SCIE Practice guide 6: Involving children and young people in developing social care
Structure: 1
What 'structure' means
Once participation has been adopted as a central value within an organisation, it is essential to plan and develop the structures necessary to enable young people to become active participants (Wright and Haydon, 2002). This includes considering the planning, decision-making processes and resources needed to develop participation within the organisation.
Why structure is important
The establishment of an effective structure for participation 'provides pathways for children and young people to join in the life of the organisation' (NSW Commission for Children and Young People, 2004). As Matthews states (in Davies and Marken, 1998): 'Poor participatory mechanisms are very effective in training young people to become non-participants.'
Even where organisations have made an overt cultural commitment to greater participation, the required shift in processes and systems often fails to occur. The common consequence is workers who are highly committed to participation operating in the face of persistent, sometimes hidden, organisational barriers (Hutton, 2004).
As Cutler and Taylor (2003) suggest, without the appropriate and adequately resourced structures to support the practice of participation, 'there is a grave danger that such policies remain as window dressings.' Organisations, therefore, may demonstrate a strong cultural commitment to participation, but without an infrastructure to support this commitment, participation cannot be properly sustained.
Structures that provide a role for children and young people to influence change and decision-making processes should not be seen as additional 'bolt-on' dimensions, but should be developed as part of an organisation's infrastructure. Clark and Moss (2001) provide examples of organisations that have developed structures to enable children and young people to be listened to. Although they acknowledge that children do not always feel listened to within legal processes, they say that the role of the guardian ad litem (with the specific skills and expertise that it brings with it) has become critical in enabling young people to have a voice in public law proceedings. It is the development of this specific role that has enabled the establishment of clear pathways in which young people's views can be fed into a predominantly adult-focused arena.
