with practical methods but also with ensuring their work leads to improvements for chidlren and young people. Despite there being a huge amount of experience, information, case studies, toolkits, evidence, expertise, and learning, there is no effective mechanism for sharing resources and good practice.
Our response
The CYPI work programme for 2004-07 is divided into 4 themes to begin to tackle these issues. Following the link in each will lead you to more details and specfic projects.
- Encouraging organisations to mainstream participation read more. Our aim is to work closely with organisations and young people to new methods of embedding participation in everyday practice. The focus is on innovative methods of organisational change.
- Identifying and promoting the impact of children and young people’s participation read more Our aim is to identify and promote the personal, social and economic benefits, and to support the development of new methods for measuring these benefits.
- Sharing good practice and improving opportunities for participation read more We aim to share good practice and to improve access to new opportunities for young people to influence decision-making.
- Young people, schools and democracy read more Under this new area of work Raji Hunjan is looking at how we assess the impact and improve practice of young people’s engagement and influence in school decision making, and increasing our understanding of how young people can be more actively involved in formal political processes.
