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| Practical ways of involving children, young people and families in decision making |
| The Legal and Policy Framework |
| Since the passing of the Children Act in 2004, there has been growing emphasis on services actively involving children, young people and parents/carers in the commissioning, development and evaluation of services as well as making a positive contribution in decision making to the wider community in which they live. Increasingly Central and Local Government is interested in measuring outcomes rather than focusing on performance measures. They want to know about users’ perceptions of the services they receive and their views on how things can be improved. Particular attention will be given to how services are implementing the five Every Child Matters outcomes:
There is a variety of different international legislation that supports the involvement of children, young people and parents/carers including: |  |
| The Children Act 2004 The Children Act emerged from the Every Child Matters document and provides a legislative spine for improving children's lives. The overall aim of the Act is to encourage and promote joint working and commissioning of services. A key theme throughout is the promotion of participation and consultation with children and young people to understand and tackle their needs. |
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| Education Act 2005 Since September 2005, Ofsted have introduced a new framework for inspecting schools. This requires schools to provide evidence of how they are supporting children and young people to achieve the five outcomes of “Every Child Matters”, and also how they are listening to and acting on the views of learners and parents/carers. |
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| Parental Participation Parents, carers and families play a vital part in the development and delivery of services. This will ensure that a service is developed reflecting local needs and hopes and supports families to access the service. Parents and carers are the experts and their child’s primary educator. Positive relationships will enable workers to work in partnership and help children reach their full potential, making a positive contribution to society and strenghthening our communities. |
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| United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child This convention contains 52 standards that set out the Rights of a Child. A number of countries including England have signed up to the convention. Many countries use the standards wholly or in part to promote children’s involvement. The standards of most relevance to the participation of service users are: Article 12: Children have the right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them, and to have their opinions taken into account. Article 13: Children have the right to get and to share information, as long as the information is not damaging to them or others. Article 17: Children and young people have the right to receive, seek and give information. Article 23: Disabled children and young people have the right to active participation in their community. Article 2: Requires all of the rights in the convention on the Rights of the Child to be implemented for every child, without discrimination. |
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| Every Child Matters - Change for Children Every Child Matters: Change for Children is a new guidance document that endeavours to support children aged 0-19 years. Five outcomes for measuring achievement have been established which all children services will be inspected on. These are:
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| Local Area Agreements Local Area Agreements (LAA’s) are a new way of working that seeks to build a more flexible and responsive relationship between central government and localities on the outcomes and priorities that need to be achieved at a local level. Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP’s) and other key partners lead the negotiations at a local level to enhance the delivery of effective joined up public services. Local Area Agreements prioritise their work around 4 key areas:
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| Pupil Participation in Schools In April 2004 the Department for Education and Skills issued statutory guidance to schools on pupil participation (‘Working Together’, Ref DfES/0134/2004). The guidance offers advice on how schools might:
There is no single right way of involving children and young people in a school’s decision-making processes. However, the DfES guidance is extremely useful in setting out the key principles that are the necessary building blocks for involving children and young people. The DfES guidance is supplemented by a National Healthy School Programme (NHSP) briefing ‘Promoting children and young people’s participation’. The NHSP encourages and supports schools to take a whole school approach to promoting physical and emotional health. One of the key criteria against which schools are assessed for healthy school status is the way in which they are ‘giving pupils a voice’. This places pupil participation at the heart of the NHSP and the briefing provides practical suggestions for facilitating it. |
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| Government Projects Sure Start, Children’s Centres and Connexions have championed parental participation nationally for families. For information on how to get parents and carers engaged in:
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 Sure Start Connexions Coventry and Warwickshire Children's CentresBack to top |
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