SCIE Guide 11: Involving children and young people in developing social care

Review: 1

What 'review' means

This guide employs the term 'review' to refer to the process of monitoring and evaluating the participation of children and young people. Patton (1997, cited in Kirby and Bryson, 2002) provides a useful definition of this process: 'Evaluation is the systematic collection of information about activities, characteristics and outcomes of programmes to make judgements about the programme, improve programme effectiveness and/or inform decisions about future programming.'

Why the process of review is important

As Cutler (2003) suggests, 'any system of standards must require evidence to demonstrate that the standard has been reached.' Without reviewing participation within an organisation, there is no recorded evidence that children and young people have been actively involved, contributed to change or stimulated improvement within services.

Unfortunately there is evidence to suggest that many organisations fail to review the participation of children and young people. Oldfield and Fowler's mapping of children and young people's participation in England (2004) found that there was limited use of 'monitoring and formal evaluation procedures' in both the voluntary and the statutory sectors. Franklin and Sloper's research into the participation of disabled children and young people in social service departments (2004) found that more than half of the respondents could not indicate change resulting from the involvement of children and young people. Where change had occurred, the majority of respondents referred to a change in the activities that they provided.

Kirby et al (2003) found that there were four common reasons why organisations often failed to evidence outcomes resulting from children and young people's participation:

1. Organisations believe that they are too early on in the process of participation to be able to evidence change.
2. Organisations provide descriptive accounts of what they have done to involve children and young people, rather than what has changed as a result of their involvement.
3. Organisations find it difficult to evidence possible outcomes of participation - such as young people's increased self-esteem.
4. Organisations find it difficult to attribute change specifically to the involvement of children and young people as there may have been other factors that contributed to the outcomes.

As Kirby et al suggest in their second point, where organisations have reviewed the participation of children and young people, the focus has tended to be on monitoring the outputs rather than the outcomes. This is often due to the fact that an increased number of funders and partner agencies require organisations to evidence that they have involved children and young people, rather than monitor the quality or impact of this engagement. Numerous mapping exercises have been undertaken to demonstrate how children and young people have been involved, but they provide very little evidence about the outcomes of this involvement.

There are a number of reasons why outcome focused evaluation is important when reviewing participation. First, there is a growing emphasis on the importance of evidence-based practice. As Kirby and Bryson (2002) state, 'it is recognised as good practice to review and reflect on interventions, even when they appear to be working, to ensure we develop our work further.' The process of review, therefore, provides the opportunity for organisations to determine what has been effective in terms of effecting change within their service and what could be developed to ensure children and young people have more influence in the future.

Robson et al 's research about user involvement in voluntary organisations (2003) found that change was more likely to occur in those services that continually monitored their policy and practice relating to participation. Regular review processes also enable organisations to see the benefits of children and young people's involvement - and, as a result, maintain participation high on their agenda.

The most important reason for any organisation to review participation is to be able to evidence improved outcomes for the children and young people who access their services. As Wade (2001) suggests: 'The participation of children and young people in the issues that affect them is only as good as the changes to their benefit which result.' If an organisation adheres to this principle, it has an ethical obligation to review participation to ensure that children and young people's involvement is effecting change and/or improvement.

Review: 2 >>