SCIE Practice guide 6: Involving children and young people in developing social care
Practice: 1
What 'practice' means
For children and young people to become involved, practitioners need to be able to work in a way that enables participation and ultimately effects change or improvement within the organisation. Organisations, therefore, need to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to enable all children and young people to participate safely and effectively.
Why practice is important
Poor participatory practice is one of the most commonly cited obstacles to participation. This is particularly pertinent in the process of involving individual children and young people in making decisions about their own lives. For example, a great deal of evidence suggests that looked-after children and young people often feel unable to participate effectively in reviews or similar meetings: 'Most children find the meetings boring and some find them unpleasant. They often feel insufficiently prepared to take part and they are hardly ever given the chance of independent advice or representations' (Thomas, 2000).
Adults often fail to acknowledge the need to adapt their ways of working to accommodate children and young people (NSW Commission for Children and Young People, 2004). The establishment of a culture that acknowledges the need for change, plus structures that provide the mechanisms to support this change, may go some way to ensuring that this obstacle is overcome.
However, without the effective practice of individual practitioners on a day-to-day basis, children and young people's participation will fail to effect positive change. In addition, if children and young people have repeated experiences of adults failing to involve them effectively in decision-making processes, their desire to participate in the future will decline and the principle of participation will be devalued.
Despite acknowledgement that some practice can inhibit participation, a great deal of positive practice within social care organisations has successfully enabled the involvement of children and young people. This practice is often overlooked as organisations become concerned with the complexities of developing participation and meeting legislative targets.
It is important that positive practice is recognised so that practitioners can share their skills, knowledge and experience with both colleagues and external audiences.
I think there is something very important about sharing practice and making sure that people in the organisation have the opportunity to know what other people are doing, because that can work to allay fears.
Practitioner
